All Forum Posts by: John Pierce

@Michael Reilman

Kohler and American Standard both make great toilets, but Kohler toilets have unique parts that you can't replace at Home Depot or Lowe's. Generic replacement parts that fit American Standard can be found anywhere.

Don't buy the cheap $90 toilets. The internal parts are garbage. You will have to replace the guts of the toilet within 3 years.

@Michael A.

I'm considering buying lots in the city of Richmond where previous houses have been demolished and building new houses on them. I'm specifically interested in building new duplexes, but have never been through the Special Use Permit process in the city.

@Robert Stamper

A 5 bedroom house might not be a good fit for the Section 8 program. The RRHA requires 2 people per bedroom, except for the head of household (who can have their own room). In order to get a 5 bedroom voucher, a family would have to have 8-9 people. While technically there may be 5 bedroom vouchers, finding someone with one would be like finding a needle in a haystack.

If you found a tenant, you would be able to charge $1938 minus the cost of utilities for monthly rent. That would be somewhere around $1500 per month.

If you want to move forward with this, I would advertise on gosection8.com

I would strongly recommend that you do a complete tear-off, especially if you are telling the existing roof because it is leaking. Doing a complete tear-off lets the contractor address issues with damaged/rotten roof decking.

I would also recommend upgrading from a 3-tab to an architectural shingle. They are more attractive, higher quality, and not much more expensive.

Your quotes don't address things like flashing, I've and water shield (might not be required in Texas), or a ridge-vent.

@Kristen Watts

I wouldn't refund any of it. They gave you a deposit to hold the house. It sounds like you held it. They are the ones that changed their minds.

@Nick Mess

You can get by without a truck, but it isn't worth it. I have an F150 that I payed $2,500 for about 10 years ago.

Getting materials to a house and getting trash out of it is much simpler with a truck. It is also nice for your tools to have a home.

This is the first I have ever heard of getting a line of credit opened on a non-owner occupied house.  I doubt the rates will be as competitive as a cash-out refinance.

@Robert Stamper

No, I don't supply lawn mowers. I don't want to be in the lawn mower maintenance business.

@Robert Stamper

You don't want to be in the lawn care business. Nothing eats at your profits like $250-$350 a month in lawn care services. Once you offer lawn care services, other lines are blurred. Do you offer snow shoveling? Do you remove leaves? Do trim bushes and mulch flower beds? Keep things simple and make it the tenant's job to maintain the yard.

That said, tenants generally don't take great care of a yard. Many avoid cutting the grass at all, and few would attempt such tasks as trimming bushes, mulching flower beds, and raking leaves.

My recommendation would be to let the tenant take care of the yard to their own level of satisfaction, and not get involved in unless they are breaking city laws such as letting the grass grow taller than 12 inches high. If you call a tenant every time you find the yard to be not maintained to your satisfaction, you will quickly find yourself in conflict with that tenant. When dealing with tenants is best to choose your battles and most lawn care battles aren't worth fighting.

If you are insistent on having the yard maintained to a high standard, then it is best to screen for that in a tenant from the beginning. If you rent a college kids that don't own a lawn mower, they probably aren't going to take care of the yard. If you rent to someone that owns their own lawn mower and takes an active interest in gardening, they may do a better job of maintaining the yard.