All Forum Posts by: Manolo D.

@Jack Orthman Hmm, i’d love to volunteer my free time when i have some. In the small business world, what you’re trying to do is called incubators. i absolutely love them.

@David Stone Your requirements are not good for most californians, unless they combine the income and etc. 3x on an average of 2500 for a 3/2 makes it 7500/mo. Sure if you’re in rural where it’s 1800 for a 3/2, it might be, but then again, pays on rural is lower than metro.

@Adrienne Markes I say let it play and call the city/HUD to start research on. Attorney is simply an overkill, unless they're almost free. I doubt the owner has the balls to pull that out. All individual has the right to cool and heat, just like a regular tenant that could sue you if you don't fix the heating unit and they're freezing.

@Richard Wedlake Stay at a medium pace of growth. The easiest way to maintain what I was used to and quality, was hiring employees. I don’t have to deal with other people’s schedules. I might be like you who want certain things done, on a certain way, within a certain time. Only employees have that flexibility. There’s multiple forms of GC, I am a self performing GC with employees, others simply are project/contract managers who calls themselves GCs. Pretty easy to grow this way than that of maintaining subs who can always bail where the grass is greener.

@David FlandersThere’s a system out there, usually $10,000-$17,000, let me know if you are interested and i could pm you the name. it is seamless measuring and uploading to an app, just like a total station to topography.

@Jeffrey L Evans Years, yes, it’s journeyman or better for 4 years; a college degree can account to 2-3 years plus 1 year journeyman or better position in a construction company. I did the exam without studying, just light reading, meaning 30 mins or so. I got done in 45-60 mins out of 3.5 hrs, got the pass result as soon as i hit the end. Do everyone a favor and read on the requirements in the CA contractors license board on How to Become a Contractor before asking the forums. It will be your best interest to read facts versus hearsay. If you’re confused, there’s always this thing named phone that you could call in and ask them.

There are as many stories of bad contractors as bad clients.

@Jessica Chow I was kind of curious anout that retaining wall comment having a door and window hehe. It is a load bearing wall not retaining wall. A decent contractor will be able to determine how tall the header and stud jacks he need for simply opening that up a little more, nothing that concerning.

@Jessica Chow Unpermitted work is common in CA, if they don’t like to pay for it, on to the next buyer. 80% of the buyers in CA will not care about permits, to other states its the other way around probably. I’m confused of why you would bust out a retaining wall and/or put a door. Does that mean you want remove and push back the retaining wall so you can have your deck? That’s a weird and expensive move. It’s a retaining wall for a reason, flooding, landslides, a structure push back, whatever, if you’re removing it, you need someone to do it correctly esp if you’re going to do it without permits. Permits is your protection against shady contractors, the city inspectors will be your first line of defense to sub par quality. While i’m saying you don’t need permits for the deck, i can say you need them for ret walls. I suggest you pull both but not necessary.

@Bei He The only downside to that is you will be bringing down market value to the surrounding houses, if everyone does it, it will decrease all the segment or area down. Or if you’re the only one doing it, while everyone has a paper value of 300k your unit will be registered as having a value of 282k, you’ll be 18k off, they will then think you got it cheap.