All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

Trivia: In the US, as long as you have more than 50% of a banknote, you can trade it in at any bank for a new one of the same value.  If you're not sure if you have more than 50% of it, you can mail it to the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and they will figure it out.

In Australia, if you have half of a banknote, you get paid half of the face value.  If you have 25 percent of a banknote, you get paid 25 percent of the face value.  In theory, you could "make change" with a pair of scissors.  :)

Just a random thing I discovered when planning a vacation several years ago.

I just read the whole thread. I hope it works well for you!

When I bought my first house (to live in, not as an investment) in 1999 in Tulsa, OK, I hired an inspector from a list of people the realtor gave me.  He did an OK job, but I feel like he missed some fairly obvious things, like some bad wiring in the attic - there were attic stairs in the garage, so it wasn't even that hard to get up there and look.  It took me $5 and an hour to fix, so it wasn't that big of a deal, but it made me wonder about what else he missed.

When I bought my second house (to live in) in 2009 in a suburb of Kansas City, MO, I hired an independent inspector. It was an REO/foreclosure and I *knew* some things were wrong already. The inspection cost more and took longer than the one in 1999, but I feel like I got a much better report on the condition of the house.

Another thing I can suggest: get interested in house problems.  What I mean is, if any of your friends complain that their roof leaks or the floor is sagging or they have termites or whatever, ask if you can take a look at it before it gets fixed.  Not so you can fix it... just so you know what it looks like, so you can recognize it on a house you are looking at in the future.  If you have a contractor work on this house, (politely) ask him if he has any tips on how to recognize problems in another house with the things he is fixing for you in this house.  If you get the opportunity to (legally) enter another house that is being rehabbed, or one that is going to be torn down, do that and look for whatever problems that house has.

Good luck!

Just to pile on a little...

Where I live, in a suburb of Kansas City, MO, one of the local realtors sends out a flyer once a month to drum up business. One of the things that's always on it is "In the last year, X homes have sold in your subdivision! The highest sale price was $Y and the average price of those X homes was $Z!" They say they pull this data from the MLS, and I don't have any reason to doubt them. I usually take out the high sale and re-do the average price for X-1 houses, just for kicks.

Based on that data, and me looking at a couple of houses in my neighborhood that are currently listed on Zillow, I think the Zestimate values are roughly 10% to 25% higher than reality.  These are for houses built roughly 1965-1975, 1300-1500 sq ft, 3 br, 1, 1.5, or 2 bath, 2-car garage, that go for roughly $100k-$110k retail, plus or minus.

Disclaimer: I've only ever dealt extensively with houses that were a maximum of about 50 years old (built mid-1960s).  I've *visited* some older homes - a couple from around 1900 - but I didn't own them or live in them.

The first thing that comes to mind is structural problems, like with the foundation or basic framing.  147 years is a long time for frost, water, wood rot, termites, etc to do their thing.  If the doors in the upper floors don't fit well in their frames, that's a clue that the house has changed shape over the years.  If you visit again, see if you can take a small bubble level with you, and try it out on different walls and floors around the house.  The way to know for sure is to have it inspected, either by a home inspector or an engineer.

The next thing to me is the legal situation.  If the city/county doesn't think it's zoned for multi-family now, or if it's zoned for a duplex but you want to make a 5-plex, then you'll have to get the zoning changed.  It's usually pretty easy to find out what the current zoning is, either online, or by going to the city/county offices and asking.  Getting zoning *changed* takes anything from a few bucks and a few forms filled in, to wheelbarrows full of cash and months, depending on your area.

You might also check to see if the house has any "historical" designation.  Usually this means you can do whatever you want on the inside, but you have to keep the outside of the house looking the same... like replacing rotted wood siding with new wood siding, rather than aluminum or vinyl.

Another thing in the legal direction - some cities/counties/states have requirements that kick in, especially for things bigger than a duplex.  Like, you may be required to have separate meters for electric/gas/water, or a fire alarm, or a certain amount of parking available, or whatever.  These things are usually fixable with money; you pay an electrician to put in meters, or a driveway company to do some paving, etc.

