All Forum Posts by: Steve McGovern

@Megan Roche weird-- I think I accidentally replied to your duplicate thread. Hope you can see it (?) 

I would sincerely recommend following through with the advice to have an Engineer look at it. 

In my world, Structural Engineers are pretty plentiful...  but I don't know any in IL for you.     Try a re-phasing to expand your search:   

First--repost your question here.  Instead of "...how bad is this,"  try  the title "SEEKING STRUCTURAL ENGINEER IN IL-- CHICAGO AREA FOR RUSH JOB"  My bet is that you'll get better responses. 

...then, furthermore, someone may chime in with the answer to  "how bad is this, really"?  

Good luck!  

@Huiping S., the underlying issue is that of pervosity and/or whether an area is prone to flooding.    

I'll spare you the grade-school science...  but some geology accepts rain better than others.  In areas that don't accept water well, there are usually two reasons: 

1) in some cases, the area is already too wet-- think flood zones, wetlands, swampy areas, areas near rivers & streams.  In these areas, "Extra water" pooling up without surface soil for the water to saturate and be held can cause a problem for yourself and/or neighbors down-grade. 

2) In other areas, a certain amount of bare land (grass, soil, etc.) is required to be open to the sky for the appropriate levels of water to seep through and re-charge aquifers.  in these areas, when asphalt, buildings, etc. are laid, the valuable water becomes runoff instead of seeping into the soil and eventually becoming drinking water.  Additionally, that runoff tends to go places where people don't generally want it.  This action can become an engineering nightmare and needs to be mitigated either with drainage and swales, or with landscape architecture such as catch gardens, or rock gardens with berms that are backed by clean soil and plantings that are strategically placed to drink the run off.  

The gray area is this:  DO PAVERS-- with reasonable space between them-- constitute an impervious surface?  This question, as well as the relevant gap between the pavers, etc., is going to depend on your jurisdiction.  Ask someone in your local Town/County planning  office.   The Town/County will also be able to tell you if this guy is fabricating the entire issue.  

You can get around the matter this way:  Ask your Building Supply center for what are called "SEMI-PERVIOUS PAVERS".  these pavers allow water seepage, so the water will go through the pavers, instead of merely around the pavers.  They'll cost a little more, but not too much.  If you want to be a friendly neighbor around someone with this type of concern, then that's the way I'd go.  

You may need to weed a little more, but semi-pervious is the middle ground between the extremes.  

Good luck,

S

FWIW, I got through mine with a Sawzall.   Snub-nosed metal blades MADE for heavy metal demo.  It can be done with relative ease if you don't have access to a grinder.  Just buy the right blade....  yes, you should expect to need to use a couple, but even buying 5 is still more cost-effective than buying or renting a grinder, if you already have a recip.  (I used 2 for a 2&1/2' CIP.   The first one was shot, but no problem once the second blade engaged; it still has life for the next rebar or Steel cut.  ) 

One more thing that should be considered here: you could actually be doing the tenant a favor. From your posting, it’s not clear if these two are best friends, or if she found her number in a tear-off sheet “need roommates!” posted on a telephone pole. You can’t betray privacy laws, but I bet you can find a way to say “you’re not financially acceptable to me” in front of your tenant (followed closely by, “I’ll be happy to discuss specifics with you in private.”) I’d think someone here on BP knows where the line should be drawn; you could also “suggest” (urge) that your tenant also gets a credit check on the individual who she’s thinking of sharing space with.

Agree with everyone else. You found the problem and “patch” won’t stop the cast iron from oxidizing around it. Cut out as much of that pipe as you can and replace it with pvc. This damage over the past (60, 70...100) years isn’t just limited to sewer pipes— steam heat pipes see it a lot, too. Also, 3” is a huge section of decay— usually these are caught at about the size of a dime (because they leak). I’m gonna go out on a limb and assume this is a pipe that’s in a fundamentally horizontal position. Imagine how long (ahem) “waste” can sit in these spots and work through the pipe— and as soon as it starts, it gets a literal pocket where water & waste sits ALL the time (‘cause there’s a dip in the pipe that holds water and waste.) These dips aren’t limited to just that one tiny section. The verticals don’t usually see this type of damage, except at the Wyes. This repair falls into the category of Do it right, do it now... do it right now... unless you happen to like sewage and gasses threatening your asset. The only good news here? PVC is cheap. Not saying the labor or Job is, but at least it’s not copper! Good luck.

