All Forum Posts by: Jesse Clark

Thanks guys for the responses.

@Shaun weekes. Yes, certainly doing kitchens and bathrooms and basement finish. 

@Scott Mac. That includes the service company's fee, which I believe they replace what is needed up to the meter. 

@Jayson Medherst. The house has central ac already, its crazy there's a 30amp circuit for ac and the panel only has 50amp total

So it looks like I may be doing my first fix and flip. I originally bought this property as a rental and brrrr, but the mortgage payment is looking higher than anticipated. It's just not gonna cash flow as much as I would like.  I think I can make some money from the sale and look for the next deal.

Purchase: $360,000

Renovations: $45k

Arv: $540,000

There seems to be a lot of, "do we spend money on this, or not". It's much easier with rentals. 

Question is, the electric service line coming into the house is only rated for 50amps, judging by breaker in panel and size of wire. It's 2000sq ft house, 4 bdrms. This service has been fine for 60 years, but I know there's more devices to plug in nowadays. The heating, dryer, range are all gas so that helps. Just wondering from a buyers standpoint if a home inspector would say it's an issue. Or if can be made as a feature, ( which I've seen in listings, "home upgraded to 200a service") my electrician is coming in a couple days to look at everything. Just don't know if it's worthwhile to do this. I think it's a $2-3k job. Thanks.

I agree with Brian Pulaski 8-10 months, possibly more if just yourself is a little more reasonable. I did a full remodel last year on a rental property, 1965 house, almost 2000sq ft not gutted to studs. But a kitchen, 2 bathrooms, full basement, deck, porch etc.. that took a helper and I 5months. I've been doing residential remodeling for 20 years full time. That was a little too long a time frame for me. I'm subbing more out next time. Especially drywall, it's not that fun carrying 60 sheets into a basement, then hanging and finishing all of it.

Just from looking at the pictures it seems the header or girder snapped in half. The joists are then attached to this built up beam, or girder. I don't think it was built structurally solid in the first place. Yes, your living room should be able to support the weight of a car. I know that old houses were not always built up to modern code. This should not happen with any amount of people jumping or partying in the house. Did a HVAC guy or plumber notch the heck out of it and weaken it substantially? That's very common. Prob not what you want to hear, but I'm saying it's not their fault. My opinion as a professional contractor and landlord. Oh, it looks unsafe to inhabit also 

Driving around different neighborhoods night and day is good advice. I would personally stay away from streets with $5k properties for sale. I have an investor friend who owns many properties in Govans, north balt city. Mostly section 8 long term tenants, he does very well. I prefer the county, but it seems much easier to find, and get a decent deal on city property. I think you can purchase something relatively inexpensive and still make good monthly cashflow. Don't even get me started on city taxes though..

The $40k in a hole would just slow us down, not deplete our cash reserves for repairs or next property. We're trying to cut construction costs. We have another rental a block away and did great getting a good tenant, so that's why this house was appealing. We know the area well too. And of course you can get a great appraisal or a lousy one. We had to appeal our last one on previous property bc it was so off! The neighborhood caps out at a certain point, which might not be as high as we need for appraisal value to end up where we need. The appraisal process seems pretty subjective to who's doing it that day! Can be good or bad. 

So I'm looking to brrrr my 3rd property. I'm trying to specialize in higher end sfh rentals. Using money from heloc on my primary residence for down payment and remodel costs. I haven't had luck getting my money back from refinancing the houses. Good tenants and decent cash flow, but the current house I'm looking at would leave me in a $40k hole. Is it expected to not be able to pull all your cash back out after refinancing? I like having nice maintenance free houses with good tenants and cash flow, but it's going to make for slow going to build up a good portfolio. I'm pretty new to investing and it is all a learning experience. I really like the brrrr idea, just slow going bc of the money out of pocket.  Thanks