All Forum Posts by: Raquel D.

. @Gregory Byrnes makes a good point — depending on how her estate is being administered, there may be funds available to pay ongoing expenses. There are Aton If factors that can come into play though. If the decedent didn’t really any any assets then there it can be harder to collect. I agree with @Nolan Martineau’s suggestion about reaching out to offer condolences and find out about timing for collecting belongings. I’d be surprised if they would have any intention of having her personal effects all taken out before the end of the month, so that would open up a dialog to confirm they’d keep paying rent on the unit through the end of the year, which could lead to another window to address clean up costs (if that isn’t something covered by insurance). If death doesn’t terminate a lease, would there be a way to mention that of course you wouldn’t expect to require the estate to continue payment till the end of its term? I only also because at lease it’s like a concession — you’re negotiating for costs to cover cleaning/vacancy expenses, but a comment like that could make it seem like you’re doing them a favor (even if the alternative — asking a dead person’s child to keep paying rent — may seem a little ludicrous.)

One of my favorite podcasts/blogs is Afford Anything by Paula Pant, and her motto is that you can afford anything, but not everything. Generally, we make choices of what we want to afford and don’t want to afford — and a lot of times the statement “I can’t afford it” really means “I don’t want to pay for it because I’d rather use the money for this other thing.” I love this philosophy — and Paula’s material — because it’s very positive. There’s a lot of hostility in this thread and from my POV, it’s because there’s a lot of judgment going on over what people have chosen to afford or cut back on. The way the conversation began had a somewhat judgmental framework so it’s no surprise the post took such a turn, but in taking a step back, it’s all the same message — we can’t buy everything we want all the time, so we make choices. (Of course, these choices are only available to those with the luxury of having enough money/time left over to get to make the choice — but that’s a separate topic from the concept of choosing where to cut costs.) I cut costs in places many people I’m close with couldn’t imagine doing without. Similarly, I spend more on things they wouldn’t /dream/ of spending money on. None of our choices are wrong! We just value different things, that’s all — and as long we’re able to achieve our financial goals, it doesn’t matter where we saved the money to get there.

I agree with @Thomas Hickey on the drain. You may want to look into French drain systems to divert some of the water flow and prevent soil erosion along the driveway. I recently had to plan one for a house on a steep grade that was getting some water in the basement after winter snow melted (basically used a drain to divert water to the sides of the house and also put in gutters). I did a lot of reading/research but I found videos the most helpful. If you look up French drains on YouTube, you’ll find tons of helpful content. I personally really like the videos from Apple Drains. The guy who hosts the videos, Chuck, is obviously a pro, but he’s great at telling you how to do it yourself (and in fact he’s really encouraging on that front). I probably watched most of his videos before I got started. There are a lot of different things you can do, but I bet you’ll get a sense of what will be best for your situation after watching a few videos. Good luck!

John Woodrich Thanks, I appreciate that advice! I am definitely getting a lot of responses from people saying they can do plumbing and electrical but can’t pull permits, and I am just not comfortable with that. This isn’t a flip or anything, but I probably will sell it in a few years (or possibly even rent it) so I prefer it to be above board. I have to stretch a little money to go a long way, but if I get a cheap person and they don’t do it right, it would be more expensive than hiring a qualified person to begin with :)

Hey MN BP!

I recently bought a small house in the Old Shakopee area and I would love to get your recommendations for local contractors and  handy-persons who could help me.  The main fixes are:

Electrical: A prior owner was a big do-it-yourself-er and installed a bunch of 3 prong outlets without grounding them.  (Yikes.)  The main electrical things that need to happen are: Ground all outlets, add an outlet/hook up to install a garbage disposal, add some outlets in the unfinished basement, and fix a few things in the box (there's a bulging wire and something needs a weaver clamp -- I have the home inspection which has more info).  I'd really like to get everything safe and up to code. I think a permit would be needed for this one, too...

Plumbing: During the inspection, the main line in the basement was flagged for showing signs of leaks, and there's also a recent leak from the same line -- a very tiny trickle.  I'd like to get this taken care of and also replace the upstairs shower fixtures and the upstairs toilet with a dual flush toilet.  (I'd buy all the stuff so it would just need to get installed.)

Garage door opener: Need one installed -- there are tracks for it but the actual opener was either taken out or stolen (the house was an REO). I could buy it and have someone install or they could buy it. It's a 2 car detached garage.