Welcome & good luck!  

@Martin Neal, you need some help here.  Commercial is another world.  It's going to depend on a number of variables:   

$1500 isn't going to cut it around this crowd--  they (we) need to know about the psf (price per square foot).  If it's $1500 for 20,000 Sq. F.t., then that's very different than $1500 for 200 Sq. F.t.  Also, the psf rate is an ANNUAL amount.  So your psf  is ($1500/mo x 12 mos)/ Sq. Ft.  per Unit.= psf.  

Commercial doesn't shine on the MLS. Look to LoopNet and other Commercial sites for marketing.

Are the Tenants locked into an NNN Lease? What is the Owner doing to justify his OpEx, CapEx reimbursements?

For that matter, are they in a lease at all?  How long are the terms?  Do they all expire together?  

Is there a Lender to pay off? What is the DSCR of the Mortgage? Is the Mortgage assumable?

Finally, Cap Rate is another animal-- and there's at least three ways to read/analyze one.  Just 'knowing a rate' does almost nothing for you-- where are you expecting to find that rate?   

You've got a lot of work to do.  If you'd like, PM me, we can chat.  I'm in Boston area, not an IL Broker by any stretch... but I can at least get you some base-level info so your wife can do this with an ounce of knowledge.  

Good luck. 

Steve

@Jay Hinrichs  First, sorry it's taken me a while to reply.  Unlike many, I'm not on here every day.  

...yes, a wildcatter...  or a vulture (!) or a "Ground rights aggregator" if I may use one of the more technical terms.  My reply is always a solemn "Good for you!  Go get 'em!"   as long as you're doing it right.    I could give you horror stories of ways that these teams fouled up their own margins by recording the wrong rights with the wrong legal descriptions... or by taking all their rights, getting a giant cross-collateralized Mortgage across them all (over 300 assets!), and then wreaking havoc on the Public Record by recording the wrong discharges or partial releases over the wrong properties....  ugh.   Do it right, and I'm all for it!!  

-- In terms of education, well, if you reach your goals, who cares?   In my world, with a B.A., no math background, and a legal job taking up 55-60+ hours a week,  the only way I could get my experience was through the education.  

Education is often a weird topic on 'job/career-related' sites:  Should you, should you not, is there a better way... those are always the things that are asked.  I always reply, if you like the job, and you like the education anyway, then why not both?   

Absent one or the other, experience always trumps education, as long as it's the right experience.   E.g., in my circles,  and in Boston,  dabbling in Finance for a couple of months with a couple of investors  isn't going to make Jones Lang & Lasalle  offer me a 6 figure salary as a commercial analyst...    

... but you can say it the other way too: the right education WILL trump experience if you walk out of one of 'those well-known schools' with a well-known degree, and your alternative at the time is dabbling for a couple of months with a couple of investors.   

to me, the education question comes down to the same thing as everything else in real estate:  KNOW YOUR MARKET.  In Greater Boston, a Bachelors is a given for most in any reasonable outfit (I said MOST, please!). For example, even the 30+year experience paralegals who I have worked with and who control their attorneys like puppets are now being asked to go back to school for B.A.s.  In  Garden City, Kansas, on the other hand, I doubt that's the case.  

-- Your initial post actually had me laughing, because that's exactly the world I live in.  My team currently has no fewer than 6 open Planning actions for 4 years or more.  You'd better have patience, stamina and deep pockets (aka, Even BIGGER Pockets!)  If anyone is masochistic enough to be looking for an exercise or case study in this, look up the Federal Realty Investment Trust project at Assembly Square in Somerville MA:  a former Ford plant turned barren wasteland with (over time) multiple environmental matters on site to clean up.   Even in a situation like this,  You'd think the Town would want literally anyone to improve the area (please?  Please??!)  Nope.  It took over a decade for Planning and Zoning approvals.   Finally, FRIT has turned it into the hottest place in that section of Greater Boston.  

@Duriel Taylor It's a slog, and I hope this is both eye-opening... and maybe a little inspiring for you.  I  worked on baby steps for almost 15 years to get into  "real" development. To be honest, I'm not quite there yet, but  it's good.   I started as a residential RE Paralegal.  

"You're in residential-- you can't do commercial," they said.   

I jumped to doing legal-tasks (Title Survey, leasing, zoning)  on Telecom assets for a Tower company, and that's where I actually found Development.  Immediately, already at almost age 30 I finally figured out "what I wanted to be when I grew up."  

