All Forum Posts by: Mark H.

Good used stoves are cheap in my area on craigslist - especially white ones, and you're in peak season for "lets spend our tax refund on new stainless stuff, and sell the old stuff on craigslist" ..

I wouldnt buy a used microwave or dishwasher, but used stoves are a great chance to save money. You can buy new burner-pans & even elements on amazon, & all a tenant really wants is *clean* & functional.

I stay away from the "ceramic" flat-top stoves because theyre so hard to get clean, but regular 4-burner stoves clean up nice if you douse them with 409 & let them soak.

If the deal is that good, would a defect (even a $3k one) make you walk? If the answer is no, an inspection is a waste of time & money that could be better spent on repairs.. and you *will* have repairs, even if your inspector claims the house is perfect. Inspectors cant look inside walls, foretell the future, or hypnotize pretty girls. They walk through and report what they see.. you probably have a father-in-law or a grumpy uncle who would be glad to do the same thing for a pizza, assuming you cant do it yourself.

He might have meant that, but on the show he just said "porcelain tile has color all the way through"..

Ive never seen the it with color all the way through, but I'm looking at the stuff that's <$2.50 including installation, mortar & grout..

Nope, it is porcelain, and it's designed for floors. It's basically the same thing as ceramic, just fired at a hotter temperature. In my area, porcelain is about the same price as ceramic if you know where to look - the porcelain ive seen usually has a slightly lower gloss/shine than most ceramics.. theoretically, porcelain should last longer, but either should last longer than it willbe in style..

+1 for tile everywhere if you're renting it out. Buy an extra box and stuff it in the attic in case a tenant manages to damage a tile after it goes out of stock..

Oh, and Holmes on Homes is wrong.. porcelain tile doesn't have "color all the way through".

Get it from your banker - the one they get is the only one that matters - many of the sites that sell scores aren't selling the same score your banker is seeing.

With the info you've posted, i wouldnt put anything past the pm. It could be they've given the owner bad advice about the value, or the owner could be hard-headed.. neither really bodes well for a potential tenant..

I think the bottom line is just a numbers game. 50% of the country doesn't own guns, doesn't understand the difference between a "machine gun" and a plinker, and has no interest in learning. The bulk of the population centers of the country are already operating under bans, so they've already lost the will to resist.

The writing is on the wall for a national ban - there will be more mass shootings, and a ban will pass at some point in the not-so-distant future. The only question at this point is how onerous that ban will be.

In the meantime, p-mags and ar-15's are selling at 3-4x the price that they were two months ago, and the dealers can't keep them on the shelf. Those that are in favor of removing black rifles from the populace have actually increased the numbers of the weapons they fear. I never realized there even were drum-mags available for 12-gauge shotguns until they started talking about banning them.. i agree, there is no sporting purpose for a 20-round drum on a 12-gauge, but I bought a couple anyways.. :-)

I don't think you can say that granite is "more durable" than formica.. I could show you a thousand homes built in the 70's and 80's still sportin' the plastic in my area.. it's out-of-date, but often put in the dumpster after 30+ years with nary a scratch..

I think it might be more "classic" and timeless, and certainly well-received by buyers and tenants alike..

In the last rehab i did, professionally installed formica was $550, and granite would have been about $1200.. I picked the formica, but I think in that price range either material would work just fine..

Lol.. umm. no. In much of the country, the money behind "investor" homepath loans is Wells Fargo, and they want 15% down, not 10%. As for fees and costs, if you do a straight comparison to a standard 20% down investor loan, and a 15% down homepath investor loan, the net out-of-pocket is about the same, but the investor gets a higher payment, interest rate, and loan balance with homepath. The reason no one uses homepath investor loans is that they suck.

As for pricing, in my area homepath homes are either way under market & gone beforeinvestors can bid, or they're priced way *over* market and languish for months until the price comes down.

Not a lawyer, but generally the owner can do whatever they want, and there's usually an exception for on-site apartment managers that are direct employees of the owner.. "contractors", "handymen" and the like are pushing the bleeding edge of the law, and it looks like you're in California. I'd expect the board of real-estate there to send out the swat team and probably charge you with a felony if they got wind of anything they didnt like.

As for fees, around here the broker that *places* the tenant often only collects $300-$400 on a one-year, $1K monthly rental. You might not save anything paying by the hour.