All Forum Posts by: George Paiva

Great job guys!!!  What did you use for flooring? Looks like replacement Carpet and some laminates.  

I am sure its been posted here and there will be others with much more experience than us on this.  It was a trial and error exercise for us.  We would focus on a few neighborhoods then look at what has sold in the past 6months to get a feel for what a typical style of house would sell for and what amenities were offered.  As Jon stated we were and are very conservative with our numbers and only rehab the ones we know will work for us. 

Larry we actually scored a great deal on the flooring.  We needed about 1200sq ft of flooring on the main level of this ranch.  That's a lot of hardwood at the typical $8 sqft for labor and materials. We were able to find a supplier that had Select #3, which are typically utility grade with knots and mix of red and white oak shorts. BUT this batch was mostly red oak #2 but shorts.  As you can see from the pictures of the character and contrast of the wood worked out great with a complementary stain!  We paid $1.48 a sqft, of course ordered about 20% more for waste for about $2500.  Labor will vary so I will just say we paid about $5 sqft for labor and materials. 

We also refinished the basement with about 650 sqft of TrafficMASTER Allure Ultra which I happened to stumble on a HD sale for $1.99 sqft.  I know many of you BP'ers tout this stuff as the greatest thing since sliced bread.  I am now a believer as well.  I loved the look and feel of it as well as how easy it was to install.  Definitely going to start using this flooring on my rentals going forward.  

Hi Folks, I am Jon’s other half! Its been a wild ride and learned a ton via BP and getting hands on as much as possible. Honestly couldn't do all this by myself, my family background is in construction and rentals not so much on the business and marketing side of Real Estate. This is where Jon plays a big part on bringing some structure to the marketing and business side. One piece of advice I would do is take a good look in the “mirror” and figure out what you are good at and what you are not good at. Look for a partner who can complement what you are not good at. Partners are great to help level set and bounce ideas off of. Lets face it we all have either Time or Money but not a great deal of both.

A few lessons learned to add from what Jon mentioned

Accountability: Make contractors accountable from the start, meaning have a clear scope of work ready to review with the contractor line by line, word by word. Agree on Cost/Price up front trying to stay away from time and materials bids. On the current project I have been handing contractors a simple bullet list of work to be completed. We use that as a baseline and any other items can be added on, and then agreed.

Contractor Network: A never ending process of finding competent plumbers, electricians, carpenters, roofers, siders, etc… Hurdles we continue to overcome are finding contractors who actually do the work not just a GC where we are paying overhead and they hire a crew to perform the work needed. Surprising how much gets added on to bids when we reach out to “Yellow Pages” contractors vs finding a contractor on a job or at the local home depot. A great resource is word of mouth from your current rolodex of contractors you currently work with.

Conservative with Numbers, I know Jon talked a little about this I would probably add that staying conservative on the rehab would yield more money in your pocket in the end. Meanings don’t overbuild to what the market would handle. Obviously fundamental repairs to plumbing, electrical, HVAC need to be addressed but leave your taste for home living at the door when it comes to décor of the home. Remember you are not living there, just making it livable for someone else. I believe we struck a good balance on this project but we did come away with some lessons for the next ones.

Thanks again for all the positive words of encouragement and the helpful tips we all learn from each other on this site! Can’t wait to post more projects as we ride this real estate game!

And to add to the great advice above about diversification is that use "Capitalization Rate" as a metric to level the playing field.  Be it real estate or anything else, cap rate does really level that playing field. 

I have gone through 6 self evictions meaning taking the tenants to court instead of hiring out a lawyer for last 4 yrs.  The last time around I was pleasantly told by the housing court not to continue doing this without a lawyer... I responded with, "what else am I supposed to do".  Again get a lawyer to do your evictions.  Not sure if they were just pissed that I submit evictions right when non payment of rent or that they were actually concerned about me self representing evictions.  Either way its about the only relief I know that I have put an eviction on these deadbeats records.  

Although going forward I may start employing cash for keys or sneakier ways to get them out.  

BTW, this is in Connecticut one of the tenant friendliest states you can live in.

Can't wait, see you all there!

Missed the last 2!  Need to make this one!

I personally don't think new construction is in worth it in CT just yet but glad to hear a few people taking that challenge.  I still see new construction sitting on the market from some contractors taking risk.  But maybe in a long term buy and hold it may just work. I would think it would have to be a multi unit complex not just a duplex.

Definitely hope to make this one!!!