All Forum Posts by: Jordan Thompson

@Slade S.. Thanks Slade!  It was far from easy but I what I learned was priceless!  I just turned in my receipts to my CPA this week for 2021 and they were already at about $3k in materials and tools... I probably have another 1500 to 2k in rehab materials this year unfortunately so I think I’m over budget there, BUT a small portion of that was for tools I didn’t have or couldn’t borrow so I would expect to be closer to, or under, budget when the unit 2 rehab comes around. 

@Erik WalkerThanks!  It's been a ton of work but very rewarding so far.

Hello again BP!  I can officially say a milestone has been hit:

The interior of Unit 1 is COMPLETE!!!  In addition to some new listing photos, I tried to get some good "After" photos in the same position and angle that the listing photos were taken from.  Check them out:

Kitchen - Before:

Kitchen - After:

Laundry area - Before:

Laundry area - After:

Bathroom - before:

Bathroom - After:

Hallway before:

Hallway After:

I didn't realize how dingy the old photos were until I saw them next to the new ones.  So the next step here was to make good on my word and offer it to my existing tenant: Phillip.  I emailed him a letter outlining the options for rent; in a nutshell this was the offer (he is currently paying $575/month in the other unit that hasn't been reno'd - market value is right at $700 for this in this area):

1. 12 month lease in new unit: $715 per month

2. 6 month lease in new unit: $760 per month

3. Month to month lease in new unit: $800 per month

The market value I'm finding for all the updated finishes is right around $900 per month give or take so this was a great offer for Phillip.  My plan was to reward the good behavior of paying on time or early every month, taking care of the property, following rules/regs, and communicating.  All of this has been done very well and I thanked Phillip for this along with these options and waiving any pet fees, increased security deposit, or other "general public" fees that go along with a new, unfamiliar, tenant.  

Option 4 was to remain in the current unit on a month-to-month basis with an increase in rent to $680 per month.

Since Phillip didn't know what the next 12 months held for him, he chose option 4 but was very appreciative that he had the option first before the general public and understood why his rent was going up.  My upcoming task this weekend is to get the unit on the market and start screening tenants!  This is another new endeavor for me so I'll post the good, the bad, and ugly points of my new adventure.  For reference, I've read Brandon and Heather Turner's book: The Book on Managing Rental Properties twice now and I'm skimming back through it in certain points as a refresher.

Not everything in the book will be used in this situation, but it was insightful and gave me a great starting point!  

Until next time my friends.

Jordan

Hello again BP!

@Noel Miles  Thanks Noel!  So, fun fact, that's actually a primed finish, but I agree completely - I will paint the doors that color.  It's uncanny how well that matched up.

@Cameron Braig Thanks Cameron!  The reno is progressing well (I've hit a few hurdles in the past 3 weeks or so) but it's all good - I'm definitely learning.  I'm glad you mentioned "the next one"... the more time I spend on this in the quiet and late hours, the more I'm thinking of how I can get another one.  I'll reach out to you privately maybe this summer or so if you don't mind; I'd love to discuss some lending options with you.

So it has been quite some time since I've posted... 1 weekend I was feeling under the weather, and another weekend it snowed so it put me a bit behind schedule unfortunately.  My goal originally was to have this unit available by February 1st to either the existing unit or to put on the market.  Unfortunately I missed that deadline, but hey, the experience I've gained managing this rehab is more than worth the extra time.  

That being said, I'm happy to report that more progress has been made!

The flooring is now done, the countertop is installed, trim is going back up, OH!  and I had some help recently from my girls:

The soup, crescent rolls, and make-shift table I used from the countertop drop out (cut for the sink) made this experience much warmer for me!  Not to mention our wiener dog begging with every bite we took (her name is Pebbles).  

