All Forum Posts by: Matt Williams

Terry Leo

Winning in a real estate deal is only just beat out by losing in a RE deal as talking the easy way out. That paint by numbers mindset, will not allow you to see all the many ways that both sides to any deal, can walk away with a win. 

Yes if there is 1 house and tons of people putting in offers, which almost always ends with one offer being selected to get the house. While if it is just about winning, game over.

Here is where my game starts, say there were 10 offers on the house, 9 of which still have something they want, and the money to do so. Just them putting in an offer, doesn't mean that house was really what they wanted. Most of the time people don't know themselves what they want. Taking the opportunity to help them find what it is they want, and you just turned one of the "loser" , into a winner.

@Michael Norris

See thats what I have been thinking, if it has to be there, make it useful, looks good.  Look at my mess, its going or getting framed in, right?  here its not so bad, but upstairs they framed around it so far out, and odd. Even just getting tighter with the framing would clean it up a ton.

I am new here so I will try to keep short and to the point. I love how from the replies i read, anything most people considers is the ROI, "if it doesn't pay for its self its a waste of money".

How about consider the one part of this investment that could sink your ship, and quickly. You expect a renter to respect your IP, when you show you clearly don't. not only does it show you don't respect the IP, you don't care about the renters, so it seems so at least. 

Plus people most anyway, try to keep new things new. move them into the old crapy carpet, then they might figure out why to take our shoes off, why let the dog out, why do I need an ashtray, etc

I might leave it there for the showings, anyone who was okay with it, back of the line, I want the ones who asked if it could be replaced, and I'm renting to the one who asks if they can replace it.

Mike M

I tend to lose people when I type, so I might not have made it clear, that is my bad.  Most of the fireplaces in these houses are not in any working order and have not been for decades. Almost all have been blocked off inside, some as in my case have been boarded over leaving just the 1920s mantel. The ones with the nice looking brick hearths are never framed in or covered, even though as I stated, this is never going to warm anything.  I guess for lack of a better term, I am the contractor. I know better than to just take a wack at this thing with a sledgehammer, as much as I would like to. I would get the right people to green light the safety of removing it, and not just trust my own judgment.  From what I can tell so far, the house could burn to the ground and the fireplace would remain standing in the ashes. I do not see anything that looks like it connects the frame of the house to the fireplace. And Ohio winters are horrible at times but other than holding a candle, these fireplaces won't help with those. 

I have just been told that working or not they add value to the house, I'm just not buying that. 

these old houses with the 100 yr old fireplaces that have not work in 50 years, do they really add value? Or is that just what people tell themselves to get out of removing them?

I am totally new to doing work in these old houses, and so far everything I want to do or would want in my own house, I am being told is totally wrong for this type of house. 

I get that these places have an old school style, but can't you recreate that with modern clean looking materials. 

The fireplaces in these houses, in my opinion, are an eyesore and wasted space. In my case with this 1920s house, it's going to prevent opening up the 1st floor, due to sitting between the wall separating the living room, and dining room.

If it was on an exterior wall, I would still want to frame it in and make use of the space. Since it is not, I would love to remove it if possible, and does not lose value. If either is true, its still getting framed in, other then the mantel, it's not in show shape anyway.

I worked for Home Depot, through a middleman company that handles all of their flooring installations, all I have to say is good luck getting any discounts. They don't even give their employees a discount, and they can't buy things on sale, at the sale price until after the sale is over. On one of my first installations for them, they made me pay to get a transition for one of their customers who had paid $10K or something like that, and they screwed his order up. The homeowner had a life and his kids had school stuff, so I told him, I know what he needs, in there all the time, I will handle it. They mad me to fork out $10 to get this man what he should have gotten in the first place. I'll be impressed if you can make it happen.