All Forum Posts by: Ryan Sullivan

Thats amazing that you have 26 properties with $0 owed in past due rent. I wonder if it is the culture of the landlord friendly state that helps with you having such great tenants.

Wow, A lazy employee at section 8 is literally costing you money, that's just not right. 

Then you have a tenant who is still making money while you're losing it and she isn't paying you in full. I hope she was able to get all of the other tenants on the program. 

You would think that this program would be more vocal to owners, but apparently it's not.

Hi BP,

Knowing that certain states are much more landlord friendly, and others can basically be the opposite. I'm curious to see during this crisis time what states, and cities have been mindful of the owners. Then on the other hand which ones have not.

I think we could all benefit if we could get a thread going talking about what owners have been going through with their states be it good or bad. Then what they've done to handle the situations they've been given.

Looking forward to hearing the results!

Ryan

Thank you so much for your responses! I'm very appreciative of any support I get.

I talked to the floor guy and he's going to do a test spot on his dime.

If the test spot works, then he'll do the rest. No charge for stripping all the glue. Just $4 a sq ft to sand, stain, and poly.

With this done correctly, the entire house will be wood throughout, and that's what this market loves in my area. So hopefully he can make it look great.

I'll definitely use the information you guys provided again, for the next project.

Thanks again,

Ryan

Hi BP,

I'm currently prepping my house to be sold within the next month. It has one major issue, the upstairs original hardwood was covered with carpet and a ton of glue. Almost every single floor refinishing contractor said nope not touching it. 

Although, I have one guy who's up and coming. He actually did a clear coat refinish on the first floor. He also fixed, sanded, stained and poly'd my stairs that had carpet. He did a pretty good job and only charge 1 dollar a sq ft total.

Well my issue is, I've been hemorrhaging money into this house this past month. He said he could use a diamabrush on the wood to remove the glue, then stain, and poly for 4 bucks a square foot total. problem is he's never used the diamabrush before. I looked it up, and it actually doesn't look too bad to use.

Now would it be worth it to do that, or to install laminate flooring instead, and go with the cheapest available that doesn't look bad. I could also install this myself. 

On the other hand time is of the essence, and things are costing a lot so I've been working OT to pay for them. So I either work OT and get it done faster, and pay a lot. Or don't myself and it takes longer.

So the three questions are:

1.) Do I go with refinishing the hardwood to have refinished hardwood throughout and pay the guy. This would be most expensive, but quick.

2.) Have him instead do laminate. This would be mid range and quick.

3.) I do the laminate instead. This is obviously the cheapest but longest. 

Thank you so much for any responses.

Ryan

Thank you! I was kind of thinking the same thing, but didn't think about the response, very valuable information. Thanks again for the response, I appreciate it a lot!

Hi Everyone,

Recently I've been getting super low offers for refinance during this covid crisis for my primary residence. Which is a 1950 Cape Cod 4 bed 2 bath, single detached garage. 

This is my primary residence, I don't have any real estate investments yet. I currently have a 3.75% APR fixed rate VA. There's a conservative 30k of equity in the house. I plan to sell this house next spring, and house hack a quadplex. My house needs just a couple more small things to make it perfectly turn key, or else I'd sell it now.

My credit is in great shape, about a couple points below 800, with good history. My question is, do I refinance and take the credit inquiry hit, and reduce my monthly spending or leave it as is?

Thank you so much for any responses, 

Ryan Sullivan

Hi Randy, 

Thank you again for taking so much time responding, and giving all the details on your first flip. 

You make a very great point about having a very big margin. I did think that but it did kind of did fall out of the forefront (which it shouldn't). 

I'm known through family and friends as being very thorough (sometimes too much😅). I think if I can figure out how to understand and find what a good deal is, I'll definitely make sure it’s a big margin. Of course this is not easy and is also one of the things I'm trying to learn.

I actually expect things to go wrong....a lot lol. I currently own a 1950 cape. I find my self saying a lot of times "buy a house they said, it'd be fun they said". Also, I know for whatever project you normally have and think the cost will be "X", at least double it. I'm also an automotive and aircraft mechanic, so I'm used to things not going right and lots of surprises. 

With all of that, and learning as much as I can by May, and possibly waiting out this pandemic/possible crash. I expect things to cost a lot, take longer than expected, lots of surprises, and to expect the lowest end of the ARV for the comps. My plan is to be super conservative on numbers, plan for the worst, hope for the best.

Thanks again, 

Ryan

 Hi Randy,

Thank you for all the well defined thoughts. I appreciate the other point of views. I also have experience in hands on rehabbing myself, I've personally done electrical, plumbing, framing, sheetrock, paint, fabricating, landscaping, mechanical, carpet, flooring, roofing, demo, etc. I love the other points of view so I can use them to do whatever I can to make as fool proof of a system as possible, obviously it's never 100 percent, but as best as possible.

I have the book on long distant real estate investing by David Green, and one thing he said to use is video.  You actually gave me an idea for the paint matching. I could have the contractor or property manager go through the house taking video or live feed, or take pictures with the color swatch, and make sure it matches. I understand the colors won't look the same in a video or picture as in real life, but if there's no difference in contrast, it'd be safe to say the color is right.

As for the punch list. I intend to make a huge checklist that needs to be verified with video that it's been done. If the GC or property manager doesn't want to do it, well then they won't get hired. With that said I also plan to make contracts that would make all parties happy, like finish ahead of schedule, on budget, and all the check boxes have been met, then there's a 5% bonus.

I think the hardest thing will be vetting The team members and finding the best ones. I'll do whatever it takes to, and spend as much time as possible to getting the best people for each part of the job. If I have to work 16 hours to get a great team member for 1 hour worth of work, I'll do it. Then I can keep them for later projects.

With all that said, would you think a year worth of studying every day, and then acquiring spreadsheets, checklists, contracts, team members, networking, analyzing markets, etc., be a pretty good amount of time to not be too risky to start my first flip. Also, what did you use to learn the trade? I'm always trying to learn all aspect or different approaches. 

Thank you so much,

Ryan

 HI Taylor, 

Thanks for the response, and all the information you provided. I definitely won't stop, the more information I learn the longer each day I put into learning new things. I did figure that the numbers and markets aren't the same today. I just thought there may still be relevant information that can be learned from each episode and still be used today. I will definitely be pulling the trigger no matter what come May 2021. That's the date I set and I won't let anything change it. I'm also thinking about joining the pro membership to utilize the BP Insights tool to help analyze lots of markets.

Thanks again I appreciate the feedback so much,

-Ryan