The front bedroom door was very damaged and had to be replaced, but as I installed the new one, I found that the frame was narrower at the bottom by almost 1/4 inch so some surgery was in order to make it fit.  Also, the parts store was out of prefinished white, so I had another item added to my list of things to paint.  I actually really liked the woodgrain pattern, but it did not go well with everything else being painted white:

As you can see, the door wouldn't shut... so I made a state-of-the-art tool to transfer the frame geometry to the door slab:

BEHOLD!!! MY LATEST INVENTION:

My harbor fright pencil with part of a door shim taped to it got the line just right.  I didn't grab any good photos of my cutting guide, but basically I just clamped the old doors together with the new one 1.5" off my circular saw guide (distance from guide to blade) and it worked great!  From here, there was priming... and painting... and more painting... Nothing too spectacular to be honest.  I did get the counter and sink installed though:

NOW... I will say this.  Cutting the hinge and latch pockets in took WAY longer than I expected.  I used my grandfather's chisel, a hammer, a few words I won't report here, and some YouTube videos to get the job done.  This actually was the beginning of a fit/finish trend that I saw through mounting the bedroom doors and cabinet doors; the age has taken it's toll I suppose on these older features.  And it did not discriminate!  The toilet worked well at the beginning, and I guess the mineral deposits were enough to keep it from working well... so off came the toilet again!  This time I spend the $95 to replace it with a brand new one and it works like a charm.

One other thing I forgot to mention... I decided to repaint the entire inside of unit 1. My in-laws came up to view my handiwork (or get some cheap entertainment on the pitiful efforts of their son-in-law - not really, they own a townhome in Charlotte and I asked for their advice) and my mother-in-law noticed the bleed through in the paint and how bad it was.  To be honest, this was a hard piece of advice to listen to and every ounce of my soul wanted to defend the 4 coats I had already painted.  But, the chickens came home to roost and she was completely right... the paint looked bad especially compared to the new floors.  I took the following Thursday off of work and re-rolled THE ENTIRE INTERIOR...  It was painful to say the least.  For 9 hours I painted but the finished product was something I was actually proud of:

I'm heading back up there this weekend and I'll try to get some more progress photos of the shelving, quarter round, freshly painted doors... and hopefully the finished unit!!

Until next time...

Jordan

Hello again BP!

In the last post, I covered the installation of the back door which was right at about a 3ish hour job for me; not bad for someone with zero experience I would say.  So the next door will be faster right?  I mean, technically it's doubling my experience... right??  WRONG!!!  Come to find out, the floor was off-level by just under 1/16" - and in the case of older construction, it was just tight enough to turn this one into a 6 hour job.  What matters though, is that it got done and got done correctly.  Let's dig in:

I'll spare you guys all the extra photos since they're basically the same; it was pretty much the same process except I had to get creative with some shims to get my door gaps in good condition and get the latch and deadbolt to line up with the strike plates.  Basically, from the inside looking out, the left hand side with knob and deadbolt was higher than the hinged side which kept the door latch from inserting into the strike plate hole (it was too low - or rather the jamb was too high).

Now, I picked up a really slick trick with this problem.  You normally put shims between the jamb and stud (white frame and 2x4 in the wall).  To get my door more centered within the frame, I put shims between the door itself and the actual jamb which you can see in the above photos.  Now, before I did this, I took out the pins in the hinges so that the door could effectively "float" within the frame so I could get the gaps correct.  In doing this, the holes in the hinge which the pin slides through got out of alignment which I just bent back into position with a wrench (or what I have called: an "adjustable hammer" depending on my level of redneck at that particular moment).  So, bend them back into alignment, and then drop the pins back in.  SUCCESS!! Both exterior doors have officially been replaced!  They're not the prettiest installations, but I immediately felt that I and my tools (and my wife and our dog) were more secure when working up here!  That's worth a lot for me... 

NOW.  Let's get this flooring finished up... It's time to cross one BIG task off the list.  In order to do this, the hot water heater (HWH from here on out) and the toilet have to come out... no biggie since I just got doors installed and my confidence is higher now.  HWH first; someone cemented the fittings onto the heater itself so I had to cut the pipes after I drained everything only to see the effects of no drain pan in place.  For the record, electricity makes a coward out of me very quickly... I get timid of it because I don't have much experience and basically my brain isn't wired for that (ba dum tss).  I just cut the breaker, tested for power with my multimeter, took my time, watched a few videos and all was good.  The wiring came free, I cut the pipes and then moved the now-empty HWW out of place.  If you guys saved your ticket stubs, I'll raffle off the socks and smarties later...

No time to waste - I moved right into the bathroom and removed the toilet as well since I was geared-up for appliance removal.  Toilets are easy though; I've done a few in my day.  2 bolts, a water hose and then relocate it.  Be sure the cut the water off at the wall first and then get a turkey baster (now labeled "toilet" for future toilet use - not for Thanksgiving) to remove the rest of the water.  What did I find?  Par-for-the-course handiwork.  Not (1) but (2) old wax rings sealing the toilet...

