All Forum Posts by: Pete Harper

@Jon Greer Just pointing out the dubious news sources from the left and right sighted in this thread. If you don’t like my comment then use better sources.

@Nicholas L. Know your news sources. https://www.allsides.com/news-source/vox-news-media-bias

@Lucia Rushton

https://mediabiasfactcheck.com/noq-report/

@Jon Greer You might want to check the voracity of your news sources. Quick google search on blackrock buying homes only turned up “fringe” news sources. Revolver is a highly biased right wing media outlet. The BR connection to the Fed is even more dubious.

@Jayden Hamilton The majority of my tenants don’t have bank accounts. Most are not very computer literate. All the new fancy electronic funds transfers are just not an option. In these cases I ask that they pay by money order. They can walk into Western Union and get a money order with their cash. This provides them with a solution that is similar to a personal check. For me the funds are guaranteed same as cash.

@Kenny Hardcastle I did some research into solar for my personal residence in CA. It didn’t make sense financially. In CA PGE is your only option for electric. During the day when you generate solar you get paid at tier 1 price. When you get home in the evening and it is dark you pay tier 3 pricing. At the end of the year you get a true up charge. Talking to people who had solar they were paying $3-4k in fees due to price spread. That was close to my annual electric bill.

For me that same capital would be better spent upgrading my current properties to raise rents or simply buying more properties. I don’t like the paid utilities price model for rentals. People tend to abuse the service using more than they would if they paid for it themselves. We are doing a duplex renovation and I spent more just to fully divide utilities.

@Scott M. Would you know the tax laws on trading services for free rent? I don’t want an “employee” with associated FICA and tax withholdings.

@John Teachout That cats were only on one side. Four treatments with Clorox in a garden sprayer and I’ve killed the smell. Both units were 2BR/1BA with an unpermitted carport conversion into 3rd bedroom. They did a half assed job with the scariest electrical work I’ve seen. The remainder was dated 1960’s paneling. Cat smell was soaked into the wood. We decided to gut the whole thing and rebuild as 4BR/2BA. I’ve also split the utilities so each side will pay their own. When we are done I expect to get $2400/month vs $1400 for two 2BR.

@Caroline Gerardo since we were adding a bath and two bedrooms I pulled a permit with the city. It wasn’t expensive. Out town doesn’t have an inspector so they contract with a private company. Our inspector is based 4 hrs drive away. So far they have been very easy to work with.

@David Avery We are 9 months into this project. The first contractor was a total train wreck. He was just doing the bare minimum work then turning around and asking for more money. In March he said he couldn’t make payroll and needed more money to finish. We were already upside down on draws so I refused. He eventually abandoned the job and quit answering phone calls and texts. I’m suing in small claims. We have a court date in July.

The new contractor is moving right along. First he had to fix all the damage from the first contractor. I think we will be rent ready in August, just shy of a year. Not exactly to the original plan of six months.