Do You Understand How Ugly This Is Going to Be?

Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes

3y

Good post @Jim K. Yes, the internet and this forum are filled with well-meaning and ever hopeful wanna-be entrepeneurs. Real Estate is very appealing and has a magic allure all it's own....I mean you're not just buying a widget or even a car, you're buying an actual piece of dirt with your name on it....a primal desire if you will...

So once I was down in an 8 ft hole just before dark...guess why? The plumber never showed up and the Inspection was the next day....I figured what the heck, I can cut this sewer line and slip in a Tee, no big deal. I told my crew to go and tell everyone in the Condo building to not use the plumbing for an hour please.... 😂

Well it didn't go as easy as I thought and water kept running into the hole, I had to bail while I tried to fit the Tee in between the cuts I had made. Then the people that had been at work and not gotten the notice to not flush showed up..... 😂

I'll never forget one of my guys just standing up there saying "Dude" over and over....

31 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

@Bruce Woodruff

Oh lovely! Up to your knees in the fresh and fruity! Thanks, Bruce, great story.

0 Reply

Corey ConklinPro Member

Investor · Member since 2021 · 129 posts · 209 votes

3y

@Jim K. This is exactly why I have gotten fed up with real estate podcasts, forums, etc. It's all a bunch of sales guys trying to sell you "financial freedom" by spending $2,000 on their seminar. Or how easy it is to make a million dollars in 90 days starting from scratch. It's ludicrous.

When I bought my second rental property I was called by my agent about a week before closing and said he had an odd request from the seller. The seller (an older, recently widowed man) asked to stay in the house for 3 days after closing since he needed the money to pay for his next home.

My first thought was, absolutely not! I knew that would make it easy on him to leave any trash or belongings he didn't want behind for me to handle. My agent said that he would help (which he never did), my brother (who was a partner at the time) said what harm can this old man do? We were getting an pretty good deal on the house so I thought, Ok I'll help this gentleman out hoping he would do right by me for being decent.

Fast forward to the day I get the house. I open the door to trash left everywhere, food left out, furniture that was left behind, a garage completely full of old junk. I knew I shouldn't have done this and I was kicking myself.

But that's not even the worst part. I came back a few days later to start the renovation on the house and started emptying the house, my brother was there to help. After about 30 minutes I hear a loud yell from my brother with a handful of cuss words, so I run to where he was at. On my way there I was meet with a pissed off black cat hissing at me! The old man left a black cat trapped inside the house that my brother let loose when he opened a cabinet door! Since it was in a small town there is no such thing as animal control so I had to figure out what to do. Anytime we would get near the cat he would hiss and try to attack us. This cat had all of its claws and was able to climb up door frames and walls, it was wild!

It took us a few days before we could get it out of the house as it refused to leave but we were finally able to get it to leave the house on it's own. While all of this was going down we also found a litter of kittens hidden in a box in his overgrown back yard that we had to figure out what to do with as well.

Needless to say, don't be an idiot like me and let a seller stay in the home after you close or you may get attacked by a pissed off cat!

13 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

@Corey Conklin

I HATE trash like that. Leave a cat and kittens behind, that's total scum, and there are a lot of them out there.

I hope you also picked up a valuable lesson about lying agents, too. As long as the closing goes through and they get their commission...

I still have a nice scar on my hand where I was savaged by a tenant's cat. But to be honest, I should have been smarter.

I have a cleanout story that include, er, soiled marital aids and VHS collections of fat-fetish titles, such as Life in the Fat Lane 2: The Heavy Load. Typically, in those relationships, there's a feeder and there's an eater, the tenant was the eater. I recently saw the feeder walking around my neighborhood, cursed him out loudly on the street. Made my day, really, even though the worthless SOB still owes me $650. I took some satisfaction out of the fact that the little guy was pushing a boy's bicycle with 20-inch wheels up a hill, obviously really going places in his miserable life.

4 Reply

Corey ConklinPro Member

Investor · Member since 2021 · 129 posts · 209 votes

3y

Quote from @Jim K.:

@Corey Conklin

I HATE trash like that. Leave a cat and kittens behind, that's total scum, and there are a lot of them out there.

I hope you also picked up a valuable lesson about lying agents, too. As long as the closing goes through and they get their commission...

I still have a nice scar on my hand where I was savaged by a tenant's cat. But to be honest, I should have been smarter.