After a quick area cleanup, the new flooring went down along with some wall paint behind the toilet and HWH that I just couldn't get during painting.  Flooring was super simple since I've done about 700sq ft or so already.  On goes another wax ring for the toilet, new toilet flange bolts since the originals broke (is there a trend here?), new pan under the HWH, OHH and last but not least: Quarter round (some call it shoe molding).  I won't be able to get a brad nailer behind the HWH or toilet after they are installed so I'll have to do it while I have the chance.

**Side Note: I work on classic cars as a hobby and this is actually known as the "If I'm doing this, I might as well do that while I'm in there" phenomenon.  This can be an expensive but necessary justification... for an investment??  Definitely justified in this case**

I picked up another trick of the trade for lining up toilet bolts with the toilet itself: Straws.  Specifically straws from Zaxby's (not sponsored) since they're a bit larger than normal.  I got (2) of them and put them on bolts - result turned out great!

The new washers and hex nuts were next: lefty loosey, righty tighty... until righty tighty became righty loosey...   Much to my dismay, the bolt closest to the tub all of the sudden became loose just before I got it snugged down... First instinct?  Leave it.  Fill it with water, flush, ensure no leaks, and then leave it and hope nothing happens.

Then I got a grip on my right brain cell and reminded it that we're doing this as an investment, and reliability is right next to tenant experience in the hierarchy of value we're adding here: FIX IT.  So OFF came the toilet again to find this:  a broken flange.  Not surprising for a 49 year old flange.  Fortunately after some more YouTube videos, I found that a company makes a repair flange which is super relieving for me since this was in a POURED CONCRETE SLAB.  I bought the flange and the guy at Lowes said the bolts should probably go into the concrete.  I didn't have a masonry bit or the right bolts and time was running out for the weekend so that will be on the list for next weekend.  

The couple of hours I had left were used for quarter round and installing the small counter top.  The large one has been set in place, and will be installed (hopefully) next weekend.  Here are the pics to wrap up the weekend's progress:

Thanks again for staying involved and following along!  I'm so excited to share my lessons learned with you all and hopefully learn some things from you guys along the way.

On that note, I started this post in the "Starting Out" forums here on BP which means most of us are not super experienced.  So I'd love to hear how you guys are progressing; have you taken first steps yet?  Reached out to an agent or got pre-approved for a loan?

If not, no worries.  Just please don't lose sight of the end goal and don't get discouraged!

Until next time my friends!

Jordan

@Paul Meyer I think you're right; my plan is to offer this side to the existing tenant first if they want it; if not, then I'll put it on the market and ask for that $800.  

@Account Closed Thanks Kyle!  I think the smell has subsided quite a bit - it's harder to tell since I'm up there so frequently, but the new paint, flooring, and new HVAC registers in the ceiling seem to have made a difference.

@Santiago Marquez and @Rachel Murphy and @Noel Miles  Thank you for the compliments!  Seeing things come together is a very encouraging experience and then getting to share it with all of you makes it even more rewarding!  Not to mention keeping me accountable.  lol

Hello again BP!  

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and New years!  So it has been quite a while - too long actually - since I've posted.  With the holidays things got pretty hectic, but hopefully everything is back to a schedule for me now.  

Progress has definitely been made, I just didn't have much time to write about it.  So this first portion actually made me more nervous than any other portion of the project except for the wire transfer:  Exterior Doors.  I've never ever installed one of these and asked around a ton; I was even advised to "leave that to a pro" since it's a pretty critical part of the security but, hey, how interesting would my blog on BP be if I did something crazy like pay someone else to do it?  I actually work at a window and door manufacturer so I felt I at least needed to give this the 'ole college try; what could possibly go wrong?? Yeah it's easier to write that after I know how things went...

I started with what is technically the back door.  You follow the driveway to the rear of the house and it's the one used most frequently and unfortunately it was the least secure.  Measuring in at 32" x 80", and featuring a cutting edge window (plexiglass siliconed into a hole someone cut with a sawzall), it had to go.  Also - no knob lock...  I took a lot more pics of the door demo and installation just in case something went wrong I had some reference material since, you know, once you remove it from the unit, there's a large hole that will not be fixed until the door is correctly installed - no pressure.

