All Forum Posts by: Maggie Tasseron

Couple of questions for you: How did you verify his income? I would always require pay stubs as it's all too easy for people to get a friend to pose as an employer (also previous landlord). How is their past record as tenants? And why is the woman not working? If there's a chance that they are about to have a baby you may have problems collecting the rent very soon. Sorry to be so negative, but your own instincts seem to be putting up red flags... Best of luck to you

 Hi Jesenia: Since you have yet to buy your first property, my advice is to look at as many as reasonably possible to educate yourself about the neighborhoods, but at the same time, to learn as much as you can about the actual renovation work. In the early days of my reno experience, I would spend as much as 3 hours at a time at Lowe's and Home Depot, just checking out materials and talking with clerks about how to do the work. Now that we have YouTube, the actual work part will be much easier for you than it was for me, especially because as I'm also a woman, I had to learn how to recognize bad (chauvinistic) advice when I was getting it. If you don't have an interest in actual reno work, you might have to rely on family or friends to help you out, but I can tell you it's far more preferable to get that education first-hand. Best of luck and I'm happy you found BiggerPockets; you will get a lot of help here!

PS: I check out properties all the time on Realtor.com and Homes.com and in conjunction, I use Google Street View to tour the neighborhoods of the various listings; will save you a lot of time and you will be amazed at how much you can learn this way.

 Hi Kyle: I do understand that your question is about software/spreadsheets etc., but speaking from experience, I can tell you the best approach is to learn as much about the actual renovation work as you can. Even if you're not going to do any of the physical work yourself and you have a general contractor and subs you feel you can trust, you will eliminate a lot of grief by knowing the price of materials and details of work required; that way, at least you can rest assured you're getting reasonable value for your dollar. In my early days, a trip to Lowe's could take me 3 hours but that education has paid for itself many times over and still continues to do so. Best of luck!

 You can see where the casing used to be by the white paint that was under it. I'm curious also as to where the casing went...haven't seen a reply to that by the owner.

 Hi Dan:

Here in California, any tenant who has been renting a property for more than one year must be given 60 days' notice, regardless of what their lease says, so don't get tricked into thinking you can only give them 30 days and then finding you have to start over again with a 60 day notice. Laws vary from one state to another so check out the Civil Code in your state before you do anything. Best of luck with the new property!

This is a joke! I do all my own tile and this looks like it was done not only by someone who has no experience but also doesn't care how it looks. Even my very first tile job looked 100% better than this. Depending on the kind of tile it is, you may be able to salvage most of it; hopefully they were inexperienced enough that they also didn't use enough thinset to stick it down properly. I wouldn't even trust these people to try taking it up; maybe try pulling up a few tiles yourself to see how easy or difficult it will be but there's no way you can leave it like this. You already have good photos that will probably ensure a win for you in court. Tell these guys they either need to give you a full refund or you will sue. Period. 

I'm sure I don't need to add that paying up front was a bad idea. I used to be a painting contractor as well, and I never took payment until the job was done...and I had to pay up front for the paint whereas mostly the customer pays for the tile so tilesetters don't even have an initial outlay. Sorry you're going through this and I hope we here on BP are being of some help.

Depends on the price of the property. On a $500,000 property $10,000 isn't a big deal, on a $175,000 property, it's a different matter.

 Hi Janice: I forgot to mention that this gardener didn't even do his usual meticulous work on the original $150 job he was hired for. It was pretty dark by the time they finished so I didn't see it until the next day. I think people just get lazy as well as greedy, but there are many more where they came from... I agree with you that a tip is still warranted, at least until they let me down.

If they have bid it at what I consider to be a low price and they do a good job I will give a reasonable tip. However, a gardener who has done multiple jobs for me recently bid one at a reasonable rate. I had always given him a modest tip in the past as he's a very conscientious worker and never needed to be told what to do in detail. But this time, he went ahead and did a repair I had only asked him to dig up to examine and then he added $100 onto a job that was originally only $150; he also hedged around about the receipt for the part he had purchased (about $15), saying it was somewhere in his truck. I had only taken out $200 in cash, planning to pay him $170, so gave him the $200 and asked him to send me the receipt and an invoice for the remaining $50. Still have not received anything from him and I doubt I ever will. Foolish move on his part, as he already knew I have a big job coming up. I don't know if my regular tips made him greedy but I will never hire him again, not just for his assumption about the repair but even more due to the fact that he lied about the receipt. PS: If I had dug it up myself I could have repaired it for nothing with pvc I always have in my stock.

 That's true. I wouldn't have a problem with tenants smoking outside either. However, I've lived in extreme heat and extreme cold and I know my tenants would smoke in the house during the mean seasons. Guess it's just a judgment call...