All Forum Posts by: Tim Bradley

Monday October 7th update

1. I pulled down some panel board and there was a surprise hiding for me.  A LIVE wire buried in the wall.  Oh joy.  This will actually work out since I am adding a wall there though so it will just be an outlet

2.  The two guest baths were reglazed.  Im making constructive progress finally!!!

@James Orr I just closed on a property around 9% below MLS. This was also after a couple months of the price being lowered 2 or 3 times. Just outside Orlando. Nothing special here too. I sent out about 15 lowball offers in total and closed on this one. This is a major rehab though as well as sat on the market a couple months. That might skew the data. Like you said would be interesting to have that chart.

@Lesley Resnick wont be at the conference

Sunday night Oct 6 update.  

My wife is in between semesters for her masters degree so she helped me out today.  That was super nice to have her at the house with me.  Not the exact phrasing she was using at the end of today but I could read in between the lines and heard the love being reciprocated. 

1. I removed an old outside dog cage and 4,983,027 cinder blocks that were just laying around.  Apparently the previous owner was going to build a replica pyramid or something.  Scrap metal from dog cage went to my awesome nosy neighbor Jerry.  He was happy.  Task done, easy, Im sure everything else will go just as well today.....   

2 & 3.  I am lumping these together as they are tied for stupid.  The wife painted one room while I skim coated another.  I chose the first color to paint.  I wanted a nice definitive grey and not something so light you didnt know it was grey.  And boy did I get grey.  I got HEY LOOK AT ME IM GREY!!!  It looked like crap.  But luckily she only painted AN ENTIRE ROOM before we both decided it looked awful.  Plus this was supposed to be the whole house color so I of course bought a 5gal bucket.  We go to lowes, she picks the new color.  Light, happy, a little whisper of look at me Im grey.  She paints the room again and of course.  It looks awful.  Well not awfu.  Its grey as in a little mouse whispered into a gallon of white paint and suggested it be grey.  If you turn all the lights off and squint you can kind of tell its grey.  At least thats what we are telling ourselves.  Ok its white, just white.  So now we (haha "we," I mean she, love you babe!) has painted the room twice and still have to go back to lowes and find a new color.  Ill keep you posted on that one.  So while she was painting I was spackling.  The master has panel board and I am attempting to save time and money by not removing it and just skim coating the grooves and then adding texture later.  It should look just like sheet rock.  Haha save time.  Two coats later and you can still see the joints of the panel board.  So to recap we have painted a room twice and still its not right, have skim coated another room twice and that one is also not right.  Rehab is great kids.  You should totally do it!!!  

First pick is the LOOK AT ME IM GREY as well as mouse fart (I mean whisper) grey.  Second pic is the skim coat over the panel board.  I did it in the closet too, you can see it through the doorway.

This will be a continuously updated step by step BRRRR post. I stole this idea from @Lesley Resnick so I first need to give her some credit. I really enjoy reading about her progress and it inspired me to do it as well. This is my very first BRRRR although I have several rentals already but they were more paint and lipstick projects. I am about through demo currently so there will be a lot all at once in this post and then the follow ups will be shorter.

Purchase price was $108K off the MLS. I had watched the property for a while and it was originally listed around $140K and had dropped over a few months. Was at $118K when I put an offer in. I offered $100K even and eventually closed at $108K. Property is in Titusville, FL. My estimated ARV is $215K. Yeah, a big increase but man am I working for it. Quick story on the negotiation, during my inspection period I found a bunch of stuff I didn't originally notice and tried to negotiate from $108 back down to my original $100. Seller basically came back with oh you found issues, cool story man, the price is $108. And I said great! But on the inside I said Booooooooooo. Well, you never know until you try. Oh also this house was listed as a 3/2.5 and its 1900 sq ft. This is easily (I am very casually throwing that word around) converted to a 4 bed and there is already a 3rd full bath, it just wasnt listed correctly. 4/3 here we come!

As this is my first BRRRR I wanted to do something relatively easy (there is that "easy" word again) but life really doesnt care what you want and sometimes you are given lemons (or something like that). This house needs everything. HVAC, electrical, roof, plumbing, love, attention, flooring, bathrooms, pizza, kitchen, you name it its in the rehab. 1st ever major rehab, what could go wrong?! (Foreshadowing?) Rehab budget is 55K. Ha! Rehab budget WAS 55k is more like it. Im at 65K currently. But I was suuuuper conservative in my numbers to start with so I went from getting all my money back out during "R" 3 to leaving some in the deal. And did I mention that I am doing most of the work myself. Basically if it doesn't require a permit, I'm it! And I have a full time job. Hence why I am writing this post at 4am on a Sunday. However, I am a program manager in my real life so Im used to managing resources, budgets, milestones, headaches, etc. So while this is a major rehab and its my first its really just another project Im running.