I have cleanout stories that include, er, soiled marital aids and VHS collections of fat-fetish titles, such as Life in the Fat Lane 2: The Heavy Load. Typically, in those relationships, there's a feeder and there's an eater, the tenant was the eater. I recently saw the feeder walking around my neighborhood, cursed him out loudly on the street. Made my day, really, even though the worthless SOB still owes me $650. I took some satisfaction out of the fact that the little guy was pushing a boy's bicycle with 20-inch wheels up a hill, obviously really going places in his miserable life.

It's awful to see how little a human can care about others, especially towards animals.

I learned a lot of lessons on that house but it also came with stories I'll be telling for a while.

I think more stories like these need to be told so people can get a better reality of RE investing and learn from some of our hard learned lessons.

3 Reply

Adam Wayne

Member since 2023 · 27 posts · 42 votes

3y

Quote from @Jim K.:

@Corey Conklin

I HATE trash like that. Leave a cat and kittens behind, that's total scum, and there are a lot of them out there.

I hope you also picked up a valuable lesson about lying agents, too. As long as the closing goes through and they get their commission...

I still have a nice scar on my hand where I was savaged by a tenant's cat. But to be honest, I should have been smarter.

I have a cleanout story that include, er, soiled marital aids and VHS collections of fat-fetish titles, such as Life in the Fat Lane 2: The Heavy Load. Typically, in those relationships, there's a feeder and there's an eater, the tenant was the eater. I recently saw the feeder walking around my neighborhood, cursed him out loudly on the street. Made my day, really, even though the worthless SOB still owes me $650. I took some satisfaction out of the fact that the little guy was pushing a boy's bicycle with 20-inch wheels up a hill, obviously really going places in his miserable life.

Wow, too funny!! That title cracked me up.

I don’t have any stories yet to add, but I will say that as a project manager for a residential builder and remodeler, it’s amazing to me to know how much time effort and money go into building and repairs on residential construction. I think that this all worked out in the years of free money, but the toll is coming due. If you’re a small guy and you don’t know how to do a lot of this stuff on your own or don’t have massive capital, the price of all the things mentioned in the first post is going to become overwhelming.

2 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

Truer words were never spoken, @Adam Wayne.

My wife insisted that I lay off our last renovation, see what our guys could do by themselves. Other than intervene once when one of them practically destroyed a joist on the second floor, I had to keep my distance, and I did. The results were not encouraging.

Next time we take on anything that requires significant renovation, I'm sleeping in the driveway from the day we buy the place to the day we sell or rent it.

1 Reply

Jay HinrichsBusiness Member

Real Estate Consultant · Summerlin, NV · Member since 2014 · 45k+ posts · 66k+ votes

3y

I had one last year.. we get hounded to death by wholesalers lots of beginner wholesalers.

so i had this property in INdy.. it never got rehabbed and we were just going to sell it off as is.

a few of them went over and complained the house really smelled bad..

Then another one went in he was determined to buy it I think.. calls me back all freaked out.

the stink was a dead homeless person that was almost basically a mummy. He asked me what he should do.. I said call the cops which he did and the corner came and hauled the body away. they never did call me ( the cops) and I sold it to a different investor month or so later as the one that found the body I think he was just freaked out a little too much

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12 Reply

Pat L.

Rental Property Investor · Upstate, NY · Member since 2012 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes

3y

Great post...oh the stories, we could all write a book.

On a rental gut/rehab we had removed the old cast iron plumbing out of the upstairs ONlY toilet & everyone was told not to use it. We were all in the basement removing/installing HW tanks & heard the front door slam shut, then the hurried pitter patter of a woman's stiletto high heals rushing up the stairs. So we kept working & then we heard the woosh/splatter of the toilet flushing a 'number two' down onto the newly sanded but not yet stained oak living room floors & all over the beer cooler & tools. It was the one of the partners wives and she NEVER showed her face there again.

I admit that many of the exasperating tenant/repair experiences blend into faded memories, but they often bring a smile. There were frustrating years of bloodied knuckles, a very frugal lifestyle & friends/family/colleagues telling me that I will never make money from 'those slums'. But retiring many years earlier than colleagues, who told I would go bankrupt, was so satisfying. Those same colleagues worked past 65, many taking on menial jobs to supplement retirement.

Then there was the bat house. It was a foreclosure rural & inside it was tough to breath.We counted 70 dead bats in various rooms & in the bathtubs/sinks/toilets & I couldn't imagine the piles in the attic. We threw an offer in at $25k but an investor friend picked it up for $75k. They then came to us for financing, so we did well on the 12% loan as it took over 18months to rehab.

12 Reply

Scott Mac

Austin, TX · Member since 2019 · 5k+ posts · 5k+ votes

3y

When I was a boy, I noticed a guy rehabbing a house, getting it ready for paint. So I struck up a conversation with him.

