All Forum Posts by: Tory Kelliher

Oh yeah and to top it off I am unclear on the appraisal side of this. Some banks/appraisers say that if a certain amount of the space is below grade they won't count it towards your living space. I have not had that experience dealing with appraisers, but I have definitely heard of people running into this situation. Good luck!

@Jay M. hit the nail on the head here. Only things I would add...

1. Finished floor to ceiling height has to be at least 6'8" in a basement (your house looks newer so I'll assume it is)
2. Minimum habitable room size is 70 sqft and at least 7' in either direction. Again closets have nothing to do with the legality of a bedroom.
3. If your emergency egress window is below grade you will need a window well of at least 9 sqft and it must protrude at least 3' in out from the basement wall and allow the window to fully open. You also need a ladder in the window well if it's deeper than 44" but doesn't look like that would be the case for you.
4. If you're in a duplex I assume there may be a condo association....make sure there's nothing in your condo docs that states you can't add finished space in the basement. 
5. YOU NEED TO LOOK INTO YOUR TOWN'S ZONING BYLAWS....and you should talk to the building inspector before you get too far into things. It might all look good on paper and your building department could just say NO. I don't work in Worcester so I don't know, but in some cities (BOSTON) they have Floor Area Ratios, which prevent you from going over a certain amount of gross living space based on the size of your lot. I deal with this in Boston all the time and it's always holding me up from adding bedrooms in the basement or attic unless I want to go in front of the ZBA. Which reminds me....I know Worcester is smaller but if you're adding legal living space they may want a survey of the lot, architectural plans for the added space, don't forget about permit fees and other things that will hit your wallet. 

I've used rentometer as well...you can also check huduser for their fair market rents in any town.

Hey Brian,

I really hesitate to tell someone else what their construction costs will be. So much of that depends on the type of rehabs you are doing and relationships with contractors. We typically gut houses to the studs and do it "right", but the houses are usually pretty beat up. We also do some new construction, so I'm sure other flippers have a much different mindset. Some people on the other end of the spectrum find houses that they feel comfortable leaving the existing wiring, heating, and plumbing systems. They leave most of the drywall up and probably never wind up touching insulation or mechanical systems. Throw some lipstick on it and get out of there.

I do have some excel sheets I use for budgeting...feel free to message me if you want some help. 

Hi BiggerPockets Community,

I'm looking for some help with historical real estate data research. I am trying to compile historical real estate data going back to before the last market crash, so let's say back 15 years to 2004. I'm looking for metrics like median sales price, average sales price, historical inventory, historical days on market, etc. Also, I need it granular enough that I'm pulling data for individual zip codes. 

I know most people's response is probably going to be "use your agent to pull data for you from the MLS". That doesn't really work because I need the data across multiple states and I can't waste time asking agents every time I want to analyze a new city for potential investment. The next likely choice would be one of the third party sites (i.e. Zillow, Truilia, Realtor.com). Although these sites do have some great historical data, almost none of their metrics go back far enough. Most of their data only goes back to post crash (i.e. 2012 and after). After searching these sites, I have moved on to speaking with data companies like ATTOM and CoreLogic, but they don't really seem to offer a platform for researching historical data, and buying bulk data is expensive and hard to process in such mass quantities.

If anyone has dealt with this problem before and has a solution I would REALLY appreciate the help! Whenever I run out of ideas the BiggerPockets community is usually the best place to turn!

Hello BP,

My company just started up a new flip in Medford, Massachusetts. I'm looking for referrals for a good electrician in the area (North of Boston). We typically take on projects south or west of Boston, but this deal just happened to fall across my lap. All of my "go to" electricians are either busy working on our other projects or don't typically work North of Boston. Any recommendations would be much appreciated! While I'm at it, if you have any plumbers or HVAC contractors in that area I would welcome their bids as well. The project is a full gut with a new 2 story addition, so it will be all new electrical/plumbing/HVAC.

Thanks BP!

Hi BP,

I'm looking for anyone who has experience with remodeling/construction in the city of Boston. I just bought a 2-family and I'm going to be doing a major renovation. I've heard that if you are doing a certain amount of renovation they label it new construction, which brings a bunch of baggage (i.e. accounting for drainage of all impervious surfaces and installing an underground system to handle rainwater, also replacing the water and sewer lines to the main in the street if they don't meet today's standards). Can anyone enlighten me as to what the threshold is that will trigger the new construction label. Boston ISD is not very helpful.

Thanks!

@Corey Melkonian I'm not sure I completely understand, you stated the seller died. Were you in contact with this person before death? Did they list their property for sale before passing or did you just find out about the property after the fact? How do you know there are no living relatives? When someone dies without a will it's what they call "intestate". In this scenario the case will go to an attorney who receives state appointed cases such as this. That attorney will confirm the existence of any heirs etc. If there are none the property will go to the state of Massachusetts.  This rarely happens because the laws are setup to give the property to anyone who is even remotely related to the deceased owner. Your best bet is to find out what attorney is being appointed this estate and contact him/her directly. Chances are the property will eventually be put on the market, but with any luck there is a remote relative who will receive the property and just wants some fast cash. You may be able to make the estate attorney an offer directly and snag the property before it hits the market. 

Don't get discouraged @Edward Pimentel! If it were easy everyone would do it! First of all, from my experience probate/estate deals are often the best deals out there, so you are on the right track. If you can develop a relationship with a local probate/estate attorney that could be worth its weight in gold. Now that isn't any easy task, but it can certainly be done. Do whatever you have to do to get good off market deals and the rest will follow. Shoot me a PM, I'm always looking for motivated wholesalers in the area.

I wouldn't even be worried about the P&S at this point. You can download the MA standard offer sheet and use that to get a property under contract.

I'm looking for a good demo crew in Framingham Massachusetts. I'm currently taking bids to tear down a small single family residence (768 sqft). Does anyone have any recommendations? People you have worked with in the past?

Thanks!