The next level beyond that would be to invest internationally.For me I would value more highly having a brand in a specific city and be able to exercise economies of scale with contractors, materials, etc. over ensuring that I am hedged against any type of economic changes.At some point I think it becomes a "chicken little" type situation. 6 units in 1 city does not seem excessive to me.Another simple way to diversify would be to invest in different types of units.

One recommendation that I got which has been very helpful when looking for people in a particular trade is to call the materials suppliers to ask for the names of a few people they would recommend.

Spray foam is not an acceptable roofing material.

First, I'm not a typical real estate agent (I only represent my own deals), and I certainly don't deal with multi-million dollar properties, so this is just an opinion...I'm guessing that much of what they portray on that show is true enough, but the important thing to remember is that they only portray the most interesting and exciting 1% of what those agents do.For example, for every $400K "snap of the fingers" commission they show, they ignore the 20 deals that don't materialize, even after the agent spends lot of time and money wooing the client and marketing the deal.I'm sure the top agents are driving $100K cars (hell, I know some very unsuccessful agents who drive $60K cars), spend their time shmoozing over expensive lunches and have ultra-rich buyers who are happy to make offers site-unseen, but this doesn't reflect the other 15 hours/day where the agents are cold calling, dealing with tire-kickers, getting fired by unreasonable sellers, and spending money on banal marketing campaigns that don't generate any leads.Just my guess...

These stories are making me have an egg.I paid $13k spent $1500 in labor and material, sold for $30k.Im still amazed at these stories of properties $2-$3k!!

This includes labor and materials.

There are proactive and preventative things that can be done to "catch" bed bugs at an early stage and needs to be shared with your renters.You educate them on bed bugs and have them sign an acknowledgement that they have read the materials and will stay aware and on top of what and where they contact bed bugs (i,e, travel,buying used furniture, shopping at thrift stores, etc)Nip it now so that you don't have to go through this again in the future because the risk gets greater especially if someone has a severe reaction to the bites - guess who gets sued?

The concern is generally that the property may have been used in the past and that the property may be contaminated due to a manufacturing process or storage of materials used.

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For example, what is the likely material and labor cost on electrical wire?