All Forum Posts by: Todd Kozak

@James Heller I would love to see your video.

Good story about not quitting.

@Denzel Faulken

$21.04 plus filling up the tank gets me a Home Depot pickup truck for 75 minutes. I've used it 3 times on one rehab. My girlfriend said I probably need a truck if I have to keep renting. But....all I added to my rehab cost is under $75.

Unless you have other reasons for wanting a truck or you plan to be doing enough of the rehab that you will need one all the time, you don't really need one.

@Jonathan Beaumont

I had a similar situation.

I purchased a house in need of a decent sized rehab but that was "good enough" for the tenant that was already there for 12 years. She told me all the issues but said the roof never leaked. The former owner told me it probably needed to be replaced but also that it didn't leak. Tenant moved out and the rehab started.

I had many roofers look at it and all but one said replace it all or replace the half that is bad.

I also thought "well if there are no leaks why not see if I can get another 5 years out of it"

One reason has been stated on this post - do you want to wait it out until a leaks destroys the house? No.

The other reason is this:

My insurance company initially gave me a higher rate since we couldn't determine the age of the roof and it didn't look great. With the new roof, I save $770/year insurance. Roof cost $4k. So in 5 years I'll have a free 5-year old roof.

Check and see if insurance gives you certain savings with a brand new roof.

@Carini Rochester

When I figured my numbers for this house I added in $5,000 for costs associated with an eviction, removing her stuff, missed rent, etc. she missed about $2k rent, it was a little over $1k to remove her stuff, and current legal fees are about $1k. So I pretty much got what I expected so yes I consider it a good deal. If I recoup any money than even better. What I want to avoid is paying another $1k or more in legal fees and getting nothing back. The court date is mid January and I will have all kinds of stuff documented for my lawyer (detailed narrative of all that happened with dates listed, pictures of text messages, pictures inside the house on different dates, etc). So I'm willing to pay lawyer costs to show up to court and at that point I'll decide what to do afterwards, based on how it goes.

Giving an update

I wrote a note stating that since she didn't respond I expect her out by end of September, when the lease ends. I also said since her rent is late, I would be forced to start the eviction process if she didn't respond. I taped it to the door, took a picture and texted it to her.

Magically she responded (after 3 weeks of no respjnse) with all kinds of excuses but ultimately said she isn't paying September and is trying to move out.

I said if you are out by end of September you don't owe me Sept rent, have a nice day, consider it a gift.

End of Sept comes and house is still full and she still has excuses. I said I'll take care of all your stuff on one day and have it all moved where you want. No response.

October comes and lawyer files eviction. Before she was served, 3 weeks later at end of October she says she is out and I can take over. Though a ton of her crap is still there. A ton.

I am following through with the eviction since she did get served in November at her work. She is out and my rehab is close to complete. She owes me for the cost to remove her stuff, 2 months rent and lawyer fees. Will I get anything? Don't know. She is already served so I am going to go ahead and let the court date go on and I'll update again later.

@Kyle Eckert

Hi, I would be interested in what company you would recommend as well.

@Sandeep Roy

Is this going to be a rental property? Is this an unfinished basement? If yes to both...

I ended up having the areas that might have been mold cleaned up and I put in a commercial dehumidifier. There is still water that comes into the basement but I just make my tenants aware it's an old unfinished basement and be sure anything stored down there is protected from potential water from heavy rain.

I also adjusted the gutters. Make sure your gutters are doing what they are supposed to.

If you want to really get it fixed you can put in a drain tile system and sump pump. It's expensive though. But depending on your plans with the house it might be worth it. To me I decided not to since a lot of these older south city houses have basement water.

@Pauline Jones hi did you go to this event 4 years ago? Do you know anything about Jason and Global Fortune Solutions? Did they provide you value? I recently listened to a seminar and they are selling their tax delinquent blueprint.

@Lev Gevian I'll post what I end up doing and how it works out

@Bruce Woodruff it's my 5th (sold one so down to 4). I am thourough and particular with who I let rent so I have great tenants. Therefore I haven't had to deal with posting a note. This one was bought with a tenant so I knew it would be different. Anyway that's why I haven't dealt with or heard of posting note.