All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

@Matt K. Hi Matt, I’m in East Tennessee on my current deal. Living and working in SoCal, investing out of state. There’s 20k houses ALL OVER the country, but not all are a good deal. Why do you ask?

@John Cournoyer Wow, sheesh! I never thought about about mega code violation judgements! Ouch, guess that’s all part of making good deals for yourself. Finding things people won’t touch and fixing them.. You can do it! The guy is dead! Restart, probationary period to fix? Gotta be something.

@John Cournoyer additionally, code violations will often be additions that aren’t listed on the legal property description. I’ve gotten a bank to lend me on a property that had a small addition code violation. It came up in the report, but after getting signed off on termite report, they funded and I didn’t have to tear out. Obviously, this is something I would want to solve if flipping, but would rather not remove a good addition in a buy and hold situation if I can get it financed. So basically the code violations would be noticed by your lenders inspector and become a problem, but may not be something the city requires you to fix. I would LOVE to hear other people’s experience on this and see how common the city/county actually keeps a record of code violations.

@John CournoyerHi! That’s typical for tax auctioned properties. I just closed a piece of land with same circumstances in TN. My title company estimated $1500 on a quite title. Once you’ve done that they will insure and you can sell as normal. Concerning code violations, I would think the title co should make those clear to you, and anything else you should be able to get from the county on what those are. Just tread lightly so you don’t cause more code violations to be noticed if you think you have a good deal. Code violations are very common on older homes, as none of them went through code inspections. I’m dealing with a property that has 2 units on it, but the county only allows one per residential lot. They are so old, that they’re grandfathered in, but I don’t want to make a fuss about them with the zoning department because that’s 2 rentals in a buy and hold situation. If I went to the county zoning or building department, maybe they’d say something I don’t like, like tear one down. It’s being sold as one unit and I don’t suppose it could ever be recorded as 2 units since the city doesn’t permit that per residential lot and one is more of a granny flat. So, do your research but if you have specific questions about the property code violations, you might stay anonymous to the code inforcers as you ask the questions. Sometimes they will have a way of getting you to tell them your name and the property and then it just seems like you’ve highlighted your situation to the person who can cost you $ in tear downs etc. it’s probably best to find out the worst about the property without drawing too much attention to code violations as you do. I’m curious to hear what others say, as I am NOT an authority on these things, just flipped a bunch of houses for investors.

@Joseph Abbott Do the rehab yourself.. hustle some carpentry work to save the money if you can. Starting out in carpentry you may clean up a job site a lot, but you’ll learn some basics too! Your best bet based on what your goals are right now would be to buy the property and do the rehab yourself. Watch YouTube for the different trade tricks, and ask questions from guys at your local Home Depot or whatever. Also, you could get some good training by hiring a carpenter or handyman for a day here and there and they’ll teach you while they work for you.

@Jahbari McLennan You could throw down $20 on a pipe snake, $10 on drain cleaning liquid (the tuff stuff) and twirl that snake and try to slowly push it through as you twirl it over and over. I’ve opened up some really old pipes and saved some time getting things functional again. You never know with the contractors that see stuff they can’t show you. Could be worth a try if there’s a clean out somewhere or a toilet removed somewhere. Most business people on here would say hire it out. I’ve done a lot of plumbing but it would be nice to hear how the real plumbers weigh in.

@Greg Downeyok, thanks Greg, I appreciate the advice. I’m slowly moving into the hml or line of credit decisions.

@Medriand Arnold Hey, great question.. I’ve been asking myself this as I am under contract on a home w/o Hvac. I think one important question is which window does the ac unit sit in and how important is that window? Is it a bummer you can’t open that window because it has ac, or are there other windows to the room? It seems often in these situations w/o hvac, you have to have window units on all rooms practically. My conclusion, get the house (hypathetIcally), rent it with window ac until you can afford to put in the hvac, but eventually the hvac is the way to go! If it fits the budget I would service the units with hvac, but too often this seems to exceed the budget. I want to hear what someone with more experience weighs in with on this...

@Karen O.by the way I wouldn’t use durarock on subfloor personally, I’d use hardibacker with plenty of hardibacker screws. Durock seems to be more brittle etc.. any contractors fans of durarock??

@Karen O. Yikes! Just do it right. You have to have the hardibacker board down especially if your subfloor is only 5/8”! Should be at least 3/4 tongue and groove subfloor. But tile has to be solid otherwise your grout lines will crack eventually etc. the floor might need some leveler, but don’t skip the hardibacker especially if you’re only using 1/4”. It needs plenty of screws and some PL glue to make it solid. Your tile guy can use a smaller thinset trowel to keep tiles a little lower. Sounds like threshold piece will probably need to come up and the door may have to get cut at the bottom which is very common. I can’t picture exactly your situation but there are many varieties of transition strips from one flooring to another and usually a laminate to tile transition will split under the door so it’s less visible. Ps- ive done tile over wood subfloor on mess around projects, and it’s not the end of the world, but I’ve torn out bad tile put over wood as well, it’s not the way to go. Maybe some amaizing person will know something I don’t know on how to make it work, but your floor needs to be made solid.