Pics of the original door:

So now for the fun HGTV part - DEMO TIME!!!  Out comes the crow bar and hammer; quick tip - run a utility knife around the caulking between the brickmold (exterior molding against the wall face) and the siding.  Also, I found out that not only was there no knob lock, the dead bolt plate had space for (4) screws but only (2) were installed!  And as you can see in this next pic, (1) of the screws completely missed the stud!  Talk about Fort Knox level security here... 

The sill (or threshold) on these old doors were not actually part of the door assembly itself.  It was anchored to the concrete with screws and masonry anchors which decided to pop their heads off when I went to unscrew them... So after a moment of heart sinking anxiety, I remembered this slick little tool I got for Christmas from my father-in-law (I had borrowed his for the door jambs and flooring install so he bought me my own so he could have his back... lol.  You guys can use that technique free of charge if you want.)  This ended up being the Swiss Army knife of power tools for me.  You can see the anchors in the background, and, contrary to popular belief, I do in fact have 5 fingers on my right hand; my index finger is just behind the tool.

The anchors that triggered my fight or flight response:

So now the opening was ready for its new door.  All my hours of watching YouTube videos and the instructions had prepared me... I positioned the door on the ground and then tilted it up into place for a "dry fit".  Before I committed to putting caulk around the brickmould or under the sill, I wanted to ensure that when I do tilt it into place, it's as close as I can get it so I took her on a test drive.  Also, I made sure the jambs and floor were level.  Come to find out, everything was great except for the top right hand corner (as viewed from the inside looking out); the door actually protrudes into the interior a bit but this was required to make the door plumb.

Looks pretty good!  Time for shims and caulk.  You'll see from the photos below I actually had to cut the wall back far enough to get the shims between the door jamb and stud; otherwise the wall would have been holding the shims which is not good.  

All shimmed up, screwed in, caulked, and has a new lockset!  I ended up going with Kwikset.  Above you can see the before and after photos of the new door beside the old one... This made a huge difference in my book!  The lockset is nice and firm, the door shuts well, it's steel and there are no light gaps.  The improvement here was massive!  What do you guys think?

I'll follow up in my next post with more progress.

Jordan

Hello again BP!  

So after my brief intermission, I'm back... with PICS!!!  Now this is nothing to write home about but I have made a decent amount of progress; it has not been without difficulty and planning though.  Do you guys (80's and 90's kids mainly) remember that game that had space for 16 squares, but only had 15 and you had to strategically slide the squares around until the photo, lines, or numbers all lined up in the right sequence?  Yeah... this was the real-life version of that.  I had to move all the kitchen stuff out of the kitchen for painting... and then slide it around again for flooring; and then hold my jaw an inch higher on the left, make a circle out of salt and then spit over my left shoulder just to prep for flooring  -_-  I should be sponsored by a  hardware store at this point *Cough* Home Depot *Cough* Lowe's *Cough*...

So, if you all don't use your stove in front of your front door... are you really living?  What are you doing with your life?  This is basically the end goal of any real estate investor and the new trend for modern homeowners.  I'm sorry if you don't agree, but this is what peak culinary logistics look like...  I digress.  

I moved everything I could out of the kitchen into the living room to make room to strategically put down flooring and it's actually falling into place well so far.

The fridge was easy enough to slide around, but the hot water heater is another story... I haven't figured it out quite yet on how to drain it, undo the wiring, and move it out of the way.  Some of you with Hawk Eyes may have caught it by now... the hot water heater does not have drain pan underneath it.  The last crew that installed flooring actually just cut the flooring around the water heater and didn't install a pan.  So that will be fixed now.  It's harder to see in the photos, but just after the little wall jutting out on the left (in the above photo) are the hookups for a washer which include a drain line.  I may be able to plumb the water heater's pan drain port to the washer drain port since it's already close and has a dedicated drain line... I'll get good photos when (if?) that happens.

In the above photo of the bathroom, I stopped since I have to remove the toilet.  I'll have to figure out what size wax ring is required so I can get it replaced.  

Now... Onto the Juicy part... CASH!!!

My existing tenant (who we will call Phillip; but is actually a female) had a rough process of paying rent with the previous landlord/property manager.  Phillip had to go to his bank, get a CERTIFIED CASHIERS CHECK, go to the POST OFFICE, and then PHYSICALLY MAIL THE CHECK FIRST CLASS to the property manager in Huntersville... based on my due diligence, Phillip has been an outstanding tenant so far paying ON THE FIRST every month except for September where he paid early... such a terrible situation for a landlord... If you ask me, this is just asking for a non- or late-payment of rent.  