Turns out it was a duplex (SFH split in half decades ago) and one side was empty. He had just bought it (for cash) and the roof had a cracked ridge beam as well as unit 2 (the empty one needed a lot of refreshing.

Over several weeks as he would do things I would show up and he would let me watch him work. He intended to keep it long term. I watched him do some wiring and install a washer and dryer in the basement, tear out the dated kitchen, stuff like that.

He was averaging 6 to 7 work hours 4 and 5 days a week. I was there an hour or two, randomly a couple times a week. He owned 2 other rentals and his wife would bring him a hot lunch wrapped in foil.

His explanations were brief, but I got enough out them to come back time after time.

Then one day I showed up and he was on the roof, moments later he was off the roof. Impaled by a large branch of shrub he had cut way back (to the large branches). He was alive but screaming for help. I ran to the neighbors house to get them to call 911. It was there in an instant, the Fire department being just blocks away.

After a quick discussion (and with his ok) they cut the branch free from the shrub with a large pair of bolt cutters, and had him sit upright on the stretcher as they loaded him into the ambulance for the ride to the hospital.

I found out later from the firemen who cut him loose, that he didn’t make it. His wife sold the house in less than a week (no probate, and I have no idea how she did it, maybe she was on the title?).

The next owner was an investor and much friendlier, and more talkative, the second time I went over there he was preparing to go up on the roof, and I told him the last owner had fallen off, and that he should not go up there it was too steep.

He said he wasn’t worried, nothing would happen to him, and up he went. I hoped he was right. Moments later on the side of the roof I could not see I hear a thud and a loud yell—then nothing. Total quiet. So I yell out to him—no response.

The thud side had no shrubs just concrete, so I though maybe he had just broken an arm or a leg. When I got over there (well I’m not going to be graphic) I was sure he was dead. The renter poked her head out the window and said she had called 911. When they arrived, there was nothing they could do.

Owner number three took over after a few months, and he was mean tough talking guy. Meaning I had to find something else to do with my afternoons, because he had no tolerance for kids.

I actuly learned some of the fundamentals from all three. What to do, what not to do. Some basic financial thinking, etc...

I think this ranks up there with cutting the main stack and getting an unknown desease, as far as the bad and the ugly that go along with the good of this business.

And seriously @Jim K., I never knew that about main stacks—thanks for putting that out there.

Good Luck!

11 Reply

John Teachout

Rental Property Investor · Concord, GA · Member since 2015 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes

3y

I've got stories, sadly more than I want. The hoarder that was also the crazy cat lady is probably the worst. (20 months later we're still working on that property but it hardly stinks at all anymore...) Oh, and broken sewer pipe in a crawl space with an Amazon river of crap flowing out into the yard. Thankful for rubber knee boots. Rental properties can be lucrative but for those that don't do their own repairs I wonder how they have any net profit.

4 Reply

Bruce WoodruffPro Member

Contractor/Investor/Consultant · San Diego / Phoenix · Member since 2021 · 12k+ posts · 15k+ votes

3y

Good ones fellas! I have another that has always stuck in my mind (It happened to a friend of mine but it's an epic disaster story). He hired a new carpenter and assigned him the easiest job on the property - "take your Skilsaw and cut out this small section of bad flooring". (100 year old white oak flooring to be exact).

When he came back hours later, he was amazed , and dismayed, to discover that his helper had cut through all of the flooring in the entire house. Yes, all of it. 2500 SF.

No this did not involve death (although as I recall it nearly did :-), but it just shows how fast things can go south. In today's world that's a $30,000+ oooops...., eaten of course, by the boss.

What a fun business this is...!

1 Reply

Nick GrayPro Member

Rental Property Investor · CT · Member since 2023 · 11 posts · 15 votes

3y

Great post!

Like others one of my first 'newsflash' moments came due to bad plumbing. House that we bought had new PVC all throughout that we discovered during inspection and it was music to our ears. Shame on us for not remembering that inspections are only within the 4 walls of the house. The sewer main line was never upgraded and was probably 70+ year old lead pipe with roots growing through from the driveway down to the street. So fast forward, it's a Sunday afternoon and as we're literally in the process of showing the first floor apartment to a prospective tenant, we flip the light switch on to show her the bathroom and to our surprise the tub and toilet were filled with black water... first thought "WTF" followed by extensive apologies to the lady checking out the apartment.

