All Forum Posts by: George C.

For a hot water heater to blow up, it would be a faulty pressure relief valve combined with a limit failure on either a gas or an electric unit, both on the unit itself, a blowup wouldn't be caused by the guy running pex to it.

Cross connections getting people sick? Maybe if they confuse the 1-1/2" to 3"waste line with the 1/2" pex and tie them together. You'd have to be next to brain dead to screw that up.

That $10K Licensed "pro" will probably not even be doing the job himself, he'll probably send the dropout who's been working for him for six months, or one of the guys he hires out of the bar to do your work and be around your family. Eitherway, you wont be getting $10K worth of plumbing, that price is *WAY* too high.

We all go through life taking varying levels of risk, This is one I'm willing to gamble on, hiring a competent handyman. Overblown scary scenarios don't phase me.

If anyone plans on being in the real estate business, especially at start up and plans on solely using only licensed trades to do all your repair work, then your gonna have a tough time making money at it. $10K here, $3k there adds up way too fast.

Every investor here should have a good handyman that they can call to do this kind of work both reasonable & right, or better yet, be able to do it themselves.

This is coming from a licensed contractor / new home builder who has been in the construction field for 25 years. I hate seeing people get screwed.

David, $10K really? It amazes me how these guys "pros" can throw these numbers at people with a straight face, it must take a lot of practice.

Look on craigslist for a handyman and get it done for less than $1,500-2K, basic plumbing is not magic. Pex is so simple, if you played with Legos as a kid, then you have the aptitude to run& install Pex. Check out youtube videos to learn how it's done, so you'll know how to check their work or do it yourself.

I've done repairs for people that had the same pin hole leaks in their copper pipes, one was due to the well water we assume, the other due to a municipal supply that denies it. In both houses when we cut out the bad section, the inside of the pipe looked like nothing I had ever seen. Imagine dragging a piece of copper pipe down the PA Pike for 10 miles, that's what in inside of the pipe looked like. Both people didn't have the money to fix it all and just wanted patch jobs. This is one of the reasons why I love pex.

For long term tenants we give brunch gift certificates ($100) for a fancy place AFTER they renew their two year leases. I don't do Christmas cards or gifts with tenants, I just want to keep it business, not personal...As great as they are, I know they can go bad and I don't want the entanglements of "friendship" to hinder what has to be done.

I had a 20+ unit rooming house for a couple of years, I picked it up at a good price because it had been run into the ground by the two fighting owners. This was not the student type housing, but the drunk, hanging onto the last rung of the ladder of life type place. The place came with the keys & "Bob", the "manager" of sorts. He rented the rooms, collected the rents and fixed anything that broke. After I took over and started fixing up the place and getting rid of the bad apples, the place was running at full occupancy, with almost half being women who really kept the place clean. Bob quickly learned that I was different & that I gave a damn, he then stepped up his efforts too and began to take pride in the place.

I doubled my money two years later when I sold it. We did have our share of headaches with some of the guys, even the girls, fights, heavy drinking, drugs, smoking. In my tenure (2 years) only one guy left in a body bag, which was a good record for the place. It is not for the faint of heart. You can't control people in their own home as much as you might try & these type have nothing to fear. We had a revolving door with the bars & the jails. I use to call it the heartbreak hotel, guys would constantly be leaving because they hooked up with a girl and moved in with her, only to be thrown out and back they would come. Guys going through divorce would end up there broken and sour. I was threatened plenty of times, and constantly watched over my shoulder when I was there picking up the money every two weeks from Bob. Utilities, especially heat were a killer! Some windows wide open when 15 degrees out due to their high or whatever with the heat going. Talking to these people is like talking to the wall.

One rule was no kids, too easy for one of the whackjobs to mess with a kid, I didn't want to be any way responsible for that.

I could only find one, ONE insurance carrier to handle the place & I called everywhere. It cost me $4K ten years ago. This place was an old hotel from 1900 that became obsolete and continued on as a rooming house.

As far as doing it correctly, I think that I did. I got it with 6 guys, only two actually paid their rent, two years later it was full, in retail salable condition (lipstick on the pig) and making good money...but I was still always waiting for the next phone call from Bob or the police telling me this or that happened.

The best thing I did to stop a lot of the BS headaches was to install cameras throughout the halls & common areas, it was like someone threw a switch, the cameras went on & the BS went off, it was amazing.

Good luck trying to start one from scratch, you'd probably have an easier time trying to get an adult bookstore / massage parlor past a zoning board.

Yes in NJ since about 2006 anyone working in or around a home needs to be licensed by the state Dept. of Consumer Affairs, even landscapers, painters & handymen.

Basic handyman liability for 1 million only costs about $1K a year, the license another hundred or two.

A lot of the fly by night guys can't or wont get legal due to other issues, they are on the lamb, or on SSI or SS and don't want to claim any income and mess up their benefits.

The fly by nights wont be RRP certified either.

The PM doesn't want the liability of "hiring" the handyman, something happening and then PM gets dragged into a suit with you. Sounds pretty reasonable to me.

I wouldn't count on insurance to cover you if you are breaking rules/laws.

NJ, we make it harder for everyone- should be the state's slogan...

Andy,

That could be a slight possibility, nothing is 100% fool proof. There are pluses over copper besides cost. If a hot bare wire came in contact with it, your not going to energize the water. If can freeze and thaw with no damage, so long as a fitting isn't involved. If it is in the vicinity of a fire, it will help put it out where copper wont do a thing to help. It's super easy to work with... Pex had me at cost alone....

Pex is awesome, I'll never go back to copper. That price for $2,500 he gave you, double it if you wanted to go with copper. The price of copper is crazy. I paid $1,200 for 3/4" K water line, just for the material for a water main line for a new house in 2009. The water dept didn't allow plastic pipe that only would've cost me less that $150.

I started in the time before the internet, property info at your fingertips & instant credit reports. One of my first applicants gave me her friends name & number as her LL. I only found out after they moved in, lesson learned. They paid their rent, but battled like gladiators above our heads constantly shouting, they were the biggest PIGS I ever seen. They lived there one year, I had to repaint, throw out the new stove, re floor & scrub everything.

Three months after they moved out on their own for a bigger place ( thank God), me never receiving a call for a reference, some lady comes to my door asking me if her mother called me about them. I told her no, that they did the same thing to me, used a friend, etc.. She was real upset for her elderly parents who those animals now living above their heads. This was back in 1990, my wife & I still talk about them. This was a family with a 4 y/o boy & a 2 y/o girl. More than once we heard the 4 y/o boy screaming "I HATE YOU MOMMY", it was awful.

I always advertise credit checks, references in the ads, still the cons show up, they know how to get past the phone screening. Once they get a copy of the actual VERY THOUROUGH application & fee demand, I never hear from them again, this of course after they LOVED the place. In the last few years I advertise property as a broker listing with my company name, that cut down on a lot of the deadbeats. They are hoping to catch the LL's who claim credit checks as just a bluff.

Quote Talyor;

" You sly fox ha

Ok so here is the question that throws a wrench into all this... What do you all feel is a reasonable amount to pay a wholesaler who finds a buyer for one of your deals (% of Assignment Fee or $ Amount)?

Because I'm sure that it's more than $70.

This is all brainstorming so your participation is very helpful for the success of the startup and finding its niche... Thanks."

....................................................

Taylor, I'm not so much sly as I am cheap, I mean.. frugal :)

I haven't bought or sold anything from a "wholesaler", because it wouldn't be truly wholesale if there is a middleman in the mix. I want to buy at below wholesale (fixers) & rent out. True that there are brokers is in the middle most times, that's why I got my license to gain some of that money and cut out some of the bs.

I offer 3 % to buyers brokers if off the MLS, so they will know there is money in it for them & will show my property. But if buyers are looking online on their own, there is no 3% to pay. If they ask about a 3% discount, I'd tell them the re company who listed it keeps it all. I am the re company & add the standard disclosure that I am related to the seller on the contract. If someone, a wholesaler approached me with a buyer that could close on my terms ( retail price, asap close), I'd give them 3% *when it closed*. I'm willing to pay for performance, not $70 a month of maybe's. Again, maybe it's the cheap thing in me.

I also use craigslist, again free..so anyone looking to buy or sell is going to look there, Zillow & trulia first anyway right? If I have what they want, they'll contact me directly. This is the information age, anybody with web access can find info for homes for sale while sitting in their underwear at 3am.

I'm small potatoes here that doesn't do a whole lot of buying & selling compared to most here, so I probably wouldn't be your target market.

"This is all brainstorming so your participation is very helpful for the success of the startup and finding its niche... Thanks."

No problem, anything I can do to help...