All Forum Posts by: Valerie Hiscoe

Hi Wendy. I vote on the side of putting the suite in.  Especially a beach property.  You'd want to look into the permit situation. Some areas might not want weekly rentals but don't mind longer term. Even if it is classified as an in-law only suite, you'll have buyers. A lot of people do actually have parents moving in with them or adult children who haven't quite flown the coop, and yes, some people actually do have or want live in nannies.  And if people wanted to operate it as an illegal suite, that would be up to them.  A mortgage helper any which way you slice it can add more value than an additional bathroom depending on the area.  It would be definitely be advisable to check with an agent or two to get some feedback if you're not completely secure about the market.  A large deciding factor is going to be parking.  My understanding is that it's the no. 1 issue for neighborhood complaints.  I wonder why @Charlie DiLisio's neighbors were unhappy. (I'm assuming it's a small place so make it something people won't mind having inlaws etc stay in - nothing fancy but do it right). Let us know what your research turns up! 

Hi Brian. What type of investing are you interested in or have you narrowed it down yet?  Have you decided on a geographical location? How much experience do you have in or how have you educated yourself about real estate?  If you're just getting back to BP you might look at

Biggerpockets.com/starthere

Best of luck

@Syed Khan. Re: looking for a lender - I think I would start with @Jerry Padilla.

I sold a house in Richmond during a divorce and sure wish there had been another option.  I invested in the US and, even though the US value and dollar has increased, it's barely keeping up with the property increases in the lower mainland.  I don't think property here will go down because 1) in the last 30yrs, apart from a few years blips every once in a while, land values here, like all property, has continuedto increase, 2) it's still on everyone's top ten list despite the rain, and 3) the rules of our banking industry make it a very safe haven for international money (especially now with the exchange rate) and those investors are not in for the short term.

You are in the very lucky position of being able to have your cake and eat it too - keep the property.  As the value increases, continue to pull money out of it to invest elsewhere. Don't sell because of fear - that you'll regret it if you pass up this money or your property won't sell because it's surrounded by townhouses (Really!?! Listen to yourself). As long as the house is making you money, you're laughing.

There's a real estate club REAG (Ozzie Jurock) that is a great place to learn about affordable areas to invest, and, while there, talk to @Kyle Green, a mortgage broker, who can advise you on making your house work for you without uprooting your life.

People usually regret selling more than anything. 

Best wishes

Hi Sim.  I'm just posting to comment on what great feedback you got.  Did you get a chance to listen to the webinar on investing in duplexes, triples,  etc this week? I'm not "Pro" so I can't go back and look at past webinars but I do have the link until this Friday night if you'd like it.  If so, just send me a "colleague request" under "connect" and I'll send it.

I'm from Canada so I'm not sure what FHA loans are like, but here, if you're self-employed, the bank is more inclined to give you a mortgage if the property makes its own money. (Banks here do not have faith in the ups and downs of the entrepreneurial spirit).

Best of luck with your endeavor!!

I painted the tile inside a shower and it lasted three years (or more) of daily family use.  The key was using the shellac based primer by Zinsser, available at Home Depot.  It's amazing. Cover with exterior gloss and you will be surprised how well it works.

My (limited) experience with appraisers is that most of their work is done before they see your property.  Their appraisal will, of necessity, contain a selection of properties in your area in degrees of repair from poor to great. You can look at the same 'for sale' and 'sold' properties to guage the range and find the ceiling. They seem to look at the house as a whole rather than any particular finish, for example, granite counter tops won't distract them from seeing all the poorly installed tiling and paint sloped on windows. Keep a good part of your focus on the rent you can achieve with the improvements you're making. That goes a long way in the valuation of your property. Don't invest more than you can gain back in rent for that area.

I second what @Manolo D. said about going to Biggerpockets.com/store and getting 'The book on estimating'. 

Hi Angela

Have you read 'The step by step guide to rehabbing' post here?  It's a good one.  I remember you saying that you were doing a lot of good reading and it's a good one to add to the list.

On top of starting to get pricing for local estimates, you can start using your visits to properties to make room by room checklists so when you walk a property you'll get better and better at notation items to help with your estimating and the creation of your scope of work.

You might want to start checking out suppliers - don't forget to familiarize yourself with some of the used building suppliers in your area - Restore, etc.  They can be a great source for certain items - sometimes it's the luck of the draw but there are some things you can pretty well depend on.

@Julie Brandenberger mentioned 'draws', meaning the portion of $ the 'bank' advances at a time - usually about a third I think - they'll want to know what things you're going to do in what order and how much it will cost - another reason you'll need to know it before you start.

You mentioned that you'd be focusing on properties needing cosmetic work primarily - it's a bit of a slippery slope - you need to balance between finding a property that isn't too complicated for your first flip but the danger there is that you're going to have some competition in that realm from both homeowners and other flippers - and sometimes the value that you add can easily be eaten up by holding fees, realtor costs, etc and you end up having worked for $1/hr. Or less.  So just carpet and paint doesn't usually cut it.

And about price dropping for properties needing work - as long as you've got "subject to inspection" in black and white, you can make your original offer for full price to get their attention and then use every little blip on the inspection to drop your offer by thousands and thousands. And thousands.  Once you have them negotiating, it's harder for them to walk away.  As long as YOU can walk away.  It's often said that "the first offer is usually the best one" and it's likely their realtor will be reminding them of that very thing.

Although that's not really relevant to the question I guess.

But just to reiterate,  the more work you do beforehand, the more likely you'll be able to let the work proceed without needing to micro-manage. It's the running back and forth to the store that'll kill you when work's in process. 

 - when you know you're going to be working full time, it's really important that you have a very good 'scope of work' in place with as much detail as you can possibly foresee as well as a pretty clear idea of the materials you're going to be using.  Pick your paints, your floorings, your faucets, and your cabinetry at least before the work starts and even better, before you get a contractor to bid on the work.  The more you can prepare things in advance, the more smoothly things will go and the more independently your team can go forward.