She leaves and I get Roto Rooter to come and check out the problem. The guy drains the line to relieve the backup but we had to use one of our garbage cans to catch the backed up sewage in the above ground pipes. It drains and the garbage can does its job and catches all of the back up with little spillage. Roto Rooter guy helps, clearing up some of the roots growing in the pipe and caps the open sewer line that he used to enter with the snake. Little did I know, he wanted nothing to do with the sewage that was caught in the trash can and he went on his way. To wrap up, I spent the entire afternoon dumping, by gloved hand, bucket after bucket of sh*t water back into the drain pipe.

So I must agree that it's not always sunshine and rainbows and we had a hard reality check on that point!

4 Reply

Richard F.

Honolulu, HI · Member since 2008 · 3k+ posts · 2k+ votes

3y

Aloha,

Nice dose of reality for all the budding investors! With the exception of @Scott Mac's roofing experts, all combined sound like a mediocre month compared to what experienced PM's see and deal with on behalf of their Investor Clients. I've averaged about 150 units managed for well over 20 years. During that time, there have been multiple major fires, some with death, one started by a child, others just caused extensive property damage, including one that was started by a campfire that was lit in the livingroom for some "home cooking"; four cars have crashed into buildings, including one that entered the second floor from the street above, and ended up in the first floor; one murder scene; two suicide scenes; half a dozen death by natural cause...some fresh, some very much not; a horrible cat person that actually left the house to live in a second home a half block away, since there were around 27 cats IN the first house that she would feed every day. When I say she left the house, I mean, plates and coffee cups were on the kitchen table, all furniture, clothing, food, appliances were left just as when she was living there. You could smell the cat urine from the street. I've had concrete two story stairs collapse; a full room plaster and lath ceiling fell due to slow roof leak, narrowly missing occupants; kitchen waste line main was blocked, several floors above were draining out of our kitchen sink...in a million dollar plus 2 bedroom condo...for a couple of days, as the people below were out of town also so there was nothing reported; I've had Tenants on a few occasions walk out the door leaving EVERYTHING behind; a well known Bail bondsman vacated a property that had apparently let multiple pit bulls live and crap throughout the multi-million dollar house; Military Tenant who was separated from wife, but she came to visit, they fought, SHE got a TRO against him, and of course she had no income and paid no rent for the several months it took to evict; Another Tenant, quite elderly, lived in a walk up and had two yappy little dogs. She always had them on a leash, but one day she was juggling a bag of groceries and the dogs were going crazy, they tied her up and she fell down the stairs breaking a leg. Of course, the Owner was the Bad Guy and his insurance paid a very tidy sum. Not surprisingly, she moved out VERY shortly after the settlement! A real fun incident was a very cold midwestern winter, and a beautiful 1880 Georgian style rowhouse that had been converted into around 9 apartments. Somebody left the laundry room door open to the outside, and the pipes started freezing. By the time we were notified of a problem it was pretty much solid. We got things heated up, and spent the next three days chasing split galvanized iron pipes, ultimately re-piping most of it with copper...a few feet at a time. Hey, did you know there used to be companies that you could pull a full room of carpet out, deliver it to the company, and they would wash, dry and fluff it so you could re-install over new padding? Saved money at the time, but was a PITA! We had a lot of apartments where the first level was about three feet below grade, and they would flood badly with the big spring thunderstorms. You need to be very aware and cautious of prior "handyman" repairs, especially electrical work...~~some~~ a lot of that is truly dangerous and scary. NEVER EVER bury a junction box, or worse, a simple wire-nutted connection behind a wall!!! What is your record of the number of layers on a roof? Mine is 7. I have no idea how it was still standing. Another property someone turned the attic into a master suite, complete with a full size bathtub. Problem was, the "joists" were the original, dimensional 2X4, on 24" centers. Could have been very painful...and embarrassing!

By the way, I swear most serious plumbing issues get called in after 4 PM on Fridays...so be prepared! Also on holidays...I had a 6 AM Christmas Day call of flooding in an office building, found about 2 inches of water on the floor where the chiller pipe broke. Took out the five radio stations on that floor, and was pouring down the elevator and shaft causing further destruction.

These are just some of the highlights, but hey, anyone can be a PM, right?

Oh, hey, PLEASE work safe! One of our guys was removing an old toilet, the tank had a hairline crack he did not notice, when he pulled it away from the wall the tank broke with a large piece slicing multiple tendons in his wrist, he was down about six months. You only get one pair of eyes, please use safety glasses. Leather gloves and proper work boots will also save you much grief and potential infections.

9 Reply

Account Closed

Investor · Scottsdale Austin Tuktoyaktuk · Member since 2021 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes

3y

Quote from @Jim K.:

There is nothing sane about what you have to be prepared to do in order to make a start in this business. Please take that as a given. The only thing I can fully agree with Grant Cardone about is his statement that real estate investors should, "Forget about 9-5 and start working 95 hours a week."

