All Forum Posts by: Victor Evans

@Chris Strokes , let me know how I can help put together the meetup.

@Jennifer Brown , structural engineer here!... I would love to join your team... only if I lived in TX :(. You can look up active licensed civil/structural engineers by going to the TX board of Professional Engineers website. 

https://engineers.texas.gov/roster/pesearch.html

Now, keep in mind that not all civil PE are the same... sub-disciplines of civil engineering includes engineers who specialize in material science, coastal, earthquake, environmental, water resources, geotechnical, structural, transportation, etc... 

Given your location, I would seek out a licensed engineer who's experienced in structural and geotechnical engineering. If you head out to places like Houston, maybe coastal (depends on how close you are to the water...)

If you have any structural and geotechnical related questions, let me know!

@Stefanie Jensen I would start by talking to your husband about WHY you want to get into REI. I don't know your motivation or what would drive your husband to jump on the bandwagon but for me personally, it's to achieve financial freedom and having the choice to spend time with my family. Personally, the ability to spend time with family is worth the risk that comes with REI.

1. Make sure to put a lien on the property so that you can foreclose on it if your friend doesn't/cannot pay. make sure that there's enough value in the property so that you can make back the 150K if your friend fails in the deal... 

@Account Closed , good call on the respirator. Safety First!

Regardless of whether you keep him as a tenant or not, I would turn the property over to a PM ASAP! 

@Eric M. Since you have nothing but time, have you thought about working for your local flipper or wholesaler? You might be working for free but you'll gain great experience and knowledge that will help you in your REI goal.

@Rupesh Mehta , Do you have any photos of foundation issue that you can share?

This is wild! I have several concerns so bare with me... The 1st photo shows the concrete porch is correctly sloped away from the house but the steps look sloped toward the building, which will cause water to run toward the house. Seeing that flashing was not installed, you have water penetrating between the gaps. 2nd photo shows concrete spalling (most likely due to freeze-thaw cycle) and exposed rebar now beginning to rust. Judging by the photo, you have a one-way slab spanning from the two bearing walls. Your slab is subject to bending stress from self-weight, dead load, and live load and the tensile stress is resisted by the rebar. As your rebars become rusted, the effective tensile resisting area is reduced, and eventually, the tensile force becomes greater than tensile strength, which will cause your slab to fail. I'm also concerned how your wood end-joist is acting as a simply supported beam, carrying all the loads from the exterior and interior floor joists to the bearing wall at the end of the span. It almost looks like there was a wall directly beneath the end-joist at one point but was removed without properly upsizing the beam. Due to the water penetration, the wood joist looks rotted, further reducing its capacity. I'm not sure what you are planning on doing with the property but my recommendation is to get someone in there that knows what they are doing... If you want to apply some band-aid to stop water for the time being, you can use a polyurethane injection foam to fill the gap. This, however, will not address your structural problem... Good luck.   

@Gary Booth , I'm a certified PE (structural) in the state of MD, so I won't be able to sign off on anything in FL. But feel free to bounce ideas off of me whenever you like.. :)