All Forum Posts by: Josh Engen

Idk what the cost of a custom build would be in Thurston County but I would be interested to know as well. 1000 SQ ft homes that are 75 years old sell for 400kish if not more so building new seems like it might be a better value. 

Hello fellow BP members!

I am a part owner of a duplex in Olympia, Washington and we invest in the Tumwater, Lacey and Olympia areas. 

There is currently only one main water line and we are considering adding a 2nd meter and a 2nd water line. 

These are the costs for the city:

water meter install deposit (the cost the city charges to install the new water meter): $2,500 deposit although the city thinks it will be closer to $2,000. 

1 inch water meter: $438

General Facilities Charge: $4,683

Total cost of the city equals approximately $7,121

Plumber contractor cost:

cost to run PEX line from new water meter city will put in, into the crawl space. Distance is about 100 feet. Plumber will also add water shut off and box near entrance of crawl space. We will be digging the trench ourselves so that cost is not included contractors pricing. Total cost equals $1,750. 

Cost for plumber to modify plumbing in crawl space using pex: $5,000. Includes largely replumbing one side of the duplex with minor changes on the other half of the duplex. Basically involves capping some lines and extending others. No fixtures are being replumbed, just up until the point where the pipes enter the subfloor of the crawl space. 

Total cost of project equals $7,121 + $6,750 equals $13,871 (approximately)

We have checked and there is no way to reduce the cost to the city. So my question is about the plumbing contractor cost. 

Does this price seem reasonable given the scope of work? Plumber estimates it would take two 6-8 hour days for him to complete this in case that would make a difference. 

Does anyone have experience doing this project and was your cost similar? Any general advice?

It would be awesome to hear from others who have experience with this sort of thing. If not, hopefully this information will help someone else out who may be considering doing this project or something similar. 

Thanks and all the best!

Thank you so much for that amazing response! That was super informative and gave me the exact info I needed! 

Hello fellow BP Members,

I think the conventional knowledge is that landlords should be taking pre move in pictures to document the condition of the unit. We have always done that. 

My question is, as a best practice, should the landlord be sending these pictures, videos, etc to the tenant prior to them moving in? 

My thought would be, that if they're not sent prior to move in, the tenant could claim that the pictures were not taken right before they moved in and that the unit was in worse shape then the pictures indicated. Granted, I know that's what the move in condition report is for but as they say, a picture is worth a thousand words...

if you don't send the pictures prior to move in, do you have another way to prevent this from happening? I.E. somehow time-stamping the photos, emailing them to yourself, etc

P.S. I'm in Washington state in case that would make a difference...

Thanks in advance and happy investing!

I live in Olympia and an a part owner in a couple duplexes, both on the east side of Olympia. Olympia market is hot as a teakettle and especially the duplex market. Very very limited inventory. And when a duplex does come on the market, most of the time both sides have tenants which can be a challenge if you're trying to house hack. We're probably going to sell one of ours once the rehab is done on the vacant side in large part for this very reason. There are very few triplexes and fourplexes in Olympia/Lacey/tumwater but there's a decent amount of duplexes, mostly built in 1950's - 80's. The other thing I would recommend if you're thinking about olympia/tumwater/Lacey is a home with either a detached garage that you can convert to ADU or a big enough lot that you can build one from scratch. Lacey has a program in which they have pre-approved ADU plans they will give you for free if you're property qualifies and drastically reduce the permit and other city fees because they're trying to incentivize more ADUs. And this program is coming to Olympia and Tumwater in the near future also. The rules are slightly different in each city, for example I think Lacey is the only one that will allow for the ADU to be built on a non owner occupied property but if you're interested I would just call the city. They're very helpful because like I say they're trying to incentivize more ADUs to help with affordability. Long post but those are some things to think about...