All Forum Posts by: Randy F.

Jeeeeeeez... Am I long winded or what? Sorry.

The subject at hand...

When the box stores prices are cheaper on most stuff than you can find elsewhere, and they jack up the price of pad to help cover labor in an attempt to capture a larger share of the market, some call it marketing strategy. I call it a scam. Their target is the average homeowner who knows no better. If they did know better, they could purchase on-sale high quality remnants from the mom & pops and hire a professional carpet mechanic( what we were called in the good old days) at an end cost in the same ballpark.

WOW!! $7 per stair in 2012. I charged $7 per stair in the early 1980's.

And yes, I still think in terms of yards. Ive been angry about the selling of carpet by the sq ft for 15 years... Or however long it has been since retailers decided it would just sound less expensive that way!

I think every area is going to be different, but from my experience, Lowes and HD installers arent going to be your best bet for quality. And the old saying applies... "You get what you pay for". If an installer is good enough for his reputation to keep him busy, why in the world would he want to deal with the box stores? Why would they subject themselves to having to stand around for an hour or two waiting for his material to be pulled, wrong materials pulled, cant find paperwork, etc.

I agree that when watching ones own bottom line, the box stores can be the best in terms of price point and it is a great advantage to be able to make one stop for a varienty of materials. But I sure hate dealing with them. My biggest problem with them is all the incredibly poor advice they give to homeowners.

Anyway... I think the best bet is to build relationships with contractors/craftsmen that you can rely on to do quality work, on schedule and within budget. If you have to pay a bit more than the hacks charge, is it not worth it in the long run?

I does got me sum attitude bout dis shtupf!! When ones main criteria in choosing an installer is price, he WILL end up hiring those that give a bad rap to my profession. Doing so is bad for everyone but you and your bottom line. Im not saying its wrong to shop rates. Im saying that its right to shop for tradesmen who bring the whole package... Rates being just one of the criteria.

A professional in my industry doesnt change their quality to suit the job. Many of us will do the low end work for a reduced price simply to make the numbers work for our long term customers. We can do the work right, do it well, and in many cases do it as fast as the low-balling hack can screw it up. And we will do this because we see the value of working with people who appreciate all that we bring to the table and those are the folks we want to do business with. If you want quality at a fair price, and are willing to pay a fair price for quality, Im as loyal as the day is long. There are craftsmen like this out there... You just gotta find them. Surprise, surprise... They are busy and have no need to advertise!

Nothing beats face time. To be truly effective you need to get in front of investors, RE agents, and sellers in order to build decent working relationships. They need to be comfortable with you before they will even take you seriously. Professionals will know right quick if you know what you're doing or not. What to say, what not to say... It all matters. Face time allows you to at least sell yourself as someone who has enough basic knowledge that, combined with some professionalism and tempered enthusiasm, guves them cause to give you some of their time and attention and a shot to see what you can do.

All the best to you and your family. Taking are of aging parents is huge... and it says much about your character! Im sure you will be blessed with success, especially if you soak up all you can from the experts around BP and apply yourself fully. What a GREAT resource this is. Thanks so much BPers!! You are appreciated!!

There aint no free lunch!

The problem I see is that in a business where lenders and sellers want and need buyers to have some skin in the game, people are being encouraged to enter into on the job self training, with little or no skin in the game, putting themselves in the middle of two partys... One who likely worked very hard to own the property in the first place and is now in a position to have to sell at distressed price and the other who WILL put skin in the game and likely add significant value to the home and market.

A part of me figures if the newbie wholesaler can create a win-win-win situation all the more power to him. The larger part of me cant help but compare this to my business. Two of my biggest frustrations over the years has been finding and keeping good help, and following hacks around fixing their mistakes and having to work to restore homeowners faith in my profession..

If Ive seen it once Ive seen it a hundred times... A young guy gets just the basics down in remodeling or in a specialty trade, sees dollar signs and decides he is ready to launch his own business. Some charge low rates to get work and it ends up costing the customer more in the long run. Some charge going rates and deliver sub-standard work. Either way, they end up hurting the rep of all in the trades and are doing their customers a disservice.

