All Forum Posts by: Tucker Long

Hey All!

Setting up an Air BNB, looking for a new mattress that provides good value. Looks like many people are going with self expanding mattress's Tuft and Needle, Casper, Nest, etc. The conflicting reviews makes it seem impossible to determine what's actually a solid mattress that will hold up, just when I think I've found the one I find some pretty convincing reviews and pics that make it seem like a bad product.

So, any first hand experiences with a mattress you're really happy with in your STR?

Hey all! Just picked up a new property, it's two blocks away from on of the biggest universities in the world. Beautiful condition overall, despite being 120 years old. The whole house is super solid, with the exception of an addition built on the back.

The plan

Hold this house until I die. For now, live in the upstairs and rent or air bnb bottom out, can setup house as a functional duplex. 

The problem

I need to renovate the kitchen and add a full bath downstairs, current kitchen and this future bath are both in the addition. The entire addition is sloping uniformly away from the house at about 1 3/8" per 6' . The slope is uniform on both levels. It is substantial, you can feel it walking in, see it in doors and windows, and notice it when the back door drags.

The options

Luckily, a top notch foundation repair contractor offered to help me out. He's offered to walk me through the repair myself for a very modest consulting fee, he's doing it as a favor. Options...

1. Hire this well regarded contractor to level with his crew and special equipment, he described it as drilling columns 10's of feet deep around foundation, getting a plate under foundation attached to the columns, and raising it. He said rough ball park is $15k for this job.

Pros- done right, done fast, income starts sooner

Cons- Painful to spend the cash

2. He works as a consultant as I do the work with my own contractors/myself with this process: trench around the whole foundation, dig under footer ever couple feet, insert bottle jacks under footer between two steel plates, every two feet, life house several pumps at a time, going jack to jack, get it level, insert rebar and pump new concrete in for footer. Back fill. We've thought a lot through this, guessing I'd have around $5k into this + one to two weeks of my time...

Pros- It's done right for much cheaper, I have everything I need to make this happen including the time.

Cons- Probably will be summer before I get this and bath/kitchen renno completed. 

3. Leave structure in place, rip up kitchen subfloor (floor getting replaced anyway), add new level joists, relay floor. I'm not a huge fan of this.

Pros- Cheaper than previous option and end up with level floor.

Cons- I don't like doing things half way, this house is nice enough and ROI is good enough to do this the right way.

4. Leave floors as is, instead of doing full nice rehab just paint cabinets, drop in new sink and counter tops, and put in new floors. Install the bathroom on the sloping floors, will have to build up shower area to be level but no big deal.

Pros- Fast, cheap, income starts sooner

Cons- Obviously the annoying sloping floors, renovating kitchen and adding bath on sloping floors pains me.

Conclusion

I can put in the bath and kitchen leaving the floors as it quickly and at wholesale cost, I'm confident this is the route most people would take in my circumstance. However, I truly intent to keep this house for many decades/forever so a big part of my wants to go all out despite much higher costs and delayed income on the front end.

Please, share your thoughts, ideas, and experience in similar situations. Below are pics of the addition. Thank you!!!

Kitchen

Can see slope above door

Amount of slope

Upper addition, it's a sunroom/office/extension of small bedroom. Less concerned about slope here compared to first floor.

Ebony,

Thanks for taking the time to write out that thoughtful response. Very helpful perspective! I will put your ideas to work. 

Hello,

Working with some partners to decrease vacancy rate of 160 residential units in a large Ohio town near Columbus. Currently have about 9 empties, we will get them rented eventually but recognize the large amount of money lost every month that passes. Right now, most of our new tenants come in by word of mouth. This company has been around for over 60 years and is a house hold name in this town. Other, larger portfolios in the area are using apartments.com, rent.com, apartmentguide.com etc. We've used local newpapers advertising for years but cut that off last year due to low return on investment. So wondering:

1. For $250 per month would you think that aforementioned websites are worth trying out? Keep in mind our competitors are using it. This may seems like a no brainer, the reason I'm asking is we also have options like PPC for our website and/or facebook ads.