But the hours are not as bad as WHAT you have to do. I see people whining all the time here about their fears of unclogging toilets at 3 in the morning. People, unclogging a toilet is EASY. Wait until you have to chop a house stack with a demo saw and it dumps a pound of 100-year-old fermented dried filth on you. Wait until the first time you get sick from some mysterious disease because you were prepping a paint job somewhere in some filthy area and some decades-old bacteria were waiting for you to scrape them up. Your first massive vanity clog in a rental where your tenant has been dying her hair in the sink for years.

There are people on this site who have knocked on one side of a door with a dead body on the other side. And it just goes from there. You may think you're going to escape the nasty by investing in a different way, or following a system, or, or, or...

It continues to boggle my mind, year after year, that people get into real estate thinking they're never going to get their hands dirty, usually just because some guru told them it was possible. The price of contractors and handymen keeps going up and up and up, but no, you will always be able to afford to pay people whatever extortionate sum they want to do something that needs to be done today, and of course they will always show up. Sure.

Come on, people. Let's say a guy in one of those annoying bright blue suits with goop in his hair walked into your life and announced that he could offer you a sure-fire opportunity to get into the port-a-potty rental business. Low starting investment, high returns, big money all around. And best of all, if you followed his exclusive franchise system, YOU WOULD NEVER EVER EVER have to smell CRAP in your business. No, not once.

Would you believe him? Would you nod your head enthusiastically along with his fantastic energy and clap? Would you rush to raise the limits on your credit cards to take advantage of this fabulous opportunity? Would you try to rope your friends into it? And yet the gurus manage to tell you you're going to buy real estate, hold real estate, sell real estate, and you are never really going to have to fix real estate, clean real estate, paint real estate, none of that, AND PEOPLE BELIEVE THEM.

I'm asking for contributions here. I know that some of the things you have to do get so nasty that some of us, like me, won't openly talk about the absolute nastiest thing we've ever done in this business. We don't even want to remember it. But can you help out and add an example here of some less-than-pleasant thing you've had to do to get to where you are? And please, nothing about how you managed to cheat someone, steal something from someone, broke the law to your great advantage. You can just save that for Judgment Day.

A couple that come to mind are the house where we had to spray the wall with lysol and use a scraper to get the smoke and nicotine that was oozing off the wall or the place where dolomite was spread everywhere to control the fleas, or the place where the renter cut a hole in the floor and put the drain hose from the washer into the hole to drain under the house or the one with the rotted hole in the kitchen floor that you had to step around to avoid going through the floor, or the one where it took a full day just to scoop the dog poop from the floors and use kilz to cover the dog pee, let alone the back yard, and on and on it goes. This was in Seattle and there must be something special called stupity they treat with the water there.

4 Reply

Account Closed

Investor · Scottsdale Austin Tuktoyaktuk · Member since 2021 · 4k+ posts · 4k+ votes

3y

Quote from @Richard F.:

Aloha,

Nice dose of reality for all the budding investors! With the exception of @Scott Mac's roofing experts, all combined sound like a mediocre month compared to what experienced PM's see and deal with on behalf of their Investor Clients. I've averaged about 150 units managed for well over 20 years. During that time, there have been multiple major fires, some with death, one started by a child, others just caused extensive property damage, including one that was started by a campfire that was lit in the livingroom for some "home cooking"; four cars have crashed into buildings, including one that entered the second floor from the street above, and ended up in the first floor; one murder scene; two suicide scenes; half a dozen death by natural cause...some fresh, some very much not; a horrible cat person that actually left the house to live in a second home a half block away, since there were around 27 cats IN the first house that she would feed every day. When I say she left the house, I mean, plates and coffee cups were on the kitchen table, all furniture, clothing, food, appliances were left just as when she was living there. You could smell the cat urine from the street. I've had concrete two story stairs collapse; a full room plaster and lath ceiling fell due to slow roof leak, narrowly missing occupants; kitchen waste line main was blocked, several floors above were draining out of our kitchen sink...in a million dollar plus 2 bedroom condo...for a couple of days, as the people below were out of town also so there was nothing reported; I've had Tenants on a few occasions walk out the door leaving EVERYTHING behind; a well known Bail bondsman vacated a property that had apparently let multiple pit bulls live and crap throughout the multi-million dollar house; Military Tenant who was separated from wife, but she came to visit, they fought, SHE got a TRO against him, and of course she had no income and paid no rent for the several months it took to evict; Another Tenant, quite elderly, lived in a walk up and had two yappy little dogs. She always had them on a leash, but one day she was juggling a bag of groceries and the dogs were going crazy, they tied her up and she fell down the stairs breaking a leg. Of course, the Owner was the Bad Guy and his insurance paid a very tidy sum. Not surprisingly, she moved out VERY shortly after the settlement! A real fun incident was a very cold midwestern winter, and a beautiful 1880 Georgian style rowhouse that had been converted into around 9 apartments. Somebody left the laundry room door open to the outside, and the pipes started freezing. By the time we were notified of a problem it was pretty much solid. We got things heated up, and spent the next three days chasing split galvanized iron pipes, ultimately re-piping most of it with copper...a few feet at a time. Hey, did you know there used to be companies that you could pull a full room of carpet out, deliver it to the company, and they would wash, dry and fluff it so you could re-install over new padding? Saved money at the time, but was a PITA! We had a lot of apartments where the first level was about three feet below grade, and they would flood badly with the big spring thunderstorms. You need to be very aware and cautious of prior "handyman" repairs, especially electrical work...~~some~~ a lot of that is truly dangerous and scary. NEVER EVER bury a junction box, or worse, a simple wire-nutted connection behind a wall!!! What is your record of the number of layers on a roof? Mine is 7. I have no idea how it was still standing. Another property someone turned the attic into a master suite, complete with a full size bathtub. Problem was, the "joists" were the original, dimensional 2X4, on 24" centers. Could have been very painful...and embarrassing!

