All Forum Posts by: Michael Gessner

@Sean Peart fha is hard to compete against cash and hml investors, to many guidelines with fha and most sellers don't want to deal with the high probability of the loan not going thru. Newark, and much of ny nj areas are heavy with cash investors

@Roselin G. If he's not licensed and if your area requires a general contractor to hold a license then he would be a no go, check your local laws and state laws, here in ny we have county by county licenses, not a state level and a majority of counties do not require a license. But again either way, he doesn't have to provide you an itemized break down for free.

@Eliott Elias why should a contractor purchase "your" materials? Clearly you have bad blood for contractors, their are plenty of good honest trustworthy contractors in this world. If I don't get a deposit, I'm not working on your property, not up for negotiation. Latley I've been contemplating on charging a fee for estimates, too many price shoppers latley and my time is valuable and not free. Some jobs I spend days maybe a week or 2 pulling pricing, availability, samples etc to quote jobs. I still have to pay for the gas, insurance phone bill etc all to pull quotes together. Time = money

In regards to the poster, if your happy with his quote for the work, if he has a good reputation why do you need to see a "break down " it's non of your business what he's paying subs, his markup his labor rate etc. Your hiring a gc general contractor, if your looking to save money, nickle and dime gc the reno your self, I'll be you will understand then why general contractors charge what they do.

As long as you get a written contract, with a detailed sow and only pay via check or credit card then you should be good to go. Sow should outline everything he is expected to do, and what materials he is expected to include, it should also include a rough time frame start to completion

@Jay Y. The city engineer probably wants a site plan to determine no encroachment and not on an easement of any kind, I'm very surprised they ate telling you you don't need a permit for a concrete retaining wall, usually under 30" you don't need an engineered wall, but still require permits and an updated survey.

@Adah N. I don't expect the downward direction of costs for long, now they're speaking of a diesel fuel shortage, high costs of diesel fuel, not enough supply of diesel fuel equates to high costs of everything across the board. "Shortage after shortage after shortage" im tired of hearing the bs behind this whole shortage thing. It's driving the economy Into the drain across the board, high costs of everything with no end insight. Gasoline is on its way back up as well. The world revolves around fuel, and will take many many many years to properly phase it out and move to cleaner sources. Cannot just turn the switch off and not expect the economy to completely collapse.

@Michael Gessner also to add, liability does not cover work place injuries, only damage to the premises.

@Gisa Bauschke if he is actually licensed and insured he should know how to handle this, the state wc board should have an affidavit for contractors working with no employees, if he has no employees he should not be required to hold workers comp and can file a waiver stating he is a sole prop and has no employees and hires no day laborers. I do this all the time when I'm doing a job myself and have no one on the books. He is required to hold liability insurance, which the association will require you as well as them to be listed as additional insured. Atleast this is how it works in ny and I'd imagine else where.

@Jonathan Nixon I'd be interested in knowing more shoot me a dm with the details

@Nader Hachem any good flooring contractor will give you test spots with the diffrent stain colors you choose so you can see it on your floor before you decide on the final. Most builder grade hardwood planks are white or red oak, those look like red oak

@Angie Ruiz pay them now pay the later doesn't mater, use your business account to pay the personal cards so you can claim it as a write off on the business. I would image you have a llc for the property with a a checking account under an llc, if so use that account to pay and receive the proceeds, atleast that's how I do it