All Forum Posts by: Robert Leach

Both are decent. I used LZ for one of my corps and it was a great experience.

Hi Jim,

Welcome to the BP crowd! I am sure you will find this small group of 600,000 members to be very helpful in your pursuit. If you ever need a repair bid I would be happy to help just private message me or look at my profile for contact info. Best of luck to you and may your bottom line always be above the water line :)

Contact city public works and show them these photos. If you don't get a response, show up at the next village board meeting and wait until there is a point in the meeting open to the public and bring it up there. That will usually get a response. 

Hi Maria,

Shoot me a PM we have several projects on the Northside and North burbs under permit. We can help.

I had a roof that the company only paid 25% of the replacement cost due to age. it is spelled out in my policy but obviously in the fine print. I spent a great deal of time looking over it and actually reading it all line by line instead of just glazing over it and was surprised to see how many hoops to jump through when filing a claim. It left a bad taste in my mouth but made me much wiser moving forward. 

We have an office in Plainfield and at 91st & Kedzie

One word...proration. This is a term they use frequently when fighting a claim.

@Heather Shannon It's understandable and can be a frustrating process to deal with all the moving parts. Keep in mind that if you are trying to make B&B business work, I think guests will want acceptable accommodations so improving your facilities I would think go hand in hand with profits. If you are simply flipping, you may want to consider scaling back and lowering the quality of material you put in. 

Also you'll need to pull a permit for the porch which will require a drawing. Do you have this ready to go? 

Well for starters, you need to be a licensed GC to pull a permit in Chicago which means you will need to be insured and bonded. If you plan on doing a rehab project especially being used as a commercial entity in the city, you may want to rethink your strategy as the potential liabilities are substantial if you skate around permits. If you are shopping solely price in the Chicago market, I think you will continue to struggle finding a decent GC. Work is plentiful and for every investor vetting a contractor, there is a GC vetting the investor. You say you paid $12k for a kitchen, does that include an office, staff, insurance and uncle sam along with a profit margin? 

I'll break it down for you using the $12k kitchen you did from a GC perspective who is charging $25k:

Kitchen demo - labor 3 guys 1 day $600.00 plus removal and dump fee $200.00 (total $800.00)

cabinets/crown/pulls $5000.00 plus installation labor 2 guys 1 & 1/2 days $900.00 (total $5900.00)

drywall prep/repair ($100 material $150 labor)

granite counter tops in standard sized kitchen ($2700.00 material, $300 labor installed)

30 sf of back splash assume glass tile ($300.00 material - $600.00 labor = total $900.00)

sink, faucet, sink re-plumb (materials $500.00 - labor $200.00 = total $700.00)

appliances install labor only ($150.00)

Total job cost on surface ($11,700.00)

PLUS

1 estimator/sales staff to measure & bid job ($300.00)

1 office staff for accounts payable/receivable (prorated labor over 30 days $200.00)

1 office staff for material ordering, sub scheduling (prorated labor over 30 days $300.00)

1 quality control/job supervisor (prorated labor over 30 days $750.00)

incidental material expense ie: tools, screws, nails, glue ect. ($500.00)

Approximate payroll taxes & insurance @ = $1039.00

Overhead (rent, phone, web, licenses, fuel ect.) @10% of job $1479.00

Sub total - $4568.00

Projected costs $16268.00

Profits $8732.00

Approx IRS Corporate tax @40% - $3492.80

Net gain $5239.20 or a 21% margin

This hypothetical math doesn't include permits, flooring, base, shoe, casing, electrical or anything else beyond the basics listed above. If a GC isn't making 20% for its ownership, they will pass on the job quick. Keep in mind the owners have to pay personal income tax as well. 

Project delays come with the territory in a busy market and vendors are swamped too the best way to avoid these delays is to be organised and have a realistic schedule in place. Cost over runs are common with the cheap guy who probably couldn't properly bid building a sand castle. Poop in equals poop out lol...

Not trying to be hard on you here but I think you underestimate the value of a good GC.