By the way, I swear most serious plumbing issues get called in after 4 PM on Fridays...so be prepared! Also on holidays...I had a 6 AM Christmas Day call of flooding in an office building, found about 2 inches of water on the floor where the chiller pipe broke. Took out the five radio stations on that floor, and was pouring down the elevator and shaft causing further destruction.

These are just some of the highlights, but hey, anyone can be a PM, right?

Oh, hey, PLEASE work safe! One of our guys was removing an old toilet, the tank had a hairline crack he did not notice, when he pulled it away from the wall the tank broke with a large piece slicing multiple tendons in his wrist, he was down about six months. You only get one pair of eyes, please use safety glasses. Leather gloves and proper work boots will also save you much grief and potential infections.

YIKES! You make me look like a piker. Lol

0 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

@Richard F.

Aw, c'mon Richard, you make it sound like it's a terrible gig!

I'm not a property manager, but out of your list, this is what I've seen.

Still trying to get my head around seven roofing layers.

0 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

@Scott Mac

They could make a horror movie out of that roof. I have a picture of what the inside of a old cast iron stack looks like around somewhere...I'll look for it...

1 Reply

Nathan GesnerBusiness Member

Moderator

Real Estate Broker · Cody, WY · Member since 2010 · 28k+ posts · 41k+ votes

3y

Jim, most of what we see on the podcasts is Hollywood B.S. They are pitching stories to collect eyeballs and stay up in the ratings. I occasionally listen to podcasts and am still amazed at how the headlines never match up to the content. If you've read Pace Morby's book and then watched his "12 hours of bonus content" where he essentially videos himself saying what is in each chapter, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Real estate is hard work. It's ugly. Those that are willing to get their hands dirty and work hard are going to reap the rewards. Those that think they can buy a few rentals and spend the rest of their days rolling in cash will fail. Unfortunately, they will be replaced by the next sucker.

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6 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

@Account Closed

Very early on, when I was working in Greece, I had to paint a bedroom that a seamstress had worked in for nine years. The seamstress smoked three solid packs a day. After the seamstress left, the next tenant found "two guys from the neighborhood" to paint. They laid down a coat of beige latex on the walls of the room in two days, took their money, and disappeared.

By the time I got to work on the room, six years later, there were ominous dark spots all over the room that showed through the paint. The first thing I did was try to wash the walls. Now this is Europe, so no TSP. I used a powder cleaner like Comet or Ajax.

The paint started sagging all over the place. I finally figured out that if I went down the paint and used a sharpened scraper, I could take sheets of the paint off the masonry walls. And under this coat of latex paint, there was this hot pink...stuff.

The Greeks call it powder paint. We no longer use it, but it was called whitewash here in the 1700-1800s. We typically call it kalsomine today. When I told the owner of the apartment what was under the latex, she suddenly remembered that a few years back, the seamstress had requested that she paint the room, and offered to pay for it herself. The owner had approved, and apparently, this pink kalsomine was the result.