Moving on.  Heres where I am at
1. Security system installed. I am leaving a lot of my tools at the house, this was great piece of mind. Plus I can use it at my next BRRRR. Of course the 1st system didn't work though. Which I found out AFTER I installed it. Always read the directions kids. The directions even said to test it before installing it. Who puts that in the directions? People who have crappy products, thats who. Literally the very first thing I did with this house and I am already having problems. Good times
2. There was a fuel tank buried on the property.  Removed it no problem, no leaks!  I really gambled on that one b/c if there was thats BIG remediation money.  There was even 100gal of fuel left in the tank.  The house was converted to electric so long ago that the current owner didnt even know it was there.  How is that possible?!
3. HVAC installed.  Woo Hoo!  Its FL, its like living on the surface of the sun, you bet your booty that went in first, errrrr 3rd.  Whatever.  There is also an addition that has a through the wall unit that needed replacing.  I got a new one of those too.  And after installing it and firing it up you guessed it!  Doesnt work.  Im noticing a trend here.  Kids, make sure to test the 80lb product before lifting it up and installing it.  At least I had no one to help me so thats good. 
4. All new well equipment installed.  Filters, pump, more filters, well stuff (my first well,can you tell?).  Well guy leaves and two days later....you guessed it again! (man you guys are good) No water.  How important is water though, maybe my tenants will bring their own. There is a whole other posts worth of info about that one (the well, not tenants bringing their own water) but to sum it up: dry well bad, expensive fix
5. Tile removed, bathrooms gutted, moldy drywall removed.  Oh yeah MOLD!  This house has mold too!  Forgot to mention that.  Just add it to the list of "easy" fixes. Leaky roof + rain + FL heat = mold.  Its in the garage area though so as far as mold goes its as good a situation as it gets.  
6. Guest bath tile was reglazed.  First thing to get put back together!  Yesterday was last day of demo.  I am now moving on to actually making the house look nice as opposed to gutting it. 

Here are some pictures of the house.    They are sideways b/c I enjoy the thought of people reading this post and then turning their heads to see the picture.  Or maybe its b/c no matter what I do I cant get them to rotate.  Any geniuses out there know how?  The large untouched room is where I will add the 4th bedroom.

Oh man I forgot about electrical.  Whoever wired this house was just mean.  There are switches everywhere and I spend about 10 min every single day Im at the house trying to figure out what they go to.  I have several that I still dont have a clue what they do.  And I have had to rewire a few b/c they were done wrong.   But that just adds to the excitement right?! (no)   I did make some major headway though when I realized that the previous owners basically just lived in the dark.  Because I think 1 maybe 2 light bulbs in the entire house worked.  Its hard to tell if a switch works if all the lights are blown out!

I also need to mention my neighbors.  They are super nice and SUPER nosy.  They stop by, want tours of the house, ask me what Im doing.  But nosy neighbors are great when you arent around.  They will keep an eye on the place and I will make the place look great again.  Win Win!  I have also been shoveling all my appliances and anything worth keeping over to them for free so that might help too.

Thanks for sticking in all the way to the end.  Here is a picture of my lazy coworkers as a reward

Oh I forgot. Florida has net metering (meaning you can sell your power back to the power company at the same price they charge you for it) which is why the battery backup isn’t worth it. Other states this might not be the case and a battery makes sense there. 

@Nick Murray I have had my house appraised recently and have my entire house powered by solar. The increase was minimal, maybe $5k and it’s a $50k system before taxes. I didn’t do it for the home value increase though.

As others have mentioned the price of solar is for sure worth it now if you will be in your house for as long as it takes to pay it back. Currently with price drops and efficiency increases it’s down to about 8yrs WITHOUT a battery backup. Those suckers are expensive and make payoff take forever. Not sure those are worth it as the payoff is longer than the warranty.

@Lesley Resnick will you have any garage at all after closing in the car port? Or a storage shed out back? I have a property where the car port is converted to a not under air room and no garage now. My PM suggested converting it back as tenants need storage and a garage. Thoughts?

@Keleisha Carter realty medics is who I use. They are one of the top companies for property management in Orlando and central Florida.

@Cynthia Brownlee I never get sinkhole coverage on any of my houses. Unless you’re in a known sinkhole area, and I don’t just mean FL in general but a known town or even neighborhood then I wouldn’t worry about it. There are websites you can check that show this. Unfortunately you might have to pay. Just google sunk holes and your county. But it’s your own personal risk level you’re comfortable with. I don’t know anyone who actually has it.