All Forum Posts by: Patrick M.

@Michael Boyer, Love it. All of the above.

I am a W2 worker and I have longed to enter the fray-

I dump my max $ into a 401k every year and hope for a 8% return. Punch my card, get my check, I could only get ahead by cutting back.

Now I get to get creative with each apt. remodel, get in and work and have something tangible to show for my work, hear the ooh's and ah's when I show it and likely get a 20-25% return on the cash I put in! Plus I get to learn about a completely new field in my middle age.

I'm living the dream.

Kudo's to the reporter for identifying to tenants. It is a very good read and very good.

I believe we will all hear the echos of what the "pros" and our mentors tell us as they read through it... In other words, this guy laid out the welcome mat for deadbeats and set himself up. I certainly don't mean to shift the blame, but we all need to be pro-active in protecting our business. He was not.

Just purchased ours today after reconfiguring our plan for the cabinets. One will have to be an 18" but it works with the one bedroom. Thanks @Molly Morlino for starting the thread and to the others for your input.

@Aaron Mazzrillo that was always my thinking, but as I started reading into it as this discussion progressed it would seem that there may actually be a water saving. My tenants pay electricity- but I pay water and it is a fortune in my town.

We are going to sit down and try an rework our plans to incorporate them.

It's business, don't take it personally. I have 2 inherited tenants that are halfway out the door to join the other 4. I could care less what there attitude is, show me the money. Receiving my check 3 days later and $50 heavier doesn't cost me a dime. That it would "cost" someone else is exactly why I am my best property manager.

If I ran around trying to ascribing some bad attitude or evil intent to a shmo who paid a few days late I would be in the wrong business.

I don't want to be friends with my tenants, and I don't need to feel superior to them... so if they say "f-you" as they write the check all the power to them.

Wow- you guys have completely changed my thinking on this. Adjustments are being made!

I think I may be the odd man out here. On appliances I go stainless by frigidaire. Cost effective but plays nicely with my kitchen renovations (which we do ourselves). Again, I think it is specific to area- but when I can hit the sweet spot of just below the high end apartments, I am very happy. I don't feel as confident that I can do that with formica/ laminate and white appliances. With my appliance guy I am routinely at the same cost or below the white of the same model. Now these are not the stainless that you might have in your home, but everyone came through and commented on them.

Also, it is a small kitchen counter top wise so I wanted to make what I could of it.

I relied heavily on the input of my mentor and I am always paying attention to the market. So, much to my surprise when I spoke to him about flooring he said to get the cheapest laminate from HD... very surprise. I wound up getting Lakeshore Pecan at .71 a square foot (the cheapest)... Wouldn't you know everyone couldn't get over it! My other big splurge was for radiator covers.

Rent was increased by 64%. Rented quickly to young couple. I will break even on the complete renovation before the 2nd year is up.

Vs. the low end of my market:

The 2 that we are renovating right now I am confident I can get at least 50% and 42% return on. Additional the tenants will be drastically improved from those I inherited and removed. I will post pics of the kitchens when we get there.

I had almost the exact problem when dealing with tenants I gave notice to. They all smoked. The only difference is that we knew we were going to gut the apartments because they were in such bad shape.

So the inherited tenants we had were just flat out bad, I would not trust them not to try and exact some revenge on me or my properties. I confess I gave them each their deposits (minus rent owed) no questions asked. They did me a huge favor by walking away after the notices to quit and not dragging it out... and like I said, we were renovating. They were all happy leaving with their checks and I had piece of mind.

I would not do this with tenants I placed though.

I go granite- sounds appropriate for work you are doing. I remember when Corian was king, but in my opinion nothing makes a kitchen pop like granite. In my town all renovated apartments are granite. We are in the midst of 2 complete renovations and will be installing white kitchen cabinets- granite will be on top.

good luck.

I find myself more often than not with @Lesley Resnick. I wish I could get a guaranteed 5% return on a 1 or 1 1/2 week investment everywhere. The one thing that I find very annoying is when a tenant doesn't simply call me to tell me it will be late... These are the (inherited) habitually late tenants... so it isn't like you may get over on me. oh well.