All Forum Posts by: John Lindemann

the best one i can recommend is Josh Durham.  He owns Wood Doctors and is a very good carpenter.  He put up beautiful molding in our house.

Action roofing is also good.

If you talk to them please let them know I referred you.

Good luck!

@Rich Baer - thanks

One of my SFH renters called me this morning to let me know they had called the fire department because they noticed smoke coming from a vent. Turns out the furnace had caught fire...fortunately no fire damage outside of the furnace closet. Nobody got hurt and property damage appears to be minimal. So...I need a new furnace and some sheetrock work.

My question is how to handle the renters now.  Our weather is very mild right now but I assume it will take several days to get a new furnace installed (waiting to hear back from contractors now).  Do I need to put them in a hotel or get a portable a/c unit?  Highest temperature in the next 10 days is 85°.

Any advice appreciated!!

@Brandon Turner - How is the NOI being calculated in the calculator?

I thought it should be Income - Loan Payment but there seems to be something else being considered as well...?

@Alex Franks I did call another engineer and asked his opinion and that engineer told me there is no issue with different brands of piers.  He said it happens all the time.  For example, Brand A installs piers on one side of a house and then 10 years go by and the house needs piers in a different area and Brand A has gone out of business since then.  Now the homeowner would hire Brand B to install the new piers...nobody would expect the homeowner to replace the old piers just because that company isn't around anymore.  A practical person would see that only piers that have failed would need to be replaced.  There is no reason they all need to be the same brand.

Where I ended up after consulting with lenders is that basically the easiest route to take is to either cancel the deal or oblige the first engineer requirements so that he will sign off.  If I get new inspections (even 2 independent engineers reports) then we have conflicting opinions and the lender could still decide to go with the most conservative opinion which would put me back where I currently am.

@Joel Owens - passing the hot potato is right!!!  Nobody wants to be held responsible.  If you read an inspectors contract it is littered with "outs" for them to not be held liable.

@Account Closed - thanks for the quick reply!  Unfortunately I do not have anything in writing directly from the finance company.  I do not have an attorney that I use but I will try to get some recommendations.

I told the buyers yesterday that I will agree to install the unnecessary piers to satisfy their unreasonable lender and engineer but if I do that then I will not pay for their home warranty (equal value to the piers).  Also, prior to me agreeing to installing the piers I will require them to: 

1. agree to provide me a letter from the lender stating that the piers are required and that if I do the piers then they will close the deal, 
2. provide me a letter from the structural engineer stating that the piers are required for him to signoff and that he will signoff if I install the piers, 
3. agree that their earnest money is non-refundable under any circumstance if the piers are installed, 
4. agree to a $30 per diem charge after an extended date of April 1 to allow time for pier installation.  

I gave them until Friday at 10AM to make their decision.  I do genuinely want this deal to go through and I'm trying to be reasonable with them.  I am frustrated but mostly because I don't like wasting money...my money or the buyers money!  The buyer has a lot at stake here too, probably at least $1k after the general, structural and plumbing inspections plus the appraisal.

I own a house in Broken Arrow, OK (a suburb of Tulsa, OK) and I have had it under contract since Feb. 6th with an expected closing date of March 10th.  Initially, the buyer hired a general home inspector to look over the house and the general recommended a structural engineer be brought out to confirm that the piers had been installed properly.  I extended TRR time to allow for the structural engineer.  The structural engineer had concerns about my chimney and required me to either install piers or produce evidence that piers had been installed and were under warranty.  The structural engineer also required a plumbing leak test be done to ensure no plumbing leaks.

Now, the leak test showed no leaks and I spent a good amount of time tracking down previous owners (3 owners ago) who had the piers installed.  The piers were installed by Olshan and they have a lifetime warranty that is transferrable to the new owners.  I informed the buyer and the buyer told the structural engineer who then said that Olshan piers were "not good enough" and that they need to be replaced with new piers.  I challenged this because #1, the engineer himself says the chimney does not need any adjustment, he just wants there to be a warranty on it and #2 because I don't think a structural engineer has any right to say that a seller can only use Brand X piers...especially when there is not adjustment needed.

After many rounds of my refusing to pay for new piers that were not needed the finance company agreed to not require the structural engineers signoff if I could get them the Olshan paperwork explicitly stating that the piers were warrantied...I got that for them and then they decided that the house needed to be physically inspected by Olshan, so we did that...then they required more paperwork from Olshan but that after I got that for them we would be clear to close but the original closing date had passed so I had to extend the contract, which I did...and then after all this was completed now they tell me that the finance company still requires the structural engineer's signoff, and now the engineer is saying that he will not do it because I have two different brands of piers and that is not acceptable.

The buyer's realtor has told my realtor that they have pleaded with the engineer to signoff but he will not do it.

I do not see any justification for the engineer to say that it is unacceptable to have two different brands of piers...especially since no work is needed and this is apparently just a fight for a warranty.  I am concerned that the buyer is going to cancel the contract and they will expect their earnest money back.  I do not think that I owe the earnest money back to them because I have agreed to all requested repairs (already completed them!) and I got the warranty to meet the requirements of the structural engineer's report.

Any advice on how to handle this exceedingly frustrating situation?

It feels like the engineer is either colluding with the piering company in order to get them work or he has a personal grudge against me or my realtor.

@Zack Ellard

I'm not sure how to go about establishing a mentor...I think it just happens through constant dialogue and involvement.  

I know that you weren't asking for specific advice but...my first bit of advice is to ditch the property manager.  unless you have a seriously demanding job, a property far from where you live/work, totally awful tenants or a house that is in need of constant repair then you almost certainly could save the money you'd spend on a property manager.  My dad doesn't like to meet prospective tenants so he hires a property manager just to place the tenants and then he takes over for rent collection, repairs, etc.  I prefer to save the cost so I haven't used a property manager yet.  Based on my experience thus far, I think my threshold for property management will be 6-8 units.  The biggest pain is meeting prospective tenants but I have developed a pretty good set of questions I ask people when they call me and then I set up meetings on a weekend to show multiple people the house so I don't have to make multiple trips.  I make sure to bring something to do because no-shows happen.

Best of luck to you!

I use L% e% ase % Runner I do not utilize all of its features but primarily I use it for rent collection and screening tenants.  it is super easy and auto-debit rent collection only cost me $3.

Not sure why but it keeps starring out my post if I spell the company without the extra characters.  It won't let me put the website on here but it is just a dot com.