All Forum Posts by: Todd Fithian

Welcome Lucas! Always eager to hear from experienced investors. Hope to hear from ya!

I'd definitely agree that it's probably a win win across the board. In the defense of dewalt, I might have a biased opinion about them because I did have the older sets, and like Chris Karley said I'm sure they've stepped up their game quiet a bit. One of the guys in the crew has a new Dewalt set and it's a nice set up and he swears by it, but as for the sake of good ol work arguments and "S-talking" we are always bashing each other's brands haha. I've got an older dewalt drill that for some reason has stood the abuse of time and I've had forever, and we call it Ol stinky because it's old and needs new brushes, and every time my dewalt guy and me get to arguing he brings up ol stinky in his defense. So in reality it really is a toss up, especially in today's awesome new tools. Like you said, it's a Chevy, ford, dodge argument. I will say though, ive dropped my Makitas many times and they are a solid set up, and until me and my guy I've got working with a dewalt set up make a compromise, I'm makita all the way (lol).

Hey Ryan! Awesome on wanting a good set up. Just speaking out experience, I've had, and used and abused pretty much every cordless tool brand in the market. I'm a contractor and when I first started I always thought dewalt was the top dog. But years after years of realizing how much trouble I've had with dewalt, I had to make a change. It's obviously really good to stick to one cordless brand because the tools are all interchangeable with their batteries for the most part, meaning a drill battery will most likely fit a cordless circular saw and so on and so on. If you're looking for a really cheap, easily replaceable cordless set that probably won't last forever but will do the job and can be replaced cheaply, ryobi is the way to go. If you want to make the investment and have a setup that will probably last you longer than you ever thought possible, Milwaukee and Makita is my pick. I switched over to Makita about 6 years ago and I still have every single tool that I originally bought, working great, and we use them everyday, heavily. Yea there's an occasional battery to replace ever once in a blue moon, but the tools themselves are amazing. Pricey but amazing. You get what you pay for. I'll probably get someone disagreeing with me about the dewalt bash, but it's just from my experience. We used them every day, constantly, and I went through countless drills, an unbelievable amount of batteries, and so on. I'd shy away. Anyways, that's my two cents.

I agree with it being a bigger job than you think. I've done dozens of bathrooms and it always seems like a pretty easy, self explanatory job at first, but usually isn't. Not saying you can't, by all means give it a whack, but with the subfloor problems, and setting tubs and plumbing it might be a bigger undertaking than originally thought. With that being said, yes it would be a wealth of learning to do it on your own, but sometimes mistakes on something major like a subfloor could result in a much bigger and costlier fix later on. Possibly ask around if you have a friend/relative with this type of construction experience that you can pay to do the work, but with you, learning at the same time. If you try and shadow a contractor or stand in the doorway during the work the entire time to learn, you'll probably find yourself bugging the heck out of the contractors and might not see them again if you need further work.

Hey Raeshelle C. ! I don't mean any offense to anyone here because by no means am I some real estate mogul, but I wouldn't listen to anyone saying you can't house hack for less than $10k. I live in the heart of expensive Southern California, and was able to purchase and house hack a duplex for less than $10k. Was it hard? Hell yea. Did it pay off? Hell yea! Just might have to lower the standards a bit now so you can reap the benefits in the later. Yes the hot market makes it more difficult, but you've got to learn to find great deals, not good ones.

Keep that bad boy, find awesome tenants, pay it down, reuse the equity again and again.

Man, when the big dogs come out to play on a post like this, I just shut my mouth, sit Indian style and absorb. There isn't any better wealth and knowledge to take in. Thanks all for going into such detail, these are some grade A posts. Aaron Mazzrillo that was some great stuff. Loved your podcast by the way. You still in touch with Stephen Mckee? His meetups have gotten real professional and worthwhile in Riverside. If I could start over, I would take a step back and realize that I can't be every position in the realm of real estate, and to build trusting relationships. Jack of everything but a master of none is actually pretty damaging in real estate because I've only been half, or two thirds good in pretty much everything when it should be a focused success with networking. I still struggle with that a bit

Michael Hayworth couldn't have said it better myself man. Perfect. Our work has been mid to high end homeowner work for years. Easy, no hassle, paid properly, and time and time again we get an investor who might talk us into a project or two and I couldn't tell you the last time it wasn't extremely stressful, or cutting corners and cost. We do good work, having to lessen our standards because the planning on the investors part is either too tight or unrealistic is a massive hit to the conscience. Poor planning on your part does not create an emergency on ours. I'm sure there's a good balanced investor/contractor relationship out there somewhere, we just have yet to find one. So, we became investors ourselves! No one to better understand your contractor than to BE your own contractor!

Marcia Maynard wow that's so sad and intense at the same time. Good on you for the way you handled it. I tend to have more of a temper so maybe I can learn a bit from you lol

Just another upvote for "do it". I did it in a duplex and was paying $145 a month out of pocket, after we moved out we rented it the unit out and cash flowed real nicely after all expenses, including PMI and PITI, cap ex etc etc. Well worth it. And as Steve said, it will make your personal savings and life so much easier and worth while.