All Forum Posts by: Ron Fiscus

How long do you plan on holding and what’s the requirements to renew the land lease?  23 years is a long way off, but I know a person with a hangar they are tearing down to build new in effort to keep their land lease.  The updates required to renew made the demo and rebuild more economical.  If something similar would be required, might start having some effect on the structure value as you near the end of lease.  Note that I’m just an amateur, but thought I would share that information, you can keep or toss it.  Good luck.

Hi Michelle,

Yes, I think a better contractor would have helped, but the main issue I have is when the OAT is around 12F or below with an inside temperature at 68F (a delta of ~55F or more) I get heavy frosting on the exterior (cold) surfaces, in localized areas. Once we warm up this turns into a leak in some areas since the frost buildup melts and runs back in from the hole the air leaked out of. Or in some areas I have wet wood that never dries out because hot humid air is always blowing on it. Sounds easy to fix, just go find the air leaks and seal them, but not so easy since a small 1/8” gap that runs 2’ along a truss is enough to cause this problem and some areas are not accessible. I talked to an energy auditor and he said he has seen this before and thought that it could come from the wood drying and shrinking a bit and causing voids in the thermal envelope. He said he was impressed with the R-value of the foam, but he was still a fan of old fashioned fiberglass insulation. Contributing to this might be that my walls are also spray foam this exaggerates it since the house is very tight other than the small air leaks that are in the insulation.

I was told by my contractor and the spray foam contractor that this foam didn’t need a vapor barrier since it dries with a water tight skin on it. I also confirmed this with the city inspector, and he confirmed no vapor barrier needed. I would highly recommend using an additional vapor barrier.

Another issue I have is once you penetrate this skin on the foam it no longer has the vapor barrier qualities and the foam will become saturated and hold water. This became an issue when the electrician came through punching holes to run wires. Again if my primary contractor was doing his job, this should have happened since the timing should have been planned and coordinated better. I could go on, but I just wanted to let you know to ask around a bit more than I did.

I did spray foam roof and walls in my house remodel and I’m not happy.  This was supposed to be a much better product and the best way to go according to the contractor.  I spent a lot of extra money and have had a lot of headaches.  I would never use this product again. Keep digging and asking questions, I wish I did.  I’m happy to chat on the phone to tell you my issues, just too long of a story.

It makes sense to me.  I will start looking for another agent, I appreciate all the input.  I sure wish I knew about BP before I made this purchase back in 2016.  Thanks and I wish all a healthy, happy, and prosperous 2019.

Thank you for the input, that’s what we were thinking too.  I appreciate your time to comment.

I can give the full story here, but in effort to keep it somewhat short my questions are as follow. I have a 30-unit property listed with a Realtor and I’m curious how often one should expect interaction with the realtor. I have been told 3 times now that he has a showing coming up, but nothing ever materializes. It has now been about 33 days since I have heard from him. Is this normal, or should I be getting regular communications? Also, if there is no interest in the property, how long should I leave it on the market? I question how dedicated the guy is to selling the property since when he was selling two other properties for me to 1031 into this 30-unit he was communicating weekly if not multiple times per week (a good amount of commission was involved).

Makes sense. The property is a 30 unit and I have a 12 unit two blocks away that I was going to throw in as a carrot to perform well (if the first 90 days or so were good performance). I'm also willing to allow this person (in the long term if they perform) to become a business partner. I was going to fund my CAPEX and R&M reserves at my historical averages, that way I have the reserve account so that prevents the manager from going cheap on the maintenance. As for controlling the cash flow, I figured that with me being off site and only putting in about 12 hours a week average, if they have any value as a manager they should be able to at the very least out perform my fractional efforts. Thank you for the response, I appreciate getting input from others.

Ron

Hello,

I would like to hear any creative ways to pay an onsite manager.  I hear a common way of paying anywhere from 5% to 10% of gross rents, but I'm not sure that is how I want to do this.  I believe in and want to compensating well, but I want to compensate on performance.  I was thinking on maybe a very small percent maybe 1 or 2 percent of gross rents, but than doing a very large percent of the positive cash flow.  Any thoughts or other effective ways anyone has been paying an onsite manager?

Thank you,

Ron  

Can you please explain what RLT is?

Jon-Michael, as for full time property managers, I'm not impressed.  The first month I had such a service they ran me $6,000 negative.  The problem is (from my experience) you lose the owners interest.  They always seem to be quick to spend money and it seems to me it has always been the magic it to first collect the rents due (hopefully with near as possible 100% occupancy), and then try and hold on to that money, spend what needs spent to keep the property well maintained and things in order, but never waste a dollar.  In my experience, these people and their staff had no hesitation to spending $100's of dollars even with little to no value.  And then comes the careless slop.  I would have vacant units that I was working on have a 7-day eviction notice posted on the door (for non-payment of rent) and it should have been two doors over.  They couldn't even get the right door number, the hired help just did not care.  I have too many stories like this to tell, would be here all day.  For these reasons I'm maxed out at 50 units and unable to grow any more until I can get solutions to these issues.  I have no more time to give to the rentals, I'm still working a full time job and trying to be a member of my family.