Whitewash, or kalsomine, was a very cheap form of slaked lime paint used annually in houses that relied on open fireplace, wood stoves, and later coal-burning stoves for heat. The whitewash was used to cover up soot stains. It is the main historical reason, by the way, that ceilings are white in Europe and the USA -- they needed to be painted frequently to cover up the soot that would tend to accumulate on them, and originally kalsomine only came in white. The problem with painting over kalsomine is that the layer that it forms is soft and easily crumbles. Latex simply can't bond to it, and latex primers don't do much. Nicotine, on the other hand, sticks to it very easily.

It took two solid weeks to wash the streaks of brown nicotine on those pink walls and ceilings as clean as possible, and I puked from the nicotine stench more than once (and I smoked at the time). I still sometimes see that pink in my nightmares. After that I had to use Monox, a Greek silver-bullet primer to coat it, a product much like Kilz interior/exterior oil-based primer (your eyes burn when you apply it). I applied it with short-nap mohair rollers. No respirators were available beyond P98 paper masks.

I got it done, and finished the room, and flipped the apartment. Because that's how we do.

6 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Jim, most of what we see on the podcasts is Hollywood B.S. They are pitching stories to collect eyeballs and stay up in the ratings. I occasionally listen to podcasts and am still amazed at how the headlines never match up to the content. If you've read Pace Morby's book and then watched his "12 hours of bonus content" where he essentially videos himself saying what is in each chapter, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Real estate is hard work. It's ugly. Those that are willing to get their hands dirty and work hard are going to reap the rewards. Those that think they can buy a few rentals and spend the rest of their days rolling in cash will fail. Unfortunately, they will be replaced by the next sucker.

Sadly, I have read Pace Morby's book. Ever more sadly, I paid money for the Kindle.

I have always felt that the BP forums are one of the few places where you can talk to people who have actually gotten it done, and where you can occasionally get an honest answer to a question that might be glossed over elsewhere. Without trying to pound my chest about it, my wife and I have made a lot more money in real estate in a much shorter time that I could have ever dreamed. You will never convince me that real estate is not a path to change your stars in America. We have invested conservatively, tried new things carefully, taken our lumps when we needed to, and discovered some wonderful people along the way. We have also personally seen REI destroy people, destroy marriages, destroy families. That's really why I post things like this.

Everybody I know who has actually accomplished anything in real estate will tell you that REI is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Well, perhaps my favorite quotes comes from the famous marathon runner and trainer, Juma Ikangaa, "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."

I really, really hope these cautionary tales help temper unrealistic expectations about this business.

5 Reply

Jay ThomasPro Member

Real Estate Agent · Houston, TX · Member since 2021 · 1k+ posts · 715 votes

3y

I get where you're coming from – the real estate business isn't always glamorous. With 17 years under my belt in Houston, I've unclogged toilets at odd hours, dealt with unexpected messes during property assessments, and even crawled through cramped attics to sort insulation issues. It's not all about sales; it's about problem-solving and going the extra mile for clients. The industry's rewarding, but being prepared for the nitty-gritty is part of the package.

[email protected]832-889-5607

5 Reply

Jeremiah Dunakin

Member since 2022 · 186 posts · 192 votes

3y

Quote from @Jim K.:

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Jim, most of what we see on the podcasts is Hollywood B.S. They are pitching stories to collect eyeballs and stay up in the ratings. I occasionally listen to podcasts and am still amazed at how the headlines never match up to the content. If you've read Pace Morby's book and then watched his "12 hours of bonus content" where he essentially videos himself saying what is in each chapter, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Real estate is hard work. It's ugly. Those that are willing to get their hands dirty and work hard are going to reap the rewards. Those that think they can buy a few rentals and spend the rest of their days rolling in cash will fail. Unfortunately, they will be replaced by the next sucker.

Sadly, I have read Pace Morby's book. Ever more sadly, I paid money for the Kindle.

I have always felt that the BP forums are one of the few places where you can talk to people who have actually gotten it done, and where you can occasionally get an honest answer to a question that might be glossed over elsewhere. Without trying to pound my chest about it, my wife and I have made a lot more money in real estate in a much shorter time that I could have ever dreamed. You will never convince me that real estate is not a path to change your stars in America. We have invested conservatively, tried new things carefully, taken our lumps when we needed to, and discovered some wonderful people along the way. We have also personally seen REI destroy people, destroy marriages, destroy families. That's really why I post things like this.

Everybody I know who has actually accomplished anything in real estate will tell you that REI is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Well, perhaps my favorite quotes comes from the famous marathon runner and trainer, Juma Ikangaa, "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."

I really, really hope these cautionary tales help temper unrealistic expectations about this business.

