All Forum Posts by: Matt Nico

Originally posted by @Pat L.:

Here's b4 & after pics of one I did last year that was literally rotting behind the surround...the window didn't help. It was a LOT of work.

Hey Pat, I love the tile design. 

Question for you....Why did you put a tub back in? 

Wouldnt it have been better to just have a walk in shower? The tile looks so great, but I feel the tub takes away from how nice it would look if it were just a walk in. Just my 2 cents. Maybe I am nit-picking...haha.

-Matt

@Andrew S

If It were my property, I would want to get in there right away and fix the problem. The old showers have tile that are backed by drywall. I am pretty sure this is not up to code anymore. The minute any water gets behind the tile it rots the drywall out.

If I were you, I would rip out the entire thing and redo it. Thats the only way you can really be sure that some older bathroom stuff is fixed.

The pictures below are of a system I am working on now. There used to be a tub there. I ripped it out along with all the tile. I extended the drain to come up, and I built a proper shower pan with the half wall. The walls are 1/2" cement fiberboard. I sealed the joints with a mortar mix, and then I painted the entire thing twice with redguard just to be safe. I basically created a sealed system. This is what you want if you don't want leaks for 50 years.

 I have never tried it before, so I would not be able to give good advice on that honestly. If I had to guess, I would say try a commercial lender. 

Sorry I could not be more help.

-Matt

 

@John Walter

John,

If you have not get gotten a software, I would definitely recommend one. Here is what I use:

1. A separate bank account for rentals. Have 2 accounts. 1 is for your day to day activities for spending, the other holds your security deposits. I also have a business credit card linked up to the day to day activities checking. Then I pay it off every month.

2. Cozy. Cozy runs screening for you, and collects rent. Tenants love it. They pay rent using a bank account or credit card, and it deposits into your checking account.

3. Quickbooks online. I keep track of every house individually with QB. All transactions are sorted by the house. Makes everything easy to see rather than manually plug numbers into a spreadsheet.

Hope this helps,

Matt

 

@Julian Morales

I ran into your exact situation less than 6 months ago Julian. Lenders kept counting mortgages against me and not counting rental income or negating a cash flowing property all together. Its really frustrating how lending works sometimes. They treat an investment property that is an asset as a liability in most cases.

 I ended up having my deal fall through only to find a seller financed deal later on. If you really need to close fast, I would try a hard money lender for a bridge loan. It will cost you a few points and a high interest rate, but you can refinance out of it later.

Hi Alice, I am just south of Orlando FL kind of near Disney.

-Matt 

 Hi Alice, I am just south of Orlando FL. Kind of near Disney World.

-Matt

 @Cliff H - You hit my point exactly right. I focus on the main entrance to the house with the electronic key lock. Most of the tenants in the rent-by-the-room house get to know each other, and I have never had a situation where people steal from each other or anything like that. Most people dont even lock their doors when they leave, but I like to give them the option.

Helloooooooo BP.

This is the 3rd installment of my posting of a deal I recently purchased. To summarize, I couldn't get bank financing during this whole COVID thing, so I got creative and found a seller financed deal. If you want to know more of the nitty-gritty about the deal itself, see one of my previous posts.

This past week was productive as I continued my strategy for getting the longest, most time consuming process of the rehab finished: The bathrooms. The house is being split into a duplex, so I'm working on the left side first. There are 2 bathrooms in it, so I started on one, and while I let things dry or cure on the one, I am hopping to the other (See the photos)

This past week I completed the entire shower pan and plumbing system for the first bathroom. I ripped out the old tub and the disgusting white subway tiles. I have rebuilt the walls and have coated with redguard (the pink paint), which acts as a waterproof membrane. 

In addition to that bathroom, I moved into the 2nd bathroom, which is much larger, but already has an existing shower pan, so no need for a full demo. I ripped off the white subway tile again, and I'm in the process of rebuilding it. The plumbing on that one was completed yesterday. You can still see parts of the piping up top where the rain shower will stick out.

The last thing I did this past week was I hunted down a couple of cheap ceiling fans for the bedrooms. 

Pro Tip: Ceiling fans are crazy expensive. I use apps such as facebook marketplace and offer up to find deals on ceiling fans at 25% the cost of a new one. I bought $250 ceiling fans for $60. Are you taking a slight risk that they will break a year in? Yes. But I've put used ceiling fans in all of my rentals, and they look amazing, and have not broken yet. Once they get cleaned up and installed, they are good to go.

See the pictures of the process below.

Happy Housing,

Matt

 

@YiBing T.

I actually do this myself with all of my house hacks. Its wayyyyyy too expensive to put a keyless remote door lock on every bedroom. Put a keyless remote door lock on the front door. Each tenant gets their own code to enter the house. When the tenant moves in, they choose their own code for the front door. When they leave, I delete the code and put in the next person's code.

For the private bedroom doors, I put an actual key lock on it. Each tenant gets their own key for their bedroom door. Then I keep the spares in a lock box. When they leave, they leave the key.

Pretty straight forward I think.

Happy Housing,

Matt