All Forum Posts by: Vania Castillo

This is the condition I found the inside of the building during my visit to the property last week. Both unit are in similar condition of disarray although in the second floor unit the ceiling has caved in......

@Brian Pulaski thank you for your comment!  

Believe it or not, I'm having a hard time finding a contractor willing to even make it to the house to give me an estimate.  He is not providing all labor as the plumbing, electrical and roofing must be contracted out and I'll pay for it.  His contribution is doing some, yes, some of the work, managing the contractors and getting material at a "discount" from his suppliers.  I'm very concerned about the rates/charges he is going to give me, although they will be available for BP community to look at them when he gives them to me and as much as I can I'll compare material's cost with HomeDepot/Lowe's and if I can get some other estimate (unlikely). 

As I mentioned, for this deal to work I need a contractor to work for or with me.  As @Brandon Turner says "part of a deal is better than a 100% of no deal".  Trying to protect myself, I'll look at his number in comparison to @J. Scott's book and will place the S.O.W  here for Review.

August 7, 2017

I'm going to document my journey while doing this massive rehab.  I'm new to construction with the only experience under my belt been gutting my own residence (a coop apartment in NY) 5 years ago.  @J. Scott did very well when he documented his journey in to new construction 5 years ago.  Thank you so much for doing that!!  Well...He and his partner had a lot more experience than me, sooo, let's see how a newbie fair at this project :) .  BP community: Please, don't let me hanging!!

This are the details I have about the project so far: 

The "subject" is a 2 family C- property with a leaving area of 1,682 Sq Ft. with 4 beds and 2 baths sitting on a 0.07 acres lot.  So far I have invested $10,769.82 in acquiring the property and last week paid first quarter taxes $471,41.

Looking at comparable, the ARV would be $150,000 and I have seen recent sells (2017) from similar properties go up to $200,000. To be conservative, I'm going to be working with the lower ARV and counting that I have a lot of buffering for errors.

I'm partnering with a contractor, although I think he is more of a well experienced handyman. He is suppose to give me a S.O.W as I continue doing due diligence and cleaning any horrors in the paperwork. He will be managing the rehab and I'll manage the finances. We are going to create a LLC for this project, although have not define the split.

We are planning to work on this project in three phases as follows and will sell at any of those point if the right buyer comes along:

Phase   I: Pre-Rab.-Deep cleaning and demolition for second floor ceiling

Phase  II: Partial-Rehab.- Replacing roof, putting new windows and doors

Phase III: Full Rehab 

Stay tuned!

Thank you so much guys!!

Hello Kedian,

It has been 6 months since you posted started this thread!  Did you finished the rehab?  I'm going to start my first one.  Massive project!!  

Do you mind me to contact you so we can talk about your experience and have a better idea as to what to expect and things to avoid?  I also need to get "Hazard insurance".  How and were can I buy it?

I'm going to call you tomorrow at the number listed on the post.

Happy investing!

Vania

Dear BP community: It is official!  

Through tax lien investing a 2 family house landed on my lap. Like the old adage says, "When life gives you lemons...Make lemonade" and that is what I'm trying to do here.

Here is a description of the property and I'm attaching a pictures.  This property is located in a C class neighborhood in Providence , RI.  The things this house has going for are that is located very close to one of the major hospital in the city, is close proximity to the entrance to Highway I-95 and is the only delapidated property on the block, all other houses are owner occupied and in good condition.

I got the property after foreclosing on it in May 2017, but did not have the time to go and see it until last week.  In the mean time, I found a very nice, local RE agent while I was working in New Zealand (NZ), that offered to help me and she has been extremelly useful as she visited the property, took pics and sent them to me in NZ. She also tried to get 3 contractors to give me 3 bids about how much it would cost to rehab this property.  She did not succeeded on that one.  No many contractors want to work in that part of town :(

I also placed an ads here looking to partner with a General Contractor (GC), but no-one took the opportunity.  Finally through an acquittance I found someone that is interested in partnering with me.  

My initial offer was to form a LLC. I will be the partner buying the materials and covering carrying costs and the contractor will take care of all the work and we will split the profit 50/50. Well...My prospective partner has a different proposal: He wants to work for me. He will give me a discounted rate in the work and will find subcontractors who do the work for a "reasonable price". I will pay him in an schedule, as I would pay any GC and in addition he will get a percentage after the asset is sold as he allegedly will be working for less money. Something that bother me about his proposal is that when I asked for 2 more bid, he seemed annoyed (If I don't get other bids, how do I know that the price he is charging me is descounted? I don't know much about construction, although I have read "The book on estimating rehab cost" by J . Scott)

That is it for now....In my next entry I'll tell you more about the numbers and I hope finally to have a scope of work that I will be discussing with you all. 

I'm going to be blogging my adventures with this project and hoping to get some support, encouragement and advise from the BP community.

Until soon BP community!

Hello BP community!

I'm going to take a massive rehab and there is a lot of junk inside the 2 family house I bought.  In addition the second floor ceiling needs to be demolished and the back yard cleaned (total area second floor 841 sq ft, although no all the ceiling needs to come down).  Can anyone refer a company that can take this project and tell me a rough estimate of how much I can expect to pay for that type of work?

Thank you guys for your suggestions! 

I got a lead from a BP member that lives in R.I. and emailed the person.  I hope he replies, even if he can't work with me.  He might lead me to someone else.  I can only hope and knock on some door, right?

Thank you for passing on the advice Ritch!

Can some one please give me some guidance about how to find General Contractors in R.I that work with investors?

Thank you!