All Forum Posts by: Roy Gutierrez

George, same situation as mine, were they able to have the ability to turn the car around?

I see all the michigan investors, do you guys go to the real estate investor meetings? I'm looking forward to going to my first one.

Thanks for the suggestion Robert, the 2 downstairs are small already. I'm a newbie to this, I will check the ROI and study it.

George, just curious, is it hard to rent mainly b/c of inskter road AND no bathroom upstairs? or you were you just referring to insker road? Have you had people wanting a bathroom upstairs?

Rob, you're right, seems not to many houses have a bathroom in the second floor, might not be something that people are expecting to much.

It seems that it's not needed, just trying to feel if just doing it now that I'm doing reno and fits in the budget it will make finding renters much easier and of course add value to the house vs grabbing that money and putting it into a future property.

Thanks guys.

Scott, just noticed you're in Michigan as well, it's a typical bungalow here, the master is smaller sized and the closet will be basically sacrificed for the bathroom, maybe what would be left are shelves and I could provide some of those hanging racks for clothing storage

Thanks for the feedback guys, George, my target renters are not families, it would be young professionals, young couples. Might be worth it to add the second bathroom, if I do it now is the time to do it while renovations are going on.

Scott, I know, I was leery of the service drive, but loved the layout of the house and the inside is going to look killer but it's the worst spot out of all the houses in the service drive! lol, it's a gamble and I'm very nervous about how it will turn out for me. I will tell you this story, I was looking at a house on a major road (I was looking for a house for me to live in), the realtor told me not to buy the house, will be very hard to sell, she was right BUT I bought it anyways b/c I liked the layout and close to a very popular downtown, then I moved to another house and made it a rental and it rents like hot pancakes!

Hello,

I bought a bungalow in a middle class neighborhood in Michigan, centrally located and close to a very nice downtown (not detroit!) but the house is in the service drive of a highway, it's a pain to back out into the service drive (although could turn the car around by going into the grass area at the back of the house), that's why I got it cheaper than other houses in the area, 29K and putting about 20K in renovations. I'm renovating the entire first floor which has 2 bedrooms, brand new bathroom and brand new kitchen, the master bedroom is in the second floor and it's not bad so I'm leaving it alone. Houses in the area compared to mine are renting around $1,000 per month, so the cons are my property is in a service drive, no basement, and no central air (no biggie in michigan but being on a service drive and considering car fumes might have to install one) pros are most houses won't be as nice as mine, renovated, nice open layout and 2 car garage.

Now to the question, I'm concerned that the master has no bathroom, so the renter will have to go downstairs to use the bathroom. How big of a deterrent would this be for a renter? Could it be worth it to add a bathroom in the second floor? I estimate it will cost me about $4,000 to put a small bathroom.

Thanks for the feedback in advance!

Thanks Aaron, I'll look into that.

Also the allure traffic master comes in different versions it seems, regular, plus, and ultra, is that correct? which one you guys recommend?

Thanks guys, I personally like the very light or very dark colors, kind of the unfinished look or a light grey wood look would be my favorites but not sure if that would be good for a rental, I would hate to put my taste ahead of common sense in terms of being neutral and hiding scratches, hard to make decisions when one is so blind to good taste!

Thanks for the encouragement and suggestions Stephen, Shawn, and Roy, cherry looks like a front-runner, thanks for the installation advise John and Chris, depending on budget I might have to install it myself.

I plan on installing this over plywood, and below is a crawlspace, do I need any other type of material on top of the plywood?

You guys selling me on the Traffic Allure! Now the question is what color is good? What texture? I kind of like the wood look and I imagine here in Michigan most people would like it but I imagine a little bit of texture is good to hide the scratches, color I'm not sure, I imagine something neutral, maybe the regular wood look.

I forgot to mention that I saw a VERY good deal on craigslist and bought about 350 sq ft of Amtico vinyl planks, unfortunately not the color that I really wanted (yellowish wood look but what I do know, I'm a bad designer!) AND barely not enough to cover the living room and kitchen but thinking of putting it in the bedrooms, it's commercial grade (you have to glue it) at about .60/sq ft, this is top of the line flooring.

Thanks for the responses,

Aaron, I'm looking for longevity, Iooking to keep this property as a rental for a long time, I'm just nervous about putting tile in the living room (no problem in the kitchen but I want to keep the same flooring for both) b/c it will make the room colder (as a contractor put it to me). I noticed you're in Michigan, have you done tile in a living room in a rental? if so, how has it worked for you?

Robert, I've thought about tile and the rugs and no problem for me (I'm origiinally from FL), but Michiganders might have a different attitude, one lady mentioned that she would never rent with tile (but that's just one person) but you would never hear that in FL.

Fellow Roy, middle class neighborhood, it's not the greatest but it's not bad either and the location is centrally located (right by the highway and very close to desirable downtown royal oak) targeting employees of the big 3 car companies (GM, Chrysler and Ford). I could separate the kitchen and living room but I want to make it an open concept between the 2 so a continuous floor would be great and make the space look bigger in my opinion (otherwise I would have just put tile in the kitchen and anything else in the living room).

Chris, Stephen, Roy and Eric, thanks for the floor recommendations about the vinyl plank flooring, I will look into the Amstrong Traffic Master Allure.

Eric, what was the brand/line/wear layer thickness/cost of the vinyl you bought.

Thanks!

Roy.

Hello,

I bought a property in Michigan, 1950s, 1050 sq ft, has a a crawlspace and if I fix it up good I'm expecting to get about 1,050-1,100 a month.

Now the issue is flooring, the kitchen and living room are open so would like to keep the same flooring for both, the flooring is not perfectly level so might need to replace some plywood underneath.

What would you recommend? I like tiles but doesn't to be to popular here in MI b/c of the cold, I've been leaning toward vinyl planks,

What would be your advise? If vinyl planks what brand and style recommended for a rental?

Thanks!