All Forum Posts by: Jason Butts

@Michael Lopez

I bought a 3 family house for $42,000 cash. Less than $1000 in repairs. It brings in $2000 a month in rent. If I could’ve done it differently I probably would have put my $40,000 down on a house that was a couple hundred thousand dollars and then waited a year and borrowed off of it. And then bought the three family for $42,000.

I hate when things pop up in hindsight haha but I know that I did everything I could when it comes to thinking out every scenario. You could turn the beat yourself up forever trying to figure things out in the most perfect way. My advice would be to give it 90 days worth of thought and then jump right in to whatever you decide. No two people will do it the same. 

@David Sisson

Thank you David. I appreciate your input. I’m going to call around and see if I can find some used machines

My plumbing master had a pretty decent idea as well. He recommended installing a cold water supply and, on that cold water supply, installing a sub meter and offering only cold water to the machines and running the electric for the washer and dryer off of each tenants own electrical panel.

I am considering both his and your recommendations.

I own a 3 family rental home in Cambridge OH and neither of the 3 units have laundry hookups. The baseman is accessible for 2 of the 3 units and it’s clean and safe enough to add hookups. Each electrical panel has the capacity to add an electric dryer. Heat and hot water are included in the rent because of only 1 water meter and 1 water heater. I installed a 50 amp electrical sub panel that is sub metered because there is only 3 electrical panels and not a 4th for common uses. I subtract the KWh on the sub meter from unit 1’s electrical bill because unit 1’s panel supplies the electricity to it. The electrical end is taken care of.

Long story short, how would you meter the water for a tenants laundry usage? Would you sub meter the hot and cold supplies individually? How often would you read the meters if so, to calculate the money numbers? Coin op laundry is currently unavailable because I am yet to find machines that are at a budget price.

@Bijal Patel

Is this for Georgia only?

Is there something like this for Ohio?

@Bjorn Ahlblad

Thank you. I doubt they are fleeing. (But could be I suppose). It’s not in the best neighborhood, but the apartments are pretty decent. The house seems to be right on the divide of small city commercial downtown properties, a few middle class homes between us and downtown, and then some middle to lower class homes on the other side opposite downtown. So my thoughts were “let’s go for the rent that’s between these sections”, and with good property management and good interviews, we could really lure people to this property. Because it’s literally 2 doors down from some pretty nice houses. It’s a living room, dining room, eat in kitchen, bathroom with a stand up shower and then front and rear porches with an enclosed semi private small yard on the ground level, and then 3 bedrooms, a full bathroom and a pretty big walk in hallway closet on the 2nd floor. Heat and hot water included.tenant only pays electric. And the rent seems fair as it can be. Most people simply couldn’t get passed the no smoking and no pets. Then a few were felons for violence.

The reason I didn’t come straight out and ask them for a months worth of deposit to hold was because she told me they can’t move in February 1 because they have to give their landlord a 30 day notice plus pay him there earned rent money for February. So they won’t have any money for my apartment until March 1, and I agreed to let them pay the security deposit in three installments to help them out. I really want to rent to them because they are a clean young motivated family and the woman is very OCD with cleanliness. But with that scenario, they are willing to pay $100 for a 14 day deposit to hold, and a $100 fee that is nonrefundable to make the deposit to hold 30 days. I think that is probably the easiest way out but I was trying to figure out a way to sign a lease with them to lock it in so I don’t have to advertise anymore 

We’ve had an apartment sit vacant since August and have had no luck finding decent enough tenants that don’t smoke or have pets, have no felonies and no prior evictions. Pretty basic stuff. But yesterday we showed it to a woman who has 3 kids and a husband and she messaged me back today saying they were interested but they were wanting to move in March 1st. At first I told them that a 14 day deposit hold is $100 non refundable and put towards there security deposit, and we could make the deposit to hold extended to 30 days for a additional $100 non refundable fee that does NOT go towards anything (accept my pocket). However, a lot can happen in a month and we’ve already had somebody that paid a deposit to hold, back out of the tenancy. So I was thinking about offering them a 13 month lease with 1st months rent and security due on March 1st (2nd month of the lease), and a move in date of March 1st and possible sooner with a prorated rent amount if they chose to move in before March 1st. No matter what I feel like I’m losing money, but the market is cold and I doubt I’d have anybody else for February anyway, plus with a nice family is like to have them as tenants. Any ideas or information would be greatly appreciated. Thank you all. -Jason

@Colin Spivey

I’m an investor that buys distressed properties and rehabs them for cash flow. I’ve never sold an investment property. I hold them all. I also have a master plumbing and gasfitting license from Massachusetts and I have a very thorough carpentry background. I can tell you that if you are going to use contractors and not do the work yourself the price is going to more than double. Maybe (most likely) even triple. Rule of thumb for us when using contractors is $1200 a fixture for plumbing (consider the water main a separate fixture, consider the water heater a separate fixture, consider outdoor spigots a half of a fixture, a boiler connection would be half a fixture). For all materials and labor on all systems, plumbing, electrical, drywall, trim, paint, flooring, appliances, fixtures, $10k-$12k per bathroom. $12-$15k for a kitchen. $6k for a room with no plumbing. All this varies a great deal, but you can see how it adds up quick. Structural work can really hit the finances hard too. U could start getting into it and realize a beam is sagging or about to snap. That’s a lot more work. The first think we look at is does the house have straight lines? Is the roof ridge straight? Are the corners all 90 degrees inside and out. Do the windows and doors sit square? Do they work? Do the floors dip in the middle of the rooms or does the house dip towards the center or the floor plan? Is the foundation straight and not cracked or missing pieces? Is the chimney solid inside and out? What appliances go into the chimney? Does it need a liner? (Usually yes because with higher efficient appliances comes lower stack temperatures that don’t draft properly because the chimney is to big by today’s standards and codes). It’s a lot to think about.

If you were good at seeing work that needs to be done and doing guesstimates, you might want to team up with a home inspector who is thorough and takes at-least 10 pictures of each room and includes them in a very detailed report. Guys like that are great to team up with. Me personally, I do all the work myself except roofs because plumbers belong with there feet on the ground and no higher than a 6ft step ladder. It’s just how I was raised by my old school masters. But good luck in your venture. I hope you find what you are looking for

@Huso Akaratovic

I’m a master plumber from Massachusetts currently living in Ohio and I can tell you that a price that high should be shopped around. Even if it went under a sidewalk in the city, it’s a high “I know you’re in a emergency” price. In a lot of places a plumber isn’t needed to do this repair. We all know the stuff flows downhill, so rent a mini ditch digger, get a metal detector, call dog safe, and dog it up and replace it. You’re allowed to use rubber clamps underground for the connections. It really isn’t difficult, it just seems overwhelming but once you start doing it, it isn’t that bad. You could get it done for less than $2k. Good luck

@John Teachout

My first rental I purchased for $15,000, put $10,000 into it, did the work myself, materials was the only cost, and the current fair market rent value would’ve been about $800/month (3.2% of $25,000) But the house came out so good I moved into it because it was beautiful and centrally located. My plan is to be out of it in 12 months

@Nathan Shankles

I don’t do a spec under 3.3% and it works awesome. 5 properties with 8 rental units and my families core budget is paid for with a minimum of 4 units rented. All for under $150k total