All Forum Posts by: Jim Goebel

@Chris C.

I'm not an attorney and don't specialize in this, but what we do is pay the insurance out of the IRA account (from the custodian). My understanding of the risk of non compliance on this stuff is that it's more IRS risk, than lawsuit risk. Meaning, if you're not compliant you can do things like inadvertently take a distribution that would give you a tax hit, or go above your contribution limits. A good custodian will help you stay compliant.

@Bruce P.

The K is for 1000.  In other words, 60 kBTU/hr = 60,000 BTU/hr.

That must be a huge house!  200kBtu/hr for the heating system, for instance - a decent say 2500 sq ft house in this climate (Des Moines IA) might take an 80 kBTU/hr or maybe an 100 kBTU/hr furnace.

I don't know much of anything about Title 24 but my guess is that those sizes are 'design' sizes.  Actual industry sizes, from my experience are more 'standard' and at least on the smaller units (ie: up to 100kBtu/hr) they go up in increments of 20,000 Btu/hr.  

Make any sense?

Jim

 I had somebody tell me once that failure is success. Sometimes things like that don’t make any sense, until you’ve had a lot of time to reflect. In my case, it wouldn’t really have mattered what my first couple steps were, in my career. I needed to get knocked down a few times, and then eventually settle on something, with the experience gained to be successful. 

 In my case, if I started with real estate, and I honestly don’t know how I would have done that, because I needed the capital and I didn’t have it initially, but I would have not been nearly as effective at deploying capital, I would have failed, I would have learned from it, and then ultimately I would’ve been doing something else. 

 As my grandfather once said, I wouldn’t change a thing, but I wouldn’t want to do it over again. 

@Rick Sheldon

Funny one here :) So, no idea if that was intentional - but it looks kind of like something wasn't quite fully planned somewhere along the way :)

A few things - some items, likely in your basement, still can exhaust through an existing chimney.  Those would be your furnace and water heater.  Check that first before you get too far.  You'll see galvanized steel exhaust flue going into it down there, if it exists.  If you need to upgrade to a HE furnace or a power vent water heater, in addition to what you're considering, that's more cost.

The other things that'll drive cost on this include: can your roof be patched?  You'd likely want to remove the chimney above your roof line, too.  How accessible is that?

Are you willing to do some work yourself?

The actual work to remove, is just labor.  There's not a lot of material cost in all of this.  You just need to cut and remove bricks.  To patch the roof, you'll need some misc materials but it'll stay under probably $200 I bet.  A bundle of shingles, some OSB, some roof felt, etc.

@Jay Ogilvie

There's not nearly enough info here Jay.  What kind of transaction is this?  What's the asset?  What are you trying to accomplish?

You can look up on google for a standard purchase agreement in your state.

@Richert Dart

@Tanner Peabody

Sounds like with your background/job, to be honest - don't be in a hurry so much.  Enjoy the ride.  I stumbled into RE after 10 years in industry, working as an engineer and all that time working better prepared me.  Save up some money, learn, grow with your company - do interesting projects.  Take some risks where you work, enough that will potentially get you fired.  That's the best thing you can do now!

@Bennett Lureen

Why don't you just drive to the local Menards and lay out your kitchen, then get cabinets on order?

I like paying for my materials that way someone can't justify upfront payments.  Whenever someone asks me for that now, I tell them my credit score, and that I don't pay up front.

Where'd you get the money to be flipping a house at 19, anyways?

Great response, Ian, but great Post, Peter T as well.  I've felt the same way you're articulating, Peter.  I do think there are some valid concerns as BP moves forward.  I've noticed a trend towards a content mill/machine that although at times provides useful content, I think waters down everything because there are conflicts of interest present.  It seems to me that BP by putting their weight behind certain viewpoints on the blog, is sort of 'sponsoring' these viewpoints.  I've noticed this more specifically in cases of Asset Protection (ie lawyers, advisors) that are providing content that attempts to walk the line of offering, but also functioning as building their brand and working on their marketing funnel.

I've also noticed a trend in the viewpoints on the part of moderators that favors a more 'incumbent' viewpoint, especially as it relates to issues like the role of the traditional real estate agent/broker.

@Ian Jaeger

@Peter Tverdov

I personally have serious concerns about the conflict of interest side of this and it does make me evaluate the time I spend on the platform.  I hope Brandon and the leadership at BP can see these forums and the site overall as a way to connect a community - and I also hope the leadership has its own business interests separate from BP's ability to drive traffic/create revenue/income, etc --- and can view BP more as a service or academic pursuit.  I think 'keeping the eye on the ball' in this way would keep the community a bit more pure and save its brand from a more insidious march towards 'selling out.' 

@Jun Wang

Hi Jun

For a leak and recharge, that's a crazy silly amount of labor.  It might take them 2-3 hours, as we've just had a couple done just like this.  Granted, labor rates vary.  

But, you need to find out more info.  You didn't specify WHERE the leak is!  The post doesn't quite make sense because if it is a warranty item, the likely culprits would be the condensing unit or the coil.  I've never heard of a condensing unit leak before, by the way.  But WHERE the leak is will kind of dictate the labor costs, and honestly, whose fault it is - I'd wonder if that 'warranty provider' was the one that did a bad braze in the first place.

Don't get me started on the HVAC industry.  It's full of a bunch of hack jobs and unethical folks.