All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Window replacement is incredibly profitable for these people, and you should expect the marketing to come fast and furious. These people are practiced BS artists and they have their patter down cold. Their goal is to convince you that a basic vinyl replacement window that retails for $150 and that they buy for under $100 requires a masterful specialist's $350-$700 installation job to put in properly and safely. This is the heart of the lie, and it makes the industry millions on millions of dollars every year. Really, it's handyman's work to put in a replacement vinyl window in most enclosures.

But I did a bit of digging. You have to have a contractor's license to replace windows in Florida. It's baloney, but there's the result of lobbying for you. Take a look at FAQ No. 3.

http://www.myfloridalicense.com/dbpr/pro/cilb/documents/glass_glazing_faq.pdf

WTF? Is she a madam or a real estate agent? Are you going to spoil the goods by going inside just a little bit?

@Mikki McIntyre

The National Kitchen and Bath Association offers courses that lead to certifications in kitchen and bath design. Of course you don't have to get the certificates to take the classes

http://www.nkba.org/

As for your second question, there's a book called "How Your House Works" by Charlie Wing. There's also a college textbook called "Fundamentals of Residential Construction."

Good luck, Mikki.

@Jay Jasunas @Matthew Paul Seen it with tile, too. The dishwasher gets put in when the kitchen has a sheet-vinyl floor with a stapled-in luan backing, then the vinyl gets ripped out and cement board and large-format tile goes in. The dishwasher won't come out without busting up the tile in front of the dishwasher cavity.

This is one of many reasons to dislike the kind of fools who put hardwood floors in kitchens.

If the hardwood's nail-in random-length, you can bring the pieces in front of the cavity out slowly with stiff scrapers and pry bars, and then nail them back in, face nailing the last few rows. It won't be beautiful but it'll be cheap. Your flooring guy will know how to do it.

I can unhesitatingly tell you to get in bed with a local outfit if you want to buy fixers, and to go building-by-building on your estimates. Some of the residential multifamilies built from 1900-1925 are quite viable. Quite a few are falling down and should be condemned, but aren't because of incompetent and/or corrupt local governments. This is an extremely insular county and city that is well aware of its continuing population decline and doesn't take kindly to outsiders. There are also diversity and race problems and attitudes that are holdovers from the 1950s. The last thing you have to be aware of is the demographic age of the area. Greater Pittsburgh is among the oldest major metropolitan areas in America.

None of this means that there is no opportunity for real estate investors here. I ended up here almost by accident but I wouldn't move now and do this job elsewhere in the USA for anything less than eight figures.

I'll add to what @Mike Koprowski said, as a home improvement contractor running rentals and renovating single-family homes in Pittsburgh. If I'm going to go with any shade of light grout to medium gray in both rentals and properties renovated for sale , I prefer Custom's premixed "premium grout" Fusion Pro, available at Home Depot, for exactly the same reasons Mike laid out. Urethane or acyrlic grout has many of the benefits of epoxy grout (plus a few more) without the significant disadvantages.

One of the chief extra benefits of premixed grout like the stuff I'm talking about is that you can put it in with a plastic putty knife, a grout sponge, a bucket of water, and your finger -- it's practically as easy and teachable to an unskilled helper as a basic craft project. Custom's SimpleSet premixed grout is almost as good for half the price, but I stay away with it for the lighter shades. FusionPro is slightly more stain-resistant and easier to clean between refinishings.

Again as Mike mentioned -- all grout darkens. Don't believe ANYONE who says otherwise. Yet I've put plenty of bright white grout in rental installations, just NOT in mosaic tile installations with irregular grout lines. It's very easy to remove the top layer of grout in most installations with an oscillating tool fitted with a carbide grout removal blade. I stay away from the diamond-coated variants of these blades because I've chipped the edges of tile with them.

After you dig the top layer of grout out of your installation with this tool (no more than two or three millimeters), you go over the same grout lines again with a thin coating of pre-mixed grout. The grout lines look like new again.

Got get 'em, @Ricardo Murph II.

@Altwon Simmons

First of all, you don't need to hurry. You need to calculate and then make a decision to pull the trigger or not. Put aside the automated deal calculator and let's do this the old-fashioned way. You've got to walk before you can run.

1. It's a rental property. Figure a value through the capitalization rate. Let's begin with assuming that a 12.5% cap rate will work for you in a Class C- neighborhood. It does for most folks.

2. A Class C property always has a number of deferred maintenance issues (like that roof) waiting for you. So we're not going to worry about that in our initial calculation.

3. Figure out the Gross Operating Income per year. In this case, it's $18000 a year.

4. Now you need to subtract some numbers from that $18000. The main ones are property taxes. What is the property assessed at by Erie County? I did a bit of looking and this is the millage for the rest of your taxes: Non-Homestead property + school district taxes, 27.009026 mili rate. Sewer rent millage: 1.6535119. Erie county millage: 6.456522. Using the given county valuation for the duplex, figure the tax rate and subtract the taxes.

5. Are you going to have this property managed by a third party? Subtract $1800, 10% of gross rental returns.

6. How much in yearly maintenance are you going to need here? Replacing that roof on a structure that size is going to cost you $12,000 if you get a nice quote on it in Buffalo. I would subtract at least $2500 per year. Be on the safe side and subtract another $1500 for other maintenance issues. So $4000 per year.

7. Both tenants have been there for over 3 years. Subtract $1500 for vacancy, 2 months per year, which is optimistic but not particularly unrealistic in this case, I think. Worry about how you're going to upgrade it and put in college students and deal with their problems later.

8.  How are you getting the money? Cash? Loan? What is the financing cost per year? Subtract that value.

9. Now you are at your net operating income (NOI). The asking price is 75,000. 12.5 cap rate is your target. So divide $75,000 by 8. $9375 is 12.5% of $75,000.

10. Is your NOI equal to or greater than $9375? If yes, buy. If no, do not buy.

It's a rental property. It generates income. You are buying an asset that generates income. It could be compared to any other asset: shares in a company, a hotel, a dog-walking business. Would you be happy buying stock that generated a 12.5% return on your investment every year? Would you be happy buying a dog-walking business and having the dog walker give you 12.5% of the money you sank into the business back every year? Probably. That's why you calculate the cap rate like this.

Is the property going to go up in value? Is it going to go down in value? That does not directly depend on the neighborhood and what single-family homes in the neighborhood are doing. It only directly depends on how much rent you can get from tenants living in those two apartments.

Hope I've helped.

@Mason Keeler

You want to do whatever it is without the hassle of permits. I understand. But you're honest enough to ask about it here before you go ahead and do it. That's a plus in your favor.

Here's where to start finding out for your county. Unfortunately, what's true about codes out here in Allegheny County, PA is not what's true in Clark County, WA.

https://www.clark.wa.gov/community-development/building-permits

@JJ Natteri

Exactly why I went. It was one of the most eye-opening experiences I've ever had. A well-packaged PowerPoint, the right speaker striking the right tone and playing on the right hopes, the right details obscured and minimized, and wallets magically open. I've never seen anything quite like it.

It's just the days. You don't need to stay overnight.