All Forum Posts by: Tom V.

Houzz was valued at a Billion dollars.  SF bay area is getting frothy.

I started with books from Amazon even "foreclosure for dummies" etc.  You need to umderstand the process and make sure you are getting clean title.  You also want to have a smart strategy for getting possession of a house if you purchase one that is occupied.  This also azsumes you know enoughto not overpay.  Just because you bought it at auction doesn't means a house is cheap.

This is a bad idea.  Don't use student loan debt to make your first investment.  Pay off your debt.  Save up a cushion.  Then invest.  

What's the lawsuit about?  

Who is getting sued?

I think it depends how tight your market is for work.  You get what you negotiate, so you could have a time bonus/penalty factor (X target date, $Y dollars extra for finishing early per day, or $Z dollars finishing per day late).  It's a good idea and a good motivator for the contractor. 

That said, you don't want to rush and then get shoddy work. 

Also, if you can't make up your mind on light fixtures or paint, or you order plumbing fixtures and are missing parts, then it's not your contractor's fault so you need to account for days in a fair way.  

In California with high end work, I would be hard pressed to find a contractor who would accept a late-penalty contract right now.  Another alternative is to take the estimated time for the contract and then just add 25-50% for a buffer in your pro forma spreadsheets.  

Whatever your answer is, stay big picture.  Financing is usually a smallish cost compared to having to do a job twice, or angering your contractor and having to find someone else. 

The first goal is to acknowledge that a simple monetary pur,hase will not make you happy.    A different goal might be to find something you like doing, then figure out how to make money doing it.  Then help someone else do it.    Life is a long time.   Whatever car you buy this year will not be cool in 5 years.  Try to figure out what it is you want to do.  

if you are the guy hiring labor under the table or off books, why are you concerned about  cslb rules?  Negotiate a fair price and be done.  you may find it difficult to find a better value alternative.  He has no incentive to turn you in to the CSLB  and you have no incentive to do it to him.  But getting worked up over the $500 limit is ridiculous.  People pay cash for jobs all the time.  if you know enough to check his work, then rela  x  .Or hire a real contractor.

Is it possible that you are acting as an unlicensed real estate broker and you have no idea what you are doing? Should you go get some proper training and start to think about your seller?

30% sounds like a lot up front. 

You should have a schedule of value that outlines the component value of each part of the job.  

Demo is 5K.  When demo is done, you pay 5K.

Plumbing is 15K total.  When rough in is done (first 75%) you pay 75% of that line item. 

That said, when you get an invoice that is fair and agreed upon, you pay it on time.   That day.  Don't mess around.  Expect fairness and expect to be fair.   

Hi @Amit M. 

This house was not in Noe Valley.  Noe and the Mission get most of the press and have increased the most, but there are lots of other neighborhoods in the city that are appreciating rapidly.  

This house was owner-occupied, not tenant-occupied, and I had just cause for the person to leave because the owner had defaulted.  I did not have to consider an extortionate cash for keys amount to a tenant.  Fortunately, we were able to stay out of court and I took possession in a relatively short time and without any emotional fireworks.

I am working on recycling my capital into a couple of other RE projects, but I am also looking outside the real estate world because it is more difficult to find good deals.   I don't think there are any obvious places to put money now (are there ever?).   

Patience is a virtue.