All Forum Posts by: Mark H.

The plumber I use for rehabbing is a moonlighter - i probably average $100 or so in labor to send him through a house.. The parts often cost more than my plumber.

Keep in mind, it's done on his terms, after work, before his kids ball game, etc. it isn't "emergency" labor at 2am, so it's cheaper.

I think it depends on what you're *good* at. I'm great at finding excellent pricing on materials. Most pro contractors have favorite supply houses & can get great deals as well, but they like to keep that savings to enhance their end of the deal. If you're good at negotiating & you don't have much time, you might be able to get the rehab done without sourcing your own materials.

On my last rehab, I bought most materials at the depot on sale, or with a 10% off coupon, using discounted gift cards or store credits i purchased at 20-30% below face value. It was a hassle, but the savings were worth it because I had more time than money.

The reason you want a couple coats isn't to match the color so much as it is to match the gloss. The new paint will look "flatter" over the fresh drywall if you don't hit the new drywall with a couple coats. You might get away with it in a bathroom, depending on how much light there is in the room though..

I've been getting great results with the $10~ish speedcote/speed wall paint sold at the depot & haven't ever bought any primer. Two coats of "landlord beige" has covered blood red, big-bird yellow & Barney purple & we have textured walls which makes "one coat coverage" impossible (unless it's the same color). You really ought to try the cheap stuff if you haven't in a while.

For me, they seem to last until I need to shut them off. Every one I've run across is as old as the house, and the're usually stuck. The houses I've worked on here in Phoenix were all 1980's builds. It really has become standard practice for me to change every single water valve as part of the rehab, including the main shut-off, the laundry valves, both bathrooms, the kitchen sink, and even the icemaker valve. The laundry and icemaker valves require cutting the drywall to install the new "boxes" that surround them, but I've always had other drywall work to do anyway.

Even if they're "only" five years old, if they're accessible, you might as well put new ones in. The plumber I use can change them all in just a few hours & considers it a "gravy" job. Considering the cost of an "emergency" plumbing call, it's really just cheap insurance for me.

The new drywall will suck up the new paint like a sponge. When I'm covering a repair, I'll hit just the new area with a couple of coats, then spread the final coat out to the entire wall. The patch might look "dull" or "flat" compared to the rest of the wall if you don't. You can get away with a lot in a bathroom - its a great place to master your technique!

I've had great luck with the matched paint from the depot (even the cheap "speed-wall" stuff)- once in a while, you get a bad match, but i doubt you'll be able to spot the repair if you do the wall.

You don't need to "reduce" the paint unless you're using a homeowner-grade sprayer. (and I'd never spray a bathroom anyway).

Most lenders want the property listed on MLS with a realtor - when you get an offer, you start the process.

Unless you're trying for a "Pre-approved" short-sale, where the bank sets the price..

What is your lender telling you to do?

Why not just call a banker and get a Pre-approval letter, even though you don't need it. It will only take a few minutes, you can still write cash offers, and you don't need to lay out all your cards on the table to the agent. They don't need to know how much cash you have, and they will if you give them proof of funds.

This is really the problem with short sales- the buyer has no good way to "vet" the seller's agent and attorney. The "protocol" is to shut up & wait. Possibly for a long time. No guarantee of closing, but if the seller is sincere & jumps through the hoops thrown out by their lender, eventually you'll get at least a counter from the bank. It might take a year, though..

It's probably best to look at the deal as a long-shot possibility & keep looking in the meantime.

If you've got tiles popping out, the backer is likely drywall. The cement board is unlikely to behave that way. So, assuming there's drywall behind the tile, the wet area will be larger than just a tile or two. If you had one loose tile, you would pull off the adjacent tiles as well, until you got back to "solid" drywall. Assuming you hit good solid board before you hit a stud, you could stick in pieces of 1 x2" to support the drywall patch. Then stick down some tile, grout the next day & hope for the best.

If its tile over drywall, without some sort of water management system (Kerdi or schluter), it's days are numbered. Grout isn't waterproof, so water will be getting behind the tiles eventually.