All Forum Posts by: Steve Johnson

@Marissa Carroll  For the most part yes, we stay local.  We do bid out of town work, but once you throw per-diem and hotel stays on a bid I am generally out of it.   

You need to rent a drum sander and an edger, and a TON of paper. 40, 60, 80, 100, 120 finish.  Vacuum after EVERY grit.  If you do not do this you will end up with gouges.

Sand the edges, then the field, then vacuum, then move to next higher grit.

The 20 or 40 grit is for stain removal, and leveling.  If you run over the entire floor and notice you have stain remaining, its usually uneven.  In which case go over the floor diagonally, or criss cross pattern type thing to help remove and level the floor. (Hard to type this out, but you can view it on a youtube pattern)  You may need to go Cross and diagonal if things are in really bad shape.  

If you end up with swirls on the eges (it will happen) you need to redo it with the grit lower, then same grit, then continue.  Going directly to the next finer will not remove the swirls.   So if you swirl on 60, you need to go back over with 40, then 60, then continue on.

Keep the machines moving. 

If you have divots, save some dust.  It makes a great filler prior to staining.

A word of caution on dark stain...Our first house had urine stains(very dark, cannot remove without replacing)  we decided to go back with a chocolate stain.  It looks AMAZING for exactly 10mins.  Thats it.  Be prepared to demand shoes off at all times, and I highly recommend walk rugs/area rugs for ALL high traffic areas.

YouTube is your friend.

If you think you've bought enough sand paper, double it.  Then prepare to need more.

Doing this properly will make your finish kick ***.  Short cutting it will show.  It is very time consuming especially when you have heavily damaged floors.  Just suck it up and be in it from start to finish.

@Dena Wesley  tagged

Very nice response!  I could reply to that with an hour or two long worth of conversation.  

Too bad on the 32nd & Gilham property.  I like that area ALOT.  

Congrats on the 39th & Stateline property! Also a GREAT area.  (Go have a beer and burger at Twin City Tavern)

I think the issue of property owners asking too much is an issue all over the city.  Everyone *thinks* they know what they have.  No money to get it to where it *IS* that.  And so they sit, and sit, and sit.  I wish the city would crack down on code violations.

Which to your other point, Building code people on the KCMO side are VERY hit and miss.  I wouldn't believe a damn thing they told me unless it was in writing.  Good on you for that.  

We should connect sometime, grab lunch or anything.  I could talk about KC and revitalization and development for days on end.

@Jasmine C.  If there was nothing more than changing a lightbulb I can definitely see how it was $50.00   there's a lot of wasted time (drive time, invoice time) for a 20 second job.

Be very careful with those.  If you are a company with less than 2yrs in business the chances of you getting access to actual capital without a PG is slim to none.

Alot of those companies "guarunteeing" credit upto for new companies are actually wanting you to apply for a **** ton of credit cards.

Building business credit can be done quite quickly organically.  Look up creditboards.com they have a TON of info about it for free (They are to credit what biggerpockets is to real estate investment)  I have no affiliation to them other than I have read a TON there in the past.

Don't pay anyone to build your business credit.  Just do it in the general running of your business.  If you are paying cash somewhere that you use often get on net 30 terms with them.

Office Depot

Phone Company

Supply House

It will come.

@Rich Kniss  We LOVE Waldo.  That's where our first house was, which is now a rental for us.   Many times my wife and I discuss moving back there.  Unfortunately we just bought a new house in May so that won't be happening anytime soon.  

  I'd say my favorite areas right now are in the 64109/64110 west of paseo, east of Troost.   MAC Properties has done great things for the multi-tenant buildings along Armour Blvd, and also own all four corners at 55th?(Might be off by a few blocks) & Troost, with plans to completely redevelop those.   

   There is a TON happening in the 25th-35th area.  Huge project at 27th & Gilham going up, The Wonder Bread building at 30'ish & Main is being converted to lofts, coffee shop and TruBREW brewing shop.  Among others.    

   I am somewhat skeptical of the city having the guts to throw its weight behind Troost like they have River Market, Crossroads, etc...   It's not quite sexy enough to the majority of the metro area if you know what I mean.

@Syed Lateef   You understand this man has legally changed his name due to bad real estate decisions & shady guru classes before right?   You understand that again he is playing the victim while in his own words also playing real estate expert.   From Wendell's own words he is a liar....I don't see how its far fetched to jump to intentional scammer based on his history as Wendell De Guzman AND Trace Trajano.

How much area are we talking here?  Grout removal is not fun at all. Not at all. I'll never do it again unless its an extremely small area.  Its messy and extremely time consuming.

I know this is old, but I agree with @Crystal Smith .  Once Starbucks is there you are well behind the curve.

Ways we monitor are watching local papers, planning meetings, studies, and one of the best is your local business journal.  Most major metropolitans have them.  They are invaluable in my research as a residential investor as well as my knowledge of projects as a commercial/multi-use new construction contractor.