***Pause*** my profile says I'm an insurance agent.  I am... in the evenings and on the weekends.  During the day, my official title is "Senior Executive North American President of Continuous Improvement"... just kidding... it's actually "CI Manager".  Basically I'm paid to find and eliminate waste in processes both physical and digital so you can imagine how irritating hearing of Phillip's payment and mailing situation was for me...  so off to Google we go.

Enter avail.com.  After many hours of research, I decided on Avail; an online platform allowing the tenant to pay online via debit card, credit card, or bank account.  I send the invite link to Phillip and he accepts immediately!  We roll through the first month together and surprise surprise! Payment has been executed on-time!  To be clear: this is not an advertisement or endorsement for that company; only an example of a solution that I have found to work for me and my company under my circumstances; I would encourage you all to do your own research and, if you want to self manage, evaluate each company you find to see if it suits your needs.  I will say this though, when someone texts to thank you for making it easier for them to pay you...??  that hits different.

The tenant can set up online auto draft payments, credit/debit cards, bank accounts, etc.  Also, they can put in maintenance requests, and you can screen prospective tenants.  If they want, the tenant can pay $3.95 per payment and have the on-time payment reported to TransUnion to boost their credit score... the paid version for the landlord is $5/ month per unit... cheap if you ask me.  I actually set myself up as a "tenant" in unit 1 just to test out communications and payment processing... I haven't decided yet but am considering sending my wife an invite as a property manager for our personal home.   Too forward?  maybe... If I don't put any more posts after this then come looking; she may have locked me up. lol.

I try to do more admin work and improvements during the week since I'm not focused on the rehab at that time; if I can sneak away at lunch to the hardware store I'm happy.  I'll try to get all the materials for the upcoming weekend, get good pics and report back with any progress I make.

Until next time my friends...

Jordan

@Mason Bushman I've done some basic painting before, but never on this scale or with a sprayer... And I've never done any flooring at all by any stretch; unless it's napping on the floor - done that a few times up at the duplex lol.  It's all basically YouTube videos and talking with people that have done it before... it's actually much easier than expected once you get all your materials and get started.

If there is any advice I can give you or anyone else starting (myself included) is basically Don't be afraid to be terrible at something new; if you let "perfect" get in the way of "good", you'll never progress at the rate you want.  That's one big reason I'm making this blog - I hope by making my mistakes and lessons learned transparent, someone will see that these hurdles are small and temporary, and they can get that last bit of confidence they need to get started; its SOO rewarding!  Tough, but rewarding!  You're very welcome for the update and I'm glad you're involved!  Thanks for the compliment on the flooring by the way; I think it will turn out well with the fixtures when it's all said and done.

@Paul Meyer Thanks Paul!  All things considered there isn't actually much "surgery" if I can say that; nothing structural will change... That was a tip I picked up from someone I met at a meetup in Charlotte.  His focus was on finding decent properties in good (ish) neighborhoods that just didn't "show" well; as in some new fixtures, paint, etc. needed updating and I think that approach worked out well here so far.

I was definitely wondering when the "numbers" question was going to be asked... lol you beat me to the dessert table!  I was planning on a conclusion type of numbers break-down after I got everything buttoned up but I can definitely share the details so far...

Purchase Price - It was listed at $150,000.  I originally offered $148,500, sellers called for highest and best by the following day 9/22/21.  I spoke with my agent @Jordan Spaller and his BIC, and we decided going in at $151,000 was appropriate - it was $1k over asking so negotiation should be minimal.

Negotiation - through inspections, survey and appraisal, we had the ammunition necessary to ask for roughly $6,000 in credits.  They accepted!  I was officially under contract!

My analysis - Market Rent - I spoke with a property manager in the area on a few other properties, used the BP rent estimator, Rent-o-meter, Facebook, Craigslist, another PM website (Sunnon Property Management - they have an online estimator), and some calling to other facilities to arrive at my projections: $740 ish per month was right at the mid-high end of rent expectation.  So, being the realist I am, $700 was the number I used for each side for my analysis.  The existing tenant pays $575/month and already knows it will be going up (I can't share any further details on that at the moment, but stay tuned and you'll see my diabolical scheme...)