After that, it's just the "normal" stuff that happens with an old house.  You mentioned some of the mechanical systems have been upgraded; you will want to find out how extensive the upgrades are, and if there is any original stuff (particularly electrical) still remaining.  Houses that old were built with little insulation; some has probably been added during the years, but you might want more to keep the heating bill down.  If there aren't two ways out of all of the bedrooms (common with basement rooms), then you might have to install an egress window, or quit calling a particular room a bedroom.

You mentioned the fireplaces; why aren't they safe?  If they have brick chimneys that are loose and crumbly, you might have to fix those, even if you don't want to make the fireplaces work; many people object to bricks falling on their head.

I hope this helps!

They are a little hard to find, but there is such a thing as a "portable" dishwasher.  Essentially it's a regular dishwasher in its own box on casters.  It has a cord and plug, and a hose assembly with a gizmo on the end that hooks up to the kitchen sink faucet.  Fresh hot water goes in to the top of the gizmo, and dishwasher drain water comes out of the bottom of the gizmo and goes down the sink drain.  You only plug it in and hook it to the sink when you want to use it; when not in use it can be rolled away and stored.  Most of them have a countertop-like surface on top; maybe it can be stored at the end of the existing cabinets and provide a little extra countertop.

It may help to go to a dedicated appliance dealer, rather than someplace like Home Depot or Sears, to see one in person.  

Having a "loose" dishwasher, instead of built-in, may not be as "tenant proof" as you need it to be, but it gives you a way to add a dishwasher without cutting into the cabinets.

GE offers a few built-in dishwashers that they say can be installed under the sink.  I've never used one of these, I just know they exist.  They seem to be fairly expensive, though.

Find some demolition companies in Milwaukee and either email them tonight or call them first thing in the morning (Milwaukee time) on Friday.  Explain the situation and see if any of them can do anything for you.  If you find one that guarantees they can start Friday, get it done by Saturday noon, and charge $5K, then that's a lot better offer than the city is giving you.

The demolition companies will also know if it's possible to get some kind of stay or extension of the city order.  Like, maybe you can fence off the property (there are rent-a-fence companies that will do this for you) and get some more time.  On the other hand, if the house is about to fall into the street or something, they may not let you do this.

If you don't already have some, see if the property manager or the city can send you some photos of the damaged building.  Or, look at TV and newspaper sites in Milwaukee to see if they took a picture of it.  If nothing else, get a "before" photo from Google Street View; any photo will help the demolition companies to see what they might be dealing with.

Sometimes it's a thing where the demolition company the city uses is owned by the mayor's brother-in-law or whatever, and the city makes it real hard to get out of using that company.  But sometimes it operates reasonably.

You might also post in the Wisconsin real estate forum here, to get advice from somebody local.  There is also a Milwaukee forum, but it doesn't seem to be very active.

Good luck!

When I bought a house (to live in) in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1999, it was in the Arkansas River flats, about 3/4 mile east of the modern river channel. It wasn't in any of the zones on the FEMA flood map, but I still did a little more research on my own. I Googled to get some dates for when major floods were in Tulsa, and then I went down to the library and looked at the newspaper archives for those dates. Usually the newspaper would have some aerial photos or a map that showed which streets were actually flooded when the water was highest. The house seemed to be in the clear, and I bought it.

After I moved in, I talked to some of the neighbors; the guy across the street from me had bought his house when the subdivision was new in the late 1960s.  He confirmed that the floods had never reached as far east as our houses.  He did point out that all the houses were 1 or 2 feet above street level, and that if it ever rained really hard, the streets would fill up a little, but the houses would stay dry.  I lived there for 9 more years and he was right.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional electrician.

Having thicker wire on a lower-capacity breaker - like 12 gauge on a 15 A breaker - is actually OK.  Sometimes this happens when all you have with you is a spool of 12 gauge and you don't want to go to the store for some 14 gauge.

