All Forum Posts by: Sam Zawatsky

@Nathan Gesner which models of dishwasher do you recommend?

So, I am in the process of selling one of my rentals which should give me some cash to make more deals happen. It got me thinking about how I would optimize new rentals that I acquire or build. I have had problems with the dishwashers in each of my rentals, having caused  some damage, needing replacement and causing complaints. It got me wondering "Is it even worth it to to have a dishwasher?" It seems like one of the most high risk, high maintenance items to have in a rental property. Considering that they can leak and ruin cabinets, if your unit is two stories the upstairs dishwasher could cause water damage to the below unit. Any thoughts on this? Is there a way to be more profitable by skipping dishwashers and designing cabinet layouts without them? Or is a dishwasher needed to really get good rents and I/m missing something?

So, I have put a new property manager in place over one of my rentals. This property management company is one of the largest in the area and seems to have a long standing and good reputation. I noticed today, however, that they have somehow changed my tax bill for the year that I started working with them, 2024, to include my name on the first line as owner, but then their name right under that with c/o before it. And their address is now the address that the physical bill would be sent to. This is new to me, and I wanted to ask some opinions on this. Any thoughts? 

Yes, it will be sprayed on. I was thinking of having a coat of primer put on first too.

I am in the process of having T-111 replaced on the back of a house being rehabbed. I’ve been going back and forth about paint options, and have been thinking about going with Sherwin Williams emerald outdoor paint. There are 2 options for this: standard, and rain refresh. The rain refresh has the new technology feature where water and dirt sort of just fall off of it, making it self cleaning for the most part. I’m thinking either option I pick I would get it in satin finish, although the original seems to be flat finish. Got any suggestions? 

I’ve got a rental property that I am doing rehab on. It’s got some termites, that I will be signing a pest control company on to do treatment for. I’m also having the termite damaged wood removed and replaced with new wood when I redo the back siding in the next 4 weeks.  I don’t want to mess around with homeowner grade stuff from Lowe’s or whatnot, and am willing to pay a fair amount to start getting these under control  professionally. Previously I was trying to do everything myself but I’m willing to pay the pest companies for this at this time. Do you guys recommend using a sentricon bait system, or a termidor SC liquid trenching and drilling application? I can get the sentricon bait system that will average out to a total cost of $484 per year over 5 years. Or the liquid Termidor treatment would average out to $360 per year over a 5 year period.  I have heard both sides of the argument from pest control companies. Any advice?

@Dan H.

I have no loan on the property, as I bought it with cash and have been slowly doing rehab while there was a very messy tenant family living there. The property was falling apart  while they lived there, and it was difficult for me to get them out of there, as I was consistently getting the rent, albeit late most months and the property was falling further and further into disrepair. It had never been maintained or had any real repairs done since it was built in 1979. So now that it is empty, I have been doing as much work as I can myself, such as painting all the walls, replacing damaged bricks, drywall repairs, AC duct repairs, plumbing repairs, and simple electrical stuff to save money, but do not feel like I have the woodworking skills needed to install cabinets or siding and have it come out looking professional and clean. Also, I have been extremely dissapointed with how high prices are to have people work on stuff, and then the cheaper guys seem to have horrible work quality. Considering the purchase price in 2022 of 32k, and my additional costs so far of 27k for  new roof, new septic, major electrical repair, AC repair, garbage removal, lawyer fees, and lots of miscellaneous, that puts me at 59k so far. Then I am expecting another 20k-25k for these most recent improvements, depending on the option and pricing of getting new cabinets or not. So I am going to be at 85k total all in cost, but have a mostly low maintenance rental at that point. The price that the house would sell for once I get it to that level is around 170k, and I know I could at least get 1300 in rent for it. but hoping for 1500. I feel as though these repairs/ improvements are needed, because the condition of the property previously when I was getting the 1000 in rent I feel was unacceptable and a liability. I would like to refinance with a conventional loan, but I am looking to use a conventional loan in the next year on a different house I would live in for a while and then rent out and buy another. So I don't want to get a loan on this one yet at these current interest rates which I am not impressed by.  I originally planned to get a refinance loan on this house when rates were 3-4%, but the property was in such bad shape the banks kept rejecting my requests for loans once they saw the condition of the property, and I couldnt qualify for insurance at that time. Currently, I am not in a massive rush to get a loan on this property, but I would jump on it if interest rate were low. And I am now researching how best for me to repair and paint these cabinets myself! It seems like it would be around 2000 for decent quality RTA cabinets delivered from online, then probably 1500 for someone to install them. So its either 300 for paint materials and my time/ labor for painting/repair. Or 3500 for new cabinets + install. 

I'm still getting quotes for painting the cabinets vs getting new ones. So far, a company quoted me $3200 for painting, vs $6500 to install new plywood cabinets. I think this is all far too expensive, and I'm thinking now I'm going to go  there and paint these cabinets myself over a weekend for closer to $200 . Do these numbers sound normal to everyone? To me, it sounds really expensive. I haven't priced out the home depot or Ikea cabinets yet, but I would expect around 2000+1000 for install

I am really split between new cabinets or getting the old ones repaired and painted. I think new cabinets would be around 3000 fully installed. And I’m thinking  it would raise the rent by 50-100 dollars a month. Now as far as countertops, I was gonna get new Formica, which I expect to be about 1600 fully installed with a new sink. Whereas quartz or granite would be around 3200 installed with the new sink. Doesn’t granite have maintenance issues?

Regarding the cabinets, do you see how the lower edge of that cabinet on the end is looking like it is a bit warped or peeling? Can this be remedied? I agree that the 3-4k expense of getting new cabinets may not be worth it as opposed to spending maybe 400-600 on repairing these and repainting . What color do you think goes well with the repose gray of the walls? I painted the whole interior of the house repose gray from Sherwin Williams . Maybe  Extra white for the cabinets?