All Forum Posts by: James Birdsall

Leo, I think most of these issues are self explanatory, replace the shower, fix the exhaust fan in the kitchen and replace vinyl, etc. The non-grounded outlets are more of a problem. Do you know if there is a ground wire available in the wiring? If there is no ground wire that will be expensive and may require rewiring the whole house. If a ground wire is available then the fix is simple.

 As a contractor, doing the work correctly is why I sleep well at night. That doesn't mean there aren't expensive ways and cheaper ways of doing things correctly. In California, where I am from, a permit and passed inspection does not limit your liability. Inspectors there and I expect most everywhere vary widely in their abilities and perfectionism. As an investor you need to know what your contractor is doing to your property.

We left there in 2010 Orion, been in Boise 4 years. It is a nice town, I like it.

@Orion Walker, these were all over the area. One was off the Ukiah Road 8 miles up a rocky dirt road, one was off 128 near Yorkville one hour up the hill, the other one was in Philo. We lived just above Boonville. Where are you?

@Linda Weygant I have a story like that but in a different area. It was in 2007 and we were finishing up some projects (we built houses in Mendocino County, CA) and I had been out hustling new business and had three signed contracts for new houses waiting for financing to come through. It seemed like it was taking a long time, been waiting almost 4 weeks, and I didn't want to waste time sitting around so I decided to remodel our main bathroom. Complete tear out and everything new.  I had all the appliances lined up, tile, etc. and it was the day to start. I started by pulling out the tub, toilet, vanity and started pulling the wallboard. The phone rang. It was the one of the contracts, they got the money and were ready to start. Great. The foundation work could start without me and I could keep working on the bathroom. Around lunch time the phone rang again and it was the the second contract, financing went through, when can we start? This is going to be a stretch. Of course, later that evening the third contract got their financing. I lay awake that night wondering how this was going to work with only 5 guys on my crew building three houses at once. I ended up having to hire some local guys to finish the bathroom for me if I wanted to stay married. It all worked out in the end but was a bit stressful. I have no advise as I am not a financial guy but just don't panic, it will work out.

Hey @Stephanie Dobbs, I am not an investor but just wanted to say what you are doing is brilliant. A great way to learn and make connections. Good luck!

@Casey Fares This looks like a really difficult one. Even at $60/sq ft reno cost you are looking at $153K cost which will put you over the comps. I think it would be very difficult to find someone to do this for $60. I was a contractor in California until recently and pretty much the only way to do $60 is with our friends from South of the border. That is risky. The upside is that with everything torn up you can see what you have. 

I just love tile. I know it is more expensive but the advantages are numerous. It will last practically forever, cleans easily, pet stains will not harm it, it cannot be burned, if cracked can be repaired easily if you saved extra tiles, flood events (toilet overflow for example) will do little damage, etc. If you look around you can find some very good deals on 12 X 12 plain tile. Just my biased opinion.

We use Quickbooks Online and it is fully functional. Not only that but we can produce invoices and take credit card payments from our phones or iPad and the payments go directly into Quickbooks.