This is exactly what I needed to hear. I’ve listened to bigger pockets and am eternally grateful for them. I was also continually listen to them. However some of these guru book sellers just don’t resonate with me. I am not doubting them but I just don’t think it’s for everyone. We all are in different areas of life.
These stories and experiences are real life and not just some cookie cutter brrrr just find a better deal just negotiate better just make sure it hits this or that number. I think a lot of times these guys are exaggerating the time they put in.that said it’s refreshing to hear real life struggles (hate to say that) of real life folks just like me trying to better themselves. Carry on fellow investors I appreciate you sharing failures and trying times with anewbie like myself. It gives me the confidence that I’m not alone in screw ups and dealing with issues. On to the second property early next year

2 Reply

Luka Milicevic

Real Estate Agent · Nashville, TN · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes

3y

I do a lot of tear downs - homes that are beyond repair.

I've walked into a racoon eating the leftovers in a kitchen.

The house I live in now, when I first walked it I watched an opposum run down one of the vents. Later found a family of them down there.

Around 2017 I basically had the police on speed dial - had a tenant die of an overdose after about 3 weeks of moving in, had a pipe burst a day after I fully renovated a unit, multiple evictions at the same time. 2017 was a bad year for me.

Starting out, back in 2014 I was doing renovations myself until 2 am sometimes and then going to work in the morning to my W2 job. Weekends I spent painting my rentals and laying flooring.

Just yesterday I was in a crawlspace to do an inspection and besides the spiders crawling on me I rubbed my neck against some insulation and now I have a pretty rash!

Remind me why I do this lol!

I can say it's 1000000% worth it. I wouldn't have it any other way. I love RE and will be doing deals for as long as I possibly can.

7 Reply

Jim K.

OP

Handyman · Pittsburgh, PA · Member since 2018 · 5k+ posts · 13k+ votes

3y

Quote from @Jeremiah Dunakin:

Quote from @Jim K.:

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Jim, most of what we see on the podcasts is Hollywood B.S. They are pitching stories to collect eyeballs and stay up in the ratings. I occasionally listen to podcasts and am still amazed at how the headlines never match up to the content. If you've read Pace Morby's book and then watched his "12 hours of bonus content" where he essentially videos himself saying what is in each chapter, then you'll know exactly what I'm talking about.

Real estate is hard work. It's ugly. Those that are willing to get their hands dirty and work hard are going to reap the rewards. Those that think they can buy a few rentals and spend the rest of their days rolling in cash will fail. Unfortunately, they will be replaced by the next sucker.

Sadly, I have read Pace Morby's book. Ever more sadly, I paid money for the Kindle.

I have always felt that the BP forums are one of the few places where you can talk to people who have actually gotten it done, and where you can occasionally get an honest answer to a question that might be glossed over elsewhere. Without trying to pound my chest about it, my wife and I have made a lot more money in real estate in a much shorter time that I could have ever dreamed. You will never convince me that real estate is not a path to change your stars in America. We have invested conservatively, tried new things carefully, taken our lumps when we needed to, and discovered some wonderful people along the way. We have also personally seen REI destroy people, destroy marriages, destroy families. That's really why I post things like this.

Everybody I know who has actually accomplished anything in real estate will tell you that REI is not a get-rich-quick scheme. It's not a sprint, it's a marathon. Well, perhaps my favorite quotes comes from the famous marathon runner and trainer, Juma Ikangaa, "The will to win means nothing without the will to prepare."

I really, really hope these cautionary tales help temper unrealistic expectations about this business.

This is exactly what I needed to hear. I’ve listened to bigger pockets and am eternally grateful for them. I was also continually listen to them. However some of these guru book sellers just don’t resonate with me. I am not doubting them but I just don’t think it’s for everyone. We all are in different areas of life.
These stories and experiences are real life and not just some cookie cutter brrrr just find a better deal just negotiate better just make sure it hits this or that number. I think a lot of times these guys are exaggerating the time they put in.that said it’s refreshing to hear real life struggles (hate to say that) of real life folks just like me trying to better themselves. Carry on fellow investors I appreciate you sharing failures and trying times with anewbie like myself. It gives me the confidence that I’m not alone in screw ups and dealing with issues. On to the second property early next year

Great job, Jeremiah. Take it as slow or as quickly as you want to. Be prepared for some hard setbacks. There will also be wonderful triumphs along the way. In your worst defeats you will likely find the seeds of victory to be sown elsewhere. You are NOT alone out there. We're all human, our pants go on one leg at a time, and when we drop a deuce there's an odor.

2 Reply

Do You Understand How Ugly This Is Going to Be?

Do You Understand How Ugly This Is Going to Be?

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