I spoke with my brother-in-law who looked for a rental in this area for months, and could barely find any vacancies which is a GREAT sign for me!  He came up a few weekends ago with my sister to check out the progress and said, compared to what he had seen, he wouldn't be scared to ask $800 and take it down gradually from there until it's rented... sounds like a decent plan.  I'll do some more research before this unit is ready for market and keep you all posted.

REHAB - This was actually my least confident portion... I surfed all the home improvement store websites for hours, read books, talked to contractor friends and came up with an educated budget.  Basically it came up to right at $4,000 per unit in rehab estimates.  Now that being said, my paint went over budget already, my flooring has been WAY under budget (put down $3.50/sqft, and have purchased material at $1.99/sqft), BUT didn't plan on the countertops or doors being in the line up... I've kept all my receipts just like everyone reading this should, and will put together the final cost breakdown once she's ready to go.  I think I'll still be under budget though...

Bottom line projection - with PITI being right at $650/month, gross rent projected right at $1400 budgeted (still less than the 1% rule mind you), 6.5% Maintenance budgeted (i'm fixing a lot of things during the rehab), 6.5% budgeted for vacancies (brother-in-law COULD NOT find anything available for months), and about 5% for CapEx (already has a new roof, refrigerator in unit 1, HVAC unit is fairly new for unit 1, and new counter tops in unit 2), the monthly cash flow came out to ~$441/month and right at 9.95% Cash-on-cash return. Definitely what I would call a base hit for my first deal; a home run would be great, but I didn't let perfect get in the way of good - remember the first one is hardest one to get.

Now that being said, some people may argue that my maintenance, vacancy, and capex budgets are low - and they may be for some areas - BUT I'm fixing everything found in the inspection report and installing a ton of new stuff with an emphasis on reliability... not fool proof but I think it increases my odds. I doubt vacancy will be too much of a problem since, according to the census bureau and my own research, that area is projecting a large population growth over the next couple of years... CapEx I'm comfortable with for now - I may increase that in a couple of years after my feet have become a little more wet.

As far as flipping it, I'm actually really open to that but my original goal was buy and hold for the monthly cash flow... we'll have to see what the market does and the types of tenants I can get in there; here's to hoping!

Congrats for reading this far!  I made some progress on rehab and will show you guys what I'm doing for taking payments in the next post... stay tuned and thanks for staying involved...

Jordan

@James York Hey James!  This is actually in Hickory, NC.  (TLDR)

So here's the Reader's Digest condensed version: My sister and Brother-in-Law were looking to settle in the Hickory, Conover, Newton area because my sister is entering her final semester of speech therapy and has her residency coming up. Since I was planning on investing anyway and needed some good tenants, I saw a need that I could fulfill. I have been looking since June and finally closed in early November, but they found a place in Newton about 2 months ago (bad news for me but good for them? ... def good for them...). As it turned out, Hickory offered a lower barrier to entry than Concord did for multifamily especially considering Concord doesn't have NEAR the amount of duplexes Hickory seems to have. Anyway, it's growing and the price and demographic fit my budget and goals really well so I kept looking and finally found this one on the MLS.

I'll send you a PM; let's connect and hopefully meet up here in Concord soon and talk shop!

-Jordan

Thanks Emory!

Ok; so after my brother-in-law's (to-be) bachelor party on Saturday, I left the shooting range to head back up to the duplex and continue with the flooring. I disassembled all the sample flooring planks I put down and got to work. I started with the shims that came in my kit and began just as the instructions said: attach the short end first, and then the long side. It took about 3 rows of frustration and tinkering before I finally got my technique down. Instead of dragging a fresh box of flooring around to weigh down the previously installed plank, I positioned my knee and body weight (a little high lately with the holidays coming up lol) to keep the unfinished row from disengaging. When I got to the end of a row, I trimmed the last piece leaving about a 1/4" gap and using the drop off to begin the next row.