Im a high end remodeler. Ive put in my time in most all the trades. I consider myself blessed with God given talents and a quick learner and it took me YEARS to develop a thorough understanding of processes and materials needed to accurately estimate a rehab and then pull it off on budget and on schedule without cutting corners. And a newbie wholesaler is going to learn the markets in his area, learn how to find deals, craft deals, build relationships with investers, AND estimate rehab AFTER learning what rehab is appropriate for the given property? And he's gonna do all this without hurting the reputation of investing and wholesaling? Really?

Seems to me the best way to get started in investing would be to apprentice under an investor/ rehabber. Get to know the ins and outs so to reduce the mistakes that WILL happen. The "fake it, till you make it" approach is irresponsible.

Well... If it took a nickel to get around the block... I wouldnt make it to the corner! So what do *I* know!!

Some people just dont know the proper use of a garbage disposal. Good idea to lay out instruction sheets on things like disposal and have them read and intial them as part of lease. Run cold water while disposal is running, no onion peels, etc.

Also wise to recommend that when clocks change in the fall, replace fire detector batteries.

Also, in the spring when we gain an hour, spend the time to pull back off refridgerator and vacuum out all the dust and hair from the cooling fins and fan. It will prolong life of refer and to get tenant to do it, it will reduce risk of refer going out and them loosing all the food in it.

Oh yeah... What about the furnace or boiler. Its the heart of the home. People get tuneups and oil changes on their vehicles but neglect their furnace till it quits. Do your leases demand yearly access for the heating guy to tune up furnace, change air filters, check dielectric unions for seepage, make sure off-cycle dampers work, etc.?

If you wire light and fan to operate on one switch and you are renovating bath, i would suggest you keep two seperate circuits, wire them together at the switch, and just have a dead switch. That way if you sell its as simple as rewiring switch back to isolated control. If tenant asks about dead switch, simply tell them its a cicuit no longer in use.

I would require your full rent amount and if they want to take care of pool, issue them back a check each month just as you would have to do if a pool company maintained it. This way you arent tied to a tenant at a reduced rate if they fail to maintain it. Lease is clean and so is pool.

Has anyone heard of a requirement ever being proposed that in order to purchase a gun one would have to provide proof of having passed a gun safety or training program... either a private training course or thru a hunter safety program?

Or how about a psychological eval questionaire one would have to pass before purchasin a gun. There are all kinds of multiple question tests that have been used for years to evaluate people applying for jobs, etc. Could one be developed effective enough to raise the right red flags?

There are problems with both. With requiring training, Im not sure I could still get documentation from my hunter safety course taken in 1974 and to require me to take one now after hunting and shooting for 35+ years would be ridiculous. Maybe a "born after" date requirement? The other problem I see is that once in place, what would stop governement from making the type and length of training such that the cost and access would limit gun ownership by economic class. A slippery slope.

With psych evals, where would the bar be set for who would be judged as unstable enough to deny the sale? And again, once in place, it might be made so restictive that I would be denied because I was spanked as a child and still enjoy a good spanking now and then!!
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I dunno! It just seems to me that it makes more sense to look at these kinds of things rather than outlawing gun types, etc. I have a hard time believing that anyone, actually thinks the restrictions currently being proposed will actually make a difference. Its all politics.

In looking at ANY type of gun control measures, we need to look at whether the benefits outweigh the cost to our freedoms. 9/11 brought about the trampling of our 4th Amendment protections at our airports. Will Sandy Hook bring about the infringement upon our 2nd Amendment rights? Likely not immediately, but could it inch us toward that slippery slope?

Cant believe I did that! My bad! And I would accept a severe tongue lashing for the oversight. What I dont accept is your accusation that I attempt to change its intent. I have no reason whatsoever to change its intent. The writings of the Founders and of legal scholars and the courts of the time, make perfectly clear the intent of the 2nd Amendment as an individual right.

