Assuming it is 400sqft expect to pay ~$500 in materials and another $300-500 in labor.6) The cleaning people I use do a good job, and for a thorough initial cleaning on a 5200sqft house they charged me $240 (I tipped them another $40 for going above and beyond my expectations and bringing things to my attention that I didn't notice and taking care of it).There you go, that list will be about as accurate as my next lotto picks ;) Really though, just use it as a VERY base guideline to estimate costs.

Additionally, I enjoy real estate so much and I feel that I have a lot to offer and can also be a contributor to the community.

I was on the computer all day everyday and started really looking onto real estate.We have bough and sold numerous properties in the last 4 years.

A house can look pretty good but if it is dated, old furnace, galvanized pipes and old electric it can cost a lot to bring it up to date.

I'm just getting started and I really have a lot to learn.Which REIA do you belong?

He has mentioned the carpets to me numerous times and I have noticed that there are more runs than there were initially (mind you while I was building storage units in the basement I could hear the dogs running back and forth and skidding on the carpets for hours).

Costs in Southern California are pretty high, so we are considering other areas like Las Vegas or Bakersfield - affordable with decent growth potential, but close enough to home to visit prospective properties.We still have a lot to learn, and this site will be an invaluable resource.

Used to go to UT a lot to play rugby against their team.

I guess you might say I know enough to know I have a lot to learn.Since I'm, ahem, middle aged, my goal is to acquire another 5 or 6 multi-family properties to provide income in my retirement years.I enjoy cruising the MLS listings and running the multi-family listings through my spread sheet to see if they will cash flow and I keep a record of all sold deals so I can see how much other investors are paying for the properties I'm interested in, build a database, and watch the market trends.My first 2 deals were conventional (20% down, 80% mortgage from a bank), but I'm intrigued by other methods of acquiring properties and I'd like to get one more property before the market turns up too much more but I don't have the capital (I'm in saving mode) to purchase it the conventional way.Any ideas?

A lot to think about and ultimately, sit down and learn about.