For the next 2 hours, this was the cadence; until I got to my first door jamb. This particular section required some tactical trimming with my utility knife, some patience, and some maths... I figured out the maths, conjured the patience and performed my flooring surgery with the 'ol utility knife. I also watched a few good YouTube videos showing how to trim the door jamb and casing with an oscillating tool I borrowed from my Father-In-Law (wife's father). It fit after a few tries of delicate hammering and coaxing but I think the product turned out well! See the pics below. There wasn't much to write home about after this, pretty much a rinse and repeat process but I will say this for sure: I'm soo glad we have flooring experts, and I'm thankful I'm not one of them. While this was rewarding work and I loved seeing things progressively come together, it was exhausting to say the least. I haven't been that tired in quite a while and was plenty sore the next day considering all the kneeling, standing, sliding, squatting, body weight positioning, etc. that I did. I was sweating like Shaq' at the foul line and eventually couldn't recognize my grip and striking force with the hammer so I ended up breaking several planks. BUT after replacing a few, I think the end product is turning out well for newbie... what do you all think? Any pointers?

You'll definitely see a few mistakes, but I tried to hide most of the mess ups beneath where you would see a door, or in another out-of-the-way spot like in the closet corner.  I (obviously) haven't put down any quarter round so that gap next to the baseboard should look a little bit better after it's all said and done.  I'll head back up there this weekend and try to knock out most of the rest...

Hello again BP!

Just after closing, I got the same feeling I had after I first got my driver's license: I kind of know where everything is, but how do I get there?  lol  Pretty similar to being put on the spot with a customer or client for the first time - you kind of forget everything and have to re-figure it out... so day 1 started with some basic cleaning and sweeping followed by a grocery store list.  I was going to spend the night so I could maximize my working time since the drive is over an hour each way and I needed dorm room level nourishment.

I quickly learned that painting was the first big step, and before that, I had to spackle, mask, and remove anything I didn't want paint on.  So began the daunting task of item removal - interior doors, blinds, switch and outlet covers, large ceiling fixtures like lights and registers, etc.  Then of course masking came next and here's where I made my first mistake: I used PAPER to mask the windows...  don't do this unless you have work lights.  I did not and the paper blocked a lot of available light and since I removed the ceiling light fixtures or masked them up, it left me a little in the dark.  I didn't realize this until painting, though, so naturally instead of fixing it I tried to open my eyes wider and evolve into a higher species with night vision... I blame my left brain cell for that one -_-

Why mask the windows for painting you ask?  Great question!  If you look at the listing photos you'll see all those groves in the paneling which, while spackling, I learned that a paint roller probably wouldn't get enough paint into which would leave me brushing paint in there.  So I decided a large industrial sprayer would be much faster.  Luckily my dad had just purchased one for painting his house and let me borrow it.  Its a Wagner Control Pro 150 and after a learning curve on how to get it primed, worked wonders!  It emptied a 5 gallon bucket of primer in about 40 minutes.  

So on went the primer, and then another coat of primer, and then my first top coat.  I was originally going to paint the walls grey with white cabinets and trim, but after reading this BP article on painting, I decided to go with all flat white:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Now here is where I (arguably) made another mistake.  Since I was painting the baseboards, walls, crown molding, and ceiling all the same color, why not use flat ceiling paint?  Valspar 4000 ceiling paint FTW!  I bought (2) 5 gallon buckets and headed back; after spraying the first top coat and returning to the duplex the next time, I found that there was a LOT more bleed through than I had originally anticipated... 

As you can see, it looked terrible... My right brain cell and I made the executive decision, returned the other 5 gallon bucket of ceiling paint and got higher grade of Valspar interior paint which ended up doing much better after the final coat.  I ended up with (4) coats all together including the primer and, while there is still some bleed through, it's much less noticeable.  I'll do some final touch up painting later.

So on went new fixtures, and brand new outlets, switches and covers.  Even the cheap white ones made a HUGE difference; only about 30 bucks worth for the whole unit and it looks 20ish years newer.  Also, we bought 1 box of test flooring just to put down and see if it "fit" the duplex... and it did!  It's not permanently installed but gave us some confidence of what the final product may look like.  Don't mind the poor quality pics... I also learned that everything looks a few shades darker in these; the flooring is actually lighter in person and the photo seems to show more bleed through and flaws in the paint than what I could see in person.

The flooring is called Moonstone by Traffic Master.  I got it at Home depot and I think with the varying degrees of browns, tans, and greys in there, it should match a broad spectrum of furniture a tenant brings in.

What do you guys think?  Any advice or tips on installing flooring?  I'm heading back there this weekend and will make some more progress and take some more pics then.

Jordan