All Forum Posts by: Sam Zawatsky

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?

I am not sure how much the total renovation will be . I am thinking 8k for floors. 6k for siding replacement / frame/ termite repair, 2k for bathroom / shower/ tub refurbishing, 600 optional for 2 toilets installed, 2k for countertops + sink,  400 for light fixtures, then 4k optional for cabinets . So 19k without new cabinets . 23k with new cabinets

So, I’ve got this rental property, was currently renting at 1000 per month, but I am trying to get 1400-1500 per month now. It has cabinets that are original, 45 years old. The cabinet under the sink had water damage to the base, and I have the option of just repairing that and painting the inside of it. Or I could just get all new cabinets top and bottom. Which would you do? Also, the toilets are old, probably 15-25 years old. Do you recommend just getting new toilets put in, because I am having the old really worn and poorly laid tile floors replaced with full LVP so they would need to be reseated anyway. I was eyeing the American standard cadet 3 toilets if I was to replace.

So, I've got a rental property with tenants that I inherited. I noticed that they kept making more and more of a mess over time, and I have caught them lying to me about multiple things over the past 2 years. I gave them notice 3 months ago that I will no longer be renting to them, and they paid very late each month except for this last month. They kept telling me "sorry I'm gonna be late", and I didn't want to evict them with only 1 month left because I felt like they could be spiteful and do a lot of damage to the property. I do not have a security deposit from them unfortunately. So now they are supposed to be leaving in 2 days, and haven't paid rent for the last 5 weeks. They owe me $1300, and I feel like they are trying to get by and just leave without paying me the rent that they owe. I am considering my options on what to do, and I feel like I have the following options:

1.) Find out somehow where their new address is (not sure how to find this out affordably), and file a lawsuit against them in small claims court and hope they pay or eventually get their wages garnished.

2.) Allow them not to pay and just forget about it.

3.) perhaps something else that I haven't thought of.

Any thoughts?