Gutter installation:  The back of the house needs 30 feet of gutters with one downspout.

Tree branch removal:  There's a big tree out front that needs a large branch cut off.  It's fine since all the leaves fell off, but when they grow back, the path to the front door will be blocked.

If anybody could help me with this or send, I would really appreciate it!  This isn't an investment property, it's actually a second home (maybe someone primary home?) because my whole family is in the area -- and my dad might stay there as well (I'm trying to get him to, but he's stubborn and may not accept the help -- family, y'know??).  My dad would coordinate access and payment, unless I could  pay by CC over the phone or could send a check directly. 

I would appreciate any referrals or BPers who can do this kind of stuff reaching out to me.  I have pictures of pretty much 

Thanks so much!

Raquel

Hi Drew! I’m in the same boat as you — live in East Bay and am looking at MN because of family connections. I’m mostly looking at the “south of the river” areas of Scott and Dakota county. (I’m actually flying out to the area on Wednesday.) I’ve heard some comments about cap rates near the Twin Cities being pretty tepid (although I haven’t looked into that much myself, as my area of comfort would be MN suburbs, which doesn’t have much in the way of multi family units). I’m hoping to learn a little more in the coming months. I’m actually mostly interested in flipping a couple (family with construction experience will benefit me) and then maybe doing multi family in another Midwest market (...unless I get something off market... strategy tbd!) Anyway, would love to talk MN if you ever want to — although I’m certainly beginning level! I did just pick up a little house in Shakopee that I’m using as a second home for a bit and that I intend to get some work done on (basement finishing, etc.).

J. Scott's Book on Flipping  Houses discusses this in depth so it will definitely give you a framework.  Of course it seems like everyone has their own opinion on the topic of license  vs. no license.  There are advantages and disadvantages to both so in addition to J. Scott's book, I'd suggest checking out other books/podcasts as well.  

I'm still in the learning phase and my approach has been to hear out the opinions and strategies of a lot of different people who came from different areas/backgrounds -- no matter how much I REALLY like/admire somebody, I never want to start drinking too much koolaid from one person :)

This looks so fantastic.  I spent a long time comparing your before and after pictures to pick out all  the changes.  Incredible work! 

I also really admire the pride you're taking a flipper to ensure your project was not only high quality and aesthetically appealing, but that you also made sure to make energy efficient/sustainable decisions.  It's easy to push those kinds of concerns aside to make a couple of extra bucks, but what you're doing is going to be important in the long term and you can't put a dollar amount on that!  

Fingers crossed you get a great offer and make a large, well-deserved profit.  

When I moved into my my current residence, I realized that the entire home had the scent of a particularly potent kind of food that the prior owners used to make. I tried a lot of things, including air freshness, bowls of vinegar, and baking soda... but the thing that actually got rid of the scent? Coffee grounds. I bought the cheapest can of coffee, put a bowl with a half cup or so of coffee grounds in every room of the house, and no more food scent. It did leave a faint coffee odor but not that noticeable -- not even as potent as the smell of a freshly brewed pot of coffee. It would probably be easy to discreetly tuck away a small container of grounds. It could even be put inside something decorate and no one would ever know. I've done this inside of drawers with that weird old wood odor too and it actually seems to deodorize the scent. Very handy -- and way cheaper than air freshener! I haven't tested it with mold or mildew yet though, so I'd be curious to hear if it works for that too.

From a timing standpoint alone I'd prefer to be on the "MLS drip" -- even a full time assistant couldn't notify me the second a property I maybe interested posted in Redfin, but the MLS does it automatically. I'm not sure I understand the root of the complaint actually. Are you receiving so many listings that cannot be filtered down by location/size/price filters that you need someone to further go through them? Generally investors have at least some criteria to narrow down the scope, so they would at least get immediately notifications for properties fitting that criteria. But yes, I suppose if someone set no size/price filters over a large area including multiple zip codes/counties it would be a lot -- but that doesn't seem like a typical investment strategy so I think I'm not following. For example: if an investor wanted 2-3 bedroom SFRs within a $200k price range (like $100k-$300k) in 3 specific zip codes, I can't imagine any market being so hot that it would inundate the investor with potential listings, but maybe my finger is just way off the pulse! In any event, I hope you find an agent you can find a good working relationship with and who you can successfully communicate together with :) good luck