All Forum Posts by: Matthew Maggy

This is not a flip or anything. It's a duplex we're house hacking and the kitchen has a water heater out on the open. I built a wall with a door around it and have just finished putting up the drywall and am ready to mud.

The problem is, that the new wall, joins an 2 old walls and the ceiling, which are already painted and what not. I don't really want to have to paint the old walls and ceiling because of drywall tape & mud. Is there a way to seal, or mud the new drywall so that I don't have to tape and feather on the old walls and ceiling and then paint them?

I hate painting. 

My fiancee and I wanted to buy our first (my second) property out here in Richmond via FHA loan and wanted to house hack as well. We ended up finding a duplex in Highland Park (not a desirable neighborhood, persay) but our tenant pays all of our PITI + $10. The house itself was recently rehabbed and all of the systems were updated. We ended up getting it for $12k below asking. It's a pretty sweet deal, but, like I said, we are living in a C class neighborhood in a C class, 100 year old home. That being said, it has worked out. Our neighbors are all super cool. No break ins. Just don't be a d*** and you should be fine in a c-class neighborhood if you do your homework on crime in the area.

In my novice opinion: If you're looking at student housing in the fan, or museum district, or something like that, you're not going to be cash flowing much if at all. I will say, I'm not sure how capital appreciation is there, but if I recall right, it's not very high. 

Church Hill (which I use as a very broad term from Broad St. to Nine Mile,even though it's not Church Hill), except for the far North parts don't even have that good of deals any more either, unless you go to the really run down parts.

It was said before, the deals are out there. One of the best things that I did was paying for a Plus membership to gain access to the investment Calculators. $90 for the year is a steal (as I'm sure the Pro membership is too). Highly recommend upgrading your account if you're serious.

That's my two cents

I'm looking for Mortgage brokers or alternatively local banks who are good to do business with. I need to figure out financial situation so I can make the next acquisition (just closed on a duplex) and narrow down my search criteria.

Anybody know anybody?

Welcome to BP! I'd love to be added to your buyers list.

Got a quote from Lowes for $1784 including screens. I have 156 ft. of seamless gutters, so I will probably go with Lowes .

$355? That's like how much the material cost I think?

Thank you for the feedback. 

@AustinYoumans: I like the idea of doing it myself, but I have such little experience with DIY so far (working on it) I don't trust myself to take on something like this. I will get more estimates and I didn't think about the labor/material cost thing. I'll definitely do that. 

Thank you all for the feedback

Consensus says that I should put gutters. My gut said yes, but you never know. Thank you for the feedback!

We just closed on a C class duplex in Highland Park area of Richmond , Virginia. We are house hacking it (mostly to satisfy FHA requirements). We gt a pretty good deal on it. One problem is, rather than replacing the rotted metal roof with another metal roof, the previous owner just boarded off the built-in gutters and put asphalt shingle roof on. The problem exists now that there are no gutters, and water just puddles around the foundation of the house. It has probably been like this since abut 2009.

We got a quote for some hanging gutters and 5 downspouts for $2k. We bought the Place for $85k

I look at other rental properties around town and I see that a lot of people just leave them without gutters, but I assume this is not good for the foundation of the house (which was built in 1910 and has already settled considerably).

So I'm looking for opinions on whether to install gutters for a 10-15 year ownership time frame (probably more like 10) or not to. any feedback is appreciated.

@Carolina E. Thank you. I'll do that!

It's very hard to find cheap used/ etc. stackable or attached washer/dryer combo units. Advice on unorthodox ways to find them? I've done Craigslist, called all the appliance stores and checked out quite a few thrift shops. I need one for the lower unit on my duplex.