All Forum Posts by: Kent Verge

In no particular order:

1. Start putting together money for your first investment. If you have none, start saving. Anything is better than nothing, and although it's possible to get started with no money, there are more opportunities available the more money you have available.
2. Identify a target area and start looking at houses that are on the market. No matter which way you plan to go with your investments, having a good feel for prices in a target area is a necessary skill.
3. Talk to others who are doing what you want to do. You'll learn a ton from them and the networking may even lead to deals down the road. This can be here on the forums, but you'll get more value from local peers.

Hope that helps.

I decided to rewire the whole house on my latest purchase. It had ungrounded outlets throughout, and many of the fixtures were wired with extension cords tacked to the ceiling/wall and plugged into an outlet. After opening up the walls in the kitchen and removing the cabinets, I found that although the fridge and dishwasher were plugged into one of the few grounded outlets in the house (there were two in the kitchen), under the cabinet the outlet was wired with an extension cord that plugged into one of those grey two-prong converters that was then plugged into an ungrounded outlet (!).

You'll really need to evaluate the specific house before deciding. This one was a no-brainer. The total rewiring, including installing new fixtures and a new breaker box in a different location, will be about $8k for an 1800 SF house.

Look at your assets outside of the rental property. That's what you're really protecting with an umbrella policy.

I did Allure all through the main living areas including the kitchen in one of our houses (carpet in the bedrooms). It's waterproof, and prospective tenants love it. I'd use it again.

I'll be sure to ask the plumber about PEX. I already considered going that way since it would make later maintenance much easier. The house is on water near the coast in Florida, so freezing won't be an issue.

My current rehab has an addition with a concrete foundation at ground level. The exterior walls have moisture at the bottom that led to mildew on the bottom part of the sheet rock. I removed the bottom 2' of sheet rock throughout and removed the damp insulation. There were also some nasty cockroach nests inside along with some geckos (they eat the roaches).

I know that there is an issue with drainage/grading outside that I need to address, but since the addition is at ground level, should I also add Z-flashing under the siding? Is there anything else I need to do about the roaches (other than a chemical barrier), or will resolving the moisture issue keep them out?

The cottage in the back is also on a slab at ground level, so it probably has the same problems.

This room is also where the previous owners fed the feral cats -- we caught 29 of them. They had sprayed on the walls, so I hopefully removing the sheet rock will help with the urine smell too.

I haven't talked to a plumber yet. This started as a pretty simple bathroom makeover, but after looking into some comps, we decided to take it up a notch and update the kitchen too. 

It seems like there's something hidden in every wall that adds to the plan...

That's the direction I was leaning. This is a buy and hold that's about 750 miles away; I definitely don't want plumbing problems later because I didn't do something now.

While opening up the walls in the kitchen in our recent purchase -- a home built in the 40's with galvanized pipes -- I uncovered a leak in the wall behind the tub in the master bath. I already need plumbing work in the second bathroom (a complete remodel), in the kitchen (moving the sink and dishwasher), in the laundry room (total new plumbing), and now the leak in the master bath. Should I just bite the bullet and update everything on the supply side? The water pressure is terrible and I suspect that the pipes are part of the problem.

While peeling up stick-on tiles stuck to the concrete slab on an addition to my recently purchased house, I uncovered a 2' square hole peeking out from a wall. I peeled away the tile in the next room, and it covered a 2' square of plywood covering an access hole to what looks like an old brick septic system that's probably 5' deep, 5' wide, and 8' long (I didn't climb down in to measure it). The house was built in the 40's; sewer was installed in the neighborhood about 10 years back, and at that time, you had to fill in your old septic tank when you hooked up to sewer. Apparently this was an even older tank.

I plan to fill it in with dirt then seal off the access hole with concrete. Does that sound like a good plan? Has anyone else faced something like this? I bought the house "as is," but does the seller have any liability since he had to know about the defect and didn't disclose it? Stick-on linoleum literally covered part of the hole with nothing underneath.