2. What are the most effective marketing tools you are aware of for a situation like this?

Thanks for any thoughts!

Hello,

I'm working on building my real estate brand and am having a hard time deciding how much to combine or separate the sales side of my business from the investing side of things. My intuition is for the sake of clarity, keeping people's attention, maximizing SEO results, and reducing liability that operating two separate companies and brands may be best. I own MyOhioProperty.com and EvolvedProperty.com. I have been imagining building my sales website (buyers guide, community pages, IDX integration, home valuation page, etc) on MyOhioProperty.com and then building Evolvedproperty.com to give details on our services including making cash offers on homes, renovations, and our homes for rent. For the forseeable future, it's very likely I'll keep my sales business in Ohio while there is a high likelihood I will invest out of state.

So my concern with the plan above is it's splitting my recourses in two and I'm not starting with much. I would prefer to find a way to put my marketing dollars toward one brand, neither company name strikes me as perfectly all encompassing though. EvolvedProperty is somewhat vague and doesn't automatically trigger thoughts of a home sale. I feel like MyOhioProperty is a bit more self explanatory, even though it doesn't directly have sales in it. Even if money weren't a concern, two companies will limit me in other ways such as what marketing would I choose to put on vehicles, introducing two companies to people I network with, etc. 

I've spent a long time trying to find a better company name that has a .com domain open and I probably don't have to tell you all, it's damn hard to find good openings these days. If something like EasyHomes.com was open this whole dillema would probably be solved, I've spent 10's of hours searching and these are the two best names I've come up with. I also own BetterResidence, SelectShelter and SunnyShelter (all .com) but when polling friends, many replied both had immediate negative connotation (they thought of homeless and animal shelters) and I fear I will forever be asked if it's betterresidence or betterresidents. MyOhioProperty could be the answer if I knew I wanted to invest only in Ohio, but I'm sure I DON'T want to limit myself to just this state. And I really don't want to build a new site for every state I enter.

I realize this is really long winded and without much direction, I'm just lost on how to move forward so would really appreciate some outside input or perspective at this point. I also haven't consulted an attorney on this and am wondering if having investing (I buy houses cash type marketing) and licensed sales marketing on one website is too much of a conflict of interest even if disclosures are in place. AHHHH

Options:

1. MyOhioProperty.com for all real estate activity including PM, investing, and sales.

2. EvolvedProperty.com for all real estate activity including PM, investing, and sales.

3. MyOhioProperty.com for sales and EvolvedProperty.com for investing/I buy homes cash type marketing.

4. Something else/spend more time domain and business name hunting.

Thanks for your time,

Thank you both so much for the responses. It's been a crazy week, will look into your suggestions further tomorrow.

Best,

Hi,

I'm brainstorming with a family member who is part owner of a mobile home park in Ohio that has about 100 lots. The park is the nicest one in the area, we just need to fill the empty lots. We've thought about about direct mailing residents at other parts advertising an incentive to move, it just seems a bit unethical or in bad taste if nothing else. Poaching tenants feels wrong, what do you think? We have good relationships with other local park owners and wouldn't want to damage their business just for our gain. We have a dealer we refer new buyers to, but we just don't get enough calls on them. When they do call and find out the new home payment and lot rent combined would be a nice mortgage payment, they often lose interest. Most of the tenants have been there for a decade or more and the population is aging. We really need to start filling these empty lots to avoid getting behind the ball. We've done some lease to owns in the past but are trying to get more owners in, not more rental homes.

So, does anyone else have strategies to attract owners that's worked well? 

Thanks for any ideas!

Hey all!

Does anyone know of a service or strategy to have my clients testimonials syndicated across multiple platforms without them needing to manually do the posting? Ideally, a system that they write one review then select or agree to the testimonial going to at least Zillow/trulia, Google, Yelp, my website, and maybe FB/Linkedin? 

I would greatly appreciate any leads, while searching around I found mention of such a service in a comment but the poster couldn't remember what the company was called. Worst case, I'll request clients review on multiple platforms but know that each extra step decreases the chance of them following through and having a good experience.

Thanks!