If you get really crazy with it, like running 8 or 10 gauge wire for a 15 A circuit, you might find that the wire doesn't want to fit under the terminal screws on the outlets or switches on the circuit.  But using 12 gauge instead of 14 gauge is fine.

Somewhat related: in some cities, the local code calls for 20 A breakers and 12 gauge minimum wire, even on single-family homes.  In that case, you need to use at least 12 everywhere.  I bought a house in Tulsa, Oklahoma that was like this - I wondered why most of the breakers were 20 A until I looked up the city code.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional electrician.  I am also new to investing, so I haven't seen all the mayhem a tenant can wreak.  :)

I always put "specification grade" receptacles in my own house, when I replace the original receptacles.  Usually they are the first step up from the really cheap receptacles, and cost about $1.30 to $1.50 or so.  These will always have the words "SPEC GRADE" stamped into the metal mounting strap somewhere - take one out of the box at the store and look!

There are some fancier specification grade receptacles made out of different plastic for another buck or two, that may be worth it for a rental property.  Sometimes you will find "isolated ground" receptacles (either all orange, or with an orange triangle on the outlet face) or "hospital grade" receptacles (with a green dot on the outlet face) for vast amounts of money.  You probably don't need hospital grade, and if you don't know what "isolated ground" means or why you would want it, don't buy one.

If you know you will be replacing a lot of receptacles of the same color, most home improvement stores have 10-packs with better pricing.

Disclaimer: I live in Missouri, where it doesn't snow as much as in Chicago.

For the snowblower: gas engine.  In theory, you can get 2.4 horsepower from a standard 120 V outlet, but in practice it's less; it's easy to buy a gas engine that is stronger than that.  Also, as @Marc M. noted, it's slightly more likely for the electricity to be out in the winter.

Try to get non-ethanol gas for the snowblower; small engines like it better.  Also, try not to use old gas - until you know better how much you will use, buy something like a 1 or 2 gallon gas jug.  You'll make a few extra trips to the gas station, but the equipment will run better with fresh gas.  Also, sometimes smaller jugs make the fire marshal happier.  If you find the gasoline in the jug is more than about two months old, dump it in your car's tank, then fill up the car (the rest of the way) and the jug at the gas station.

If you let the gas from February sit in the snowblower until December, or the gas from October sit in the lawnmower until next April, you're gonna have a bad time.  You can either run the engine until it runs out of gas, or get Sta-bil (a gas additive) from the discount store or car parts store.  Mix the Sta-bil with the gas and the gas will "keep" better.

I don't know any specific brand to recommend.  You might go to the library and check Consumer Reports magazine for a recent snowblower review.  (You can't see their ratings on their web site unless you pay.)  Or, wait until it snows, and then go around to various commercial properties to see what brands the snow services are using.  (This may be a little late for you, but you can figure out which one to buy *next* time!)

You should also get a good snow shovel (hardware store) and maybe a broom - there will be small areas, like steps, where it will be hard to use the snowblower.

For the lawn, if all your grass is within 100 feet of an outlet, and the lawns are relatively "open", you might consider a corded electric mower.  Get a good 12-gauge, 100-foot cord to go with it.  The nice things about an electric are that it always starts on the first try every time, and you don't have to store gas.  The bad things are dragging the cord around, and that they usually aren't as wide or as powerful as a gas engine.  Dragging the cord is why I said "open" - if you have a bunch of trees or swingsets or whatever to navigate, getting the cord to do the right thing gets trickier.

I don't like battery electric mowers; I feel the power requirements hit the batteries too hard and will require replacement batteries too often.

If you get a gas mower, again, use non-ethanol gas, as fresh as you can.  Check the lawn services to see what brands of mower they use.

Usually you also want a string trimmer (weed whacker) for the lawn.  Can be gas or electric, according to the same criteria for the mower.

I've done so little salt in Missouri that I just spread it by hand when I do use it.

I hope this helps!