Real Estate Broker · San Diego · Member since 2018 · 3 posts · 1 vote
Hi everyone, we just closed on our first investment property in Des Moines. We worked with Liz Prue for the purchase (she was great), however, we are now struggling to get the property ready to market - specifically with paint. The property has a mural painted on the living room wall and on one wall in the finished basement. We contacted Renters Warehouse during escrow and they assured us they'd be able to line vendors up for us once we closed, however, it's been almost 3 weeks and we still don't have an estimate for paint (which is also delaying getting the property marketed and rented). We have pretty much talked to everyone at Renters Warehouse including the owner, still no bids. Any suggestions for property management and/or painters would be much appreciated!
I would drop Renters Warehouse immediately. Painting is one of the most basic improvements you can make to a property and it shouldn't be difficult for this company to get some quotes for this.
I don't have any recommendations on who to contact directly, but if I were you I would start calling different painting companies that have decent reviews on Yelp for starters.
I would drop Renters Warehouse immediately. Painting is one of the most basic improvements you can make to a property and it shouldn't be difficult for this company to get some quotes for this.
I don't have any recommendations on who to contact directly, but if I were you I would start calling different painting companies that have decent reviews on Yelp for starters.
Real Estate Agent · Princeton, NJ · Member since 2016 · 1k+ posts · 1k+ votes
8y
Erin Ralston - is the mural ugly and deserving to be covered over? Could you put in a neat white/Black/stained trim “frame” around it like built in art? could it be a cool show piece?
Call local painters assuming you have the lockbox combo. I budget $2-3 psf for painting. I got some rooms done for $150 labor each with me providing the paint and rollers, but $500-600/room all materials provided seems more common. Darker paint, texture, drywall repair is obviously more. An ugly mural may need to be kilzed over.
Reia members get 20% off Paint at Home Depot all day every day. This is the same as a big contractor.
My father-in-law is a GC and he uses Peterson Painting regularly. I have no affiliation with them, but my FIL is picky about who he works with, so I would guess they do good work. He also works on higher end houses, so that also makes me assume they do quality work.
Hi Erin, hope all's well and I'm glad to see others investing in the Des Moines market.
I've met the owner of Renters' Warehouse as well as we have evaluated going with a property management firm for our acquisitions/portfolio.
Beyond meeting the owner, I've had an anecdotal experience with Renters' Warehouse with another very simple task, of