Hello all, I plan on buying single family and multi-family homes in need of rehab, and know absolutely nothing about the rehab part. So I'm trying to figure out how many people I need to hire and how specialized they have to be to make up for my incompetence. I have 3 questions: • What experts would you or do you currently use or consider for rehabs? • I plan on bringing in a home inspector and a general contractor to help me estimate the rehab cost on a property. Is this enough? • Where can I learn more about finding the right people to hire and how to estimate a home rehab? If you can answer just one of these questions or add to my list below, I'd greatly appreciate it. So far this is my list: • Home inspector • Plumber • Electrician • Roofer • General contractor • Painters • Pest control (if needed) Thank you for reading through this and helping! :)

I think if we put the ladder on a revolving office chair we can cut that number down to 2.

one to hold the lightbulb and 4 to turn the ladder...

Kudos for wanting to jump in and not allowing fear to stop you. So something I think is worth mentioning. When you first start in RE your budget will never be right, the contractor that you thought was going to be a life saver ends up walking off the job site with your cash, the rehab takes longer than originally planned. The project takes twice as long and twice the original budget. You will not get great deals from contractors unless you have given then alot of business or its a friend of a friend. Many contractors price jobs based on the client they are working with. The less you know the more they will try to charge. I think to use BRRRR strategy is awesome but it is not easy. Jumping into real estate without understanding the process is like getting into a manual car and never being taught how to drive one. I know lots of people want to get into RE and think it will be easy. BUT in your case there are too many factors that can bite you in the butt. I would recommend in meeting other investors that are doing what you want to do. Go meet them at their job site. Look at the work the different trades are doing and get everyone's contact info. Once you have a property under contract during option period have your investor friends come and have them help you price out what they would pay for the necessary work. With two or three experienced flippers or investors you will be able to get rough idea on pricing then you call their trades and let them know that ur investor buddy referred them to you. This way you will be treated better than just calling a random contractor because you are being referred by someone that gives them business so they will more than likely help rather than take advantage of you. And you will be able to get idea if they are pricing the job that would be considered fair by other investors. Remember just because they are a contractor doesnt mean they will be good contractor for an investor. Some only work with homeowners and charge retail prices and then there are contractors that understand you are investor and need better pricing as this is your business. Hope this helps. Best of luck

@Milena Simsic I would add two things. When going to Home Depot, go at 7:00 am, and see which contractors are coming in at that time. Then you know who the go getters are. Contractors that come into home depot at 7:00 am to get supplies is a sign of a potentially good contractor. Another thing I advise is pick some small part of the work to do yourself. On the first one, even if you leave just painting on room, or putting spackle in wall cracks....doing will bring confidence. We worked side by side with our handyman on all of our first 5 buildings, and after being basically the same as you starting out, now I can put in sheetrock, electrical (inspected of course), sand wood floors, install Pergo flooring (used that skill to put pergo in our home hallway), and even install windows. Not that I want to do that work myself, but having done it, I know how long it should take, and how expensive it should be.

@Milena Simsic You're setting yourself up for getting taken by unscrupulous contractors in my opinion. Why not just start with one project? If you're honest about your lack of experience I'd be reluctant to get into 2 aggressive projects. A lot of the contractors you'll come across will eat you alive if you let them.

The contractors you need will be based on what the property needs. You will have to first decide what you want to do. For example, the hardwood floors are a bit worn. Do you want to leave them as is, refinish them, install new floors or cover them with carpet? IF new floors, what material? These approaches are all appropriate depending on the condition of the floors and your desired outcome. Your decision then leads to calling a h/w floor contractor or a carpet store. My suggestion is you think about why you want to get a rehab if you truly know nothing about rehabbing, as compared to a turnkey property. Hiring out a large amount of the work will be expensive and subject to a variety of contractor risks. The turnkey has all the work done and is rent ready when you buy it.

Expect to pay retail prices from contractors . Why ? Because you are not a repeat customer or a regular customer of ANY contractor . As a contractor , the WORST customers to work for are the the newbys , the ones who need their hands held thru the entire process . You will be better off on your first , second and maybe even third project to Hire a GC , and watch and learn . You will pay for your education one way or another . Heres an example of how things can go wrong on a gut remodel . You have a schedule , framing is done , electrician scheduled , hvac scheduled for duct work , plumber scheduled . So HVAC guy is running 3 days behind , you reschedule electrician , but he is not available for another 10 days , plumber and HVAC show up on same day and its a small house and they are in each others way , plumber calls and says he will have to come back but thats an extra charge . Now your electrical is 10 days out and your drywall guy and painter will be on other jobs that they had scheduled . You are now 2 to 3 weeks behind schedule , and have to find different drywall hangers and painters . ITS FUN . A General contractor has more than one sub for each trade . You are paying them for their knowledge , and their connections .

If I were you I would read up a little on how to rehab, not for specific knowledge but to at least know that a contractor is not taking advantage of you. The biggerpockets book written by J. Scott does a very good job at this. With contractors you have to be VERY SPECIFIC about what you want done in your scope otherwise they will not know what you need done or they will creep the scope and you will end up blowing your budget. You don't need to know how to do the specific updating but I wouldn't go blindly with no knowledge. Don't rely fully on others for this information either. A good home inspector is great but no one will take your property as seriously as you do. Knowledge is power.

I am not sure trolling home depot is the best stategy :). But you could ask your realtor or other local realtors who they use and trust. This is how I found an amazing contractor who cost way less and did most of the work himself and did a super job.

Updated almost 7 years ago on 12/08/2018. Most recent reply

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Milena S.Poster

Windsor, Ontario

Starting Out

I can barely screw in a light bulb. How many people do I hire?

Milena S.Poster

Windsor, Ontario

Posted December 01, 2018 15:26

Hello all,

I plan on buying single family and multi-family homes in need of rehab, and know absolutely nothing about the rehab part. So I'm trying to figure out how many people I need to hire and how specialized they have to be to make up for my incompetence.

I have 3 questions:

What experts would you or do you currently use or consider for rehabs?
I plan on bringing in a home inspector and a general contractor to help me estimate the rehab cost on a property. Is this enough?
Where can I learn more about finding the right people to hire and how to estimate a home rehab?

If you can answer just one of these questions or add to my list below, I'd greatly appreciate it.

So far this is my list:

Home inspector
Plumber
Electrician
Roofer
General contractor
Painters
Pest control (if needed)

Thank you for reading through this and helping! :)

1 Vote

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Mary M.

Rental Property Investor
Portland OR

Mary M.

Rental Property Investor
Portland OR

Replied December 01, 2018 16:22

My suggestion, fwiw, is to pick one of your properties - maybe the one with the simplest rehab- and use it to learn on - dont make changes that are irrevesible. (Ie dont remove original hardwood floors! They are very valuable! Cover them up with vinyl if needed )

Make your mistakes and find a team during this rehab. You will learn a TON that you will then be able to apply to your other rentals.

IMO a good contractor and a good handyman are criticalyou need a contractor that can do it all - this will cut down on costs.

Good luck and have fun!

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