"You're doing Telecom, You can't do offices, retail or multis."  

I jumped to a Paralegal position in Commercial, and I eventually targeted  and landed at a big law firm that supports national, large-scale Development in all commercial sectors.  I was doing retail, office, hospitality, and infrastructure/RoW projects from the legal side all over the country--  I was scratching the Development itch, despite the fact that the projects weren't mine...  but that remained the goal, of course.  

Then 2008 happened, and 40 of us lost our jobs. I promised myself I'd take the downturn to bolster my skills and be ready to DEVELOP when the market came back. I was working as a residential REO Paralegal for a pittance while I acquired my Salesperson's license. Obviously, I looked for employment on a constant basis. One of the groups hiring was Telecom for what are called "Site acquisition specialists." I heard,

"You've done too much Commercial, you can't do Telecom site work."  (huh?  I did telecom before!) 

"Yeah, but you're too much Legal-- you can't do project-based work."

Eventually as the downturn was finally trending back, I wound up working for a national title company that specialized in Telecom & Infrastructure assets. I also completed two more Certificates in CRE and CRE Finance. I tried to get into a bunch of development-driven positions. I heard things like this on a nearly-weekly basis:

"Wow, we love your experience, but you're over qualified for our Commercial Paralegal role now. Shouldn't you be developing property for Cushman & Wakefield?" (*Direct Quote from an Attorney at one of Boston's biggest law firms.) 

... and from them?  "You have no background in finance, we don't think your well-known University Certificate has any value without the experience.  Besides, you were an English major."  

... and from others?  "Too much Legal.  We think you'll jeopardize the business-side of our projects." 

I worked both "at work" as well as on my own as a Commercial  (and sometimes residential) Agent to continue to build my market skills and commercial acumen.  

I finally had a Telecom/ infrastructure company open up a hybrid role for me that used my Legal and Due-diligence experience while transitioning me into Project-based RE;  Two years later it wasn't quite working out and I transitioned to a competitor. I also completed another certificate, this time in Construction Management because that's the area of Development that I felt like I was lacking most.  That was my 5th Certificate (prior Paralegal & Negotiation certificates  as well as the others I've mentioned.)    I also got my Broker's license so I can independently support others' projects as a consultant.  

At my current FT job as a Telecom Site Acquisition Manager, I'm happy with my daily tasks. I'm so busy, that I'm not doing a ton of work for my own business at this time, but I like my team and that's important.   I manage projects, I find sites, I solve problems, I negotiate with huge companies, and once in a while I get a raw land gem under my feet for 'real' development. it's not the dream, per se, but I'm absolutely scratching the itch.     

Now, I, once again, have "Too much telecom," and "can't do commercial."  Lmao. The statements that infuriated me and tore me down before, I can now just chuckle at, but it's taken me almost two decades of practice and confidence to get to this point. 

Here are what I hope are the takeaways for anyone trying to follow their goals into Development:  

-- VERY FEW are lucky enough to jump straight into Development. 

-- FIND SMALL WAYS to continue to build your skills, value, and experience while you're working.

-- THEN DO IT AGAIN, and AGAIN, and YET AGAIN.  

-- USE THOSE NEW SKILLS and find a job that scratches the itch while you're working on your own thing. 

-- NEVER Let someone's  "YOU CAN'T" define or limit you. 

-- Remember this while in transition:  Jobs aren't bad--  WRONG jobs are bad.  Jobs help you build real connections and experience with your fellow professionals that you wouldn't otherwise be able to build.  The 'wrong' job is the one where you can't work in the industry OR build those connections.  A right job should respect your contribution and simultaneously challenge you.  

-- remember too, Development takes an understanding of a minimum of Project, Construction, Enviro, Finance, Market, Lease, Acquisition, Zoning,  Land, Contract, A&E,  and Dealmaking acumen, among gads of other skills.  You can apply almost any professional opportunity to your box of Development skills  so take advantage of any opportunity that comes your way to teach yourself or jump onto a crew, no matter what your background is.     

Lots of guys & gals at NASA wanted to be astronauts.   I think that playing at Station Control all day in Houston, however terrestrial, can't be all that bad for them.  

@Patrick Martone-- Check out Telecom Site Acq, check out large scale PV Development and/or be an Oil & Gas landman for a while.  These and other Infrastructure and/or right of way types of assets will definitely respect your engineering background.