All Forum Posts by: Gregory Montalto

We are flipping a house in an area where crime might be a consideration of the home buyer- so we were looking into a non-monitored home alarm system.

Does anyone have experiences with offering these units on rentals or flips, and do you have any tips or product recommendations?

In our area, there is a high volume of undervalued slab homes on the market. After one bad experience in renovating one we have decided to avoid them in the future for the following reasons:

- Difficult to access plumbing and HVAC

- Difficult to wire electrical

- Prone to foundation issues

(Many in our area unfortunately have sustained foundation damage from an unusual earthquake we had here in VA about 5 years ago.)

Bigger Pockets investors - What is your opinion / experiences with renovating and property managing slab houses? Good, bad, avoid like the plague?

Does anyone put out signs up in front of their renovations to market your company / inform prospective buyers who is doing the work?

If so,

1. What type of sign do you use?

2. At what point in the process do you put the sign up?

2. What type of questions / leads does the sign generate?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Many lessons to be learned in this story about the need to have a strong contract, that's for sure. In this case, given he is a sole proprietor and not a full fledged company, there is likely isn't much recourse for us if he walks. Sure we could pursue legal action, but that will end up more trouble than its worth.

We have a completion date of the 12th. Yesterday was a complete no show, no call. The two subs were there all day and got a lot accomplished (at my direction). This morning, he called them up and accused them of not getting anything done yesterday and told one of them not to return today. And then apparently "cut himself" on site and had to go to the doctor and has not been back today (excuses, excuses...)

Upon telling the other sub that our guy was there late the other night, he replied "Well, he goes to your house sometimes at night to get high because his girl at home doesn't like it".

Suffice it to say, we won't be using him again. I share this story as a cautionary tale. When you see a contractor flush with money suddenly show a marked change of behavior - be wary. And realize that some guys simply don't care about your final 10% once their next job is already lined up.

Well, its happening... Two months into a rehab, our lead contractor is getting harder and harder to get in touch with and on site working. He is licensed and insured, but does not own his own company.

About 10% of the work remains. We still owe him a few grand, which is ~10% of the project cost. This is apparently is not enough to keep him motivated to be at work every day. (Lesson learned, final draws will now be 20%). Of course the final items on the punch list are the most tedious.

It looks like he got paid a big chunk of money earlier this week in advance on his next project with a new client. Since then, he's only show up once to the job site, but has sent subs (which I had to direct / supervise). We stopped by the property around 9pm last night to make sure things were locked up, and he was there by himself doing some touch up painting and appeared to be high on drugs (and offered us a beer).

He is still insistent we'll close everything out next week on schedule, but I have serious reservations. We've had the "no more excuses" and "you won't get paid" conversations already.

Would you kick this guy to the curb, or stick with him and hope for the best?

And in general, how have you dealt with contractors who have "lost motivation" for whatever reason?

We use a small local appliance store. Customer service is far superior to big box stores, especially given we are repeat buyers. Getting quotes, changing order details and delivery schedules, or asking questions are all a quick phone call away to our store rep. Buyers also appreciate when we hand over the rep's business card, knowing they now have a person to call if something happens down the road. Prices match big box stores. And supporting local business feels good.

What are typical costs of staging services in your area? Or how much do you plan for in your budget for staging?

Does it depend on the size of the house, selling price, and / or location?

We are about to put a historic 1919 home renovation flip on the market next month, and we want the house to show especially well in order to highlight the type of renovation work our company is capable of (and to get top market price on the house)

For a complete staging on a 1,500 sq ft house I've been quoted $1,500. This includes furniture rental, all set up and take down, and "professional quality interior design."

To compare, I looked into rental furniture for doing the staging set up ourselves. The quote was around $1,500 for 3 months (minimum) of full room furniture and furnishings for each room in the house - though I think we could get by less items as recommended by the rental store and get it down closer to a thousand dollars.

Option C is spending ~2-3K to purchase furniture/furnishings and store it in a garage we already own and have ample space in.

The AVR of the house is ~175K, so we're looking at 1% of the price of the house.

Given we plan on flipping several houses a year, and we are creative types with a some limited background in interior design, we'll likely go with Option C and do it ourselves.

I'd be curious as to people's experiences with professional stagers, and whether you felt you got proper value and return on your investment at the end of the deal.

(and also to see how the rate of $1,500 for staging services compares in other parts of the country)

To a large extent, I've done what @DavidCohen has suggested. Provided information, and explained that with a good bit of effort and courage, anyone can get involved in real estate. Despite my best intentioned efforts, these conversations usually go poorly. But have yielded some great leads and contacts. It's incredibly valuable to get your story out there, and regardless of people's reactions it will always be something we do. I'm simply surprised at how openly negative and snide certain individuals can be.

It's been close to two years that my wife and I have been officially referring to ourselves as "real estate investors". Its been amazing how many people we've met and doors have opened by talking openly with others about real estate goals. We are humble people and, if anything, are overly understated when discussing our properties.

That said, I've been surprised by some of the reactions we've gotten from non-investors. "Jealously" may be the wrong word. But there is frequently an attitude that accompanies statements such as:

"Oh, it must be nice to have the money to do that."

"How many houses do you own now?"

"So now all you do is sit back and collect rent?"

There is part of me that understands this attitude. But there is part of me that takes offense.

Are we alone in being confronted by folks who are less than enthusiastic about our investing future? How do you approach addressing comments that appear to be rooted in jealousy?