My understanding of the intent of the 2nd Amendment is supported by writings such as that by Justice Joseph Story, appointed to the Supreme Courts by James Madison in 1811. In 1833, Justice Story wrote the following:

"The next amendment is: "A well regulated militia being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed."
The importance of this article will scarcely be doubted by any persons, who have duly reflected upon the subject. The militia is the natural defence of a free country against sudden foreign invasions, domestic insurrections, and domestic usurpations of power by rulers It is against sound policy for a free people to keep up large military establishments and standing armies in time of peace, both from the enormous expenses, with which they are attended, and the facile means, which they afford to ambitious and unprincipled rulers, to subvert the government, or trample upon the rights of the people. The right of the citizens to keep and bear arms has justly been considered, as the palladium of the liberties of a republic; since it offers a strong moral check against the usurpation and arbitrary power of rulers;and will generally, even if these are successful in the first instance, enable the people to resist and triumph over them."
(emphasis mine)

I am not a member of an organized "well regulated militia". If interested in the original intent of the 2nd Amendment, it is clear that the right to keep and bear arms, while being an individual right, has a collective purpose. The following appeared in the Pennsylvania Gazette in 1788 while the states were considering ratification of the Constitution. It was writtne by Tench Coxe, a delegate for Pennsylvania to the Continental Congress.

"Who are the militia? are they not ourselves. Is it feared, then, that we shall turn our arms each man against his own bosom. Congress have no power to disarm the militia. Their swords, and every other terrible implement of the soldier, are the birth-right of an American...The unlimited power of the sword is not in the hands of either the federal or state governments but, where I trust in God it will ever remain, in the hands of the people."

I am also not an NRA member. I probably should be, as I appreciate all they have done in fighting the anti-gun movement. However, I also recognize how even a great cause can be taken over by big money.

Im not sure where you stand as some of your comments are contadictory. I recognize the goverments right to regulate the industry, the arms we can "keep", and the manner in which we "bear" them. I am not patently against gun regulation, I am simply resistant to them based on the slippery slope their regulation could put us on.. You point to the British as an example of how gun regulation has brought reduced gun violence, while I point at their history as an example of a slippery slope that i dont want to see happen in this country.

LOL! "Abrasive" is what you might use a little more of in your rehabs, NOT what you should BE when responding to a fellow BPers post!! :c)

Notice the "." after "drunk" and before "Prohibition"!! And being that I was offering my opinion, I do suppose I made that up!

Nothing at all wrong with my analogy, and I made no mention at all about outlawing alcohol to reduce drunk driving deaths. Prohibitionists believed that outlawing alcohol would lead to a decrease in crime. It did the opposite and there were significant increases in crime. Prohibition did not work for the purpose intended. Likewise, increased penalties have not stopped people from driving drunk and killing peoplewith their vehicles. I liken the anti-gun movement to the Prohibitionist Movement in that the outlawing of guns would not likely have the desired effect in keeping them out of the hands of criminals who use them to kill people.

"unlike guns, cars have purposes other than killing people" ?? Really? How about trap, skeet and target shooting? Hunting? Dispatching halibut so you can pull the beasts into the boat with ya!? Then theres the little thing we call the Constitution! Although an actual conflict might bring about some killing with guns, the highest purpose of a "well armed militia" is it's effect as a deterent to a government intent on pissing on said Constitution. Which BTW, is happening EVERY DAY!

This supposes that the criminal doesnt already have a gun. If he does... And i'd guess most do... Then any ban or regulation will really only effect the law abiding gun owner. It is not a moot point? We have millions of guns in this country. You cannot confiscate them all nor can they be legislated out of existence. The anti-gun movement that picks up steam every time a tradegy such as Sandy Hook takes place, is simply an emotional response that not only does not present logical solutions, it dominates the conversation which should focus on the breakdown of our society.

Government may regulate the type and use of arms, but they may not infringe upon our right to own them. My point is that all the regulation they can come up with will only be followed by law abiding citizens.

Is it logical to limit the rights enjoyed by the masses as a means to address the actions of a relatively small number of individuals... Especially considering that those measures may not keep the guns out of the hands of those individuals?

Where is the conversation about labeling and drugging our kids? Or about behaviors that should raise flags and alert us that troubled people need help? I'm not at all surprised that the Obama admin is using this as an excuse to go after guns. Bandaids is what our government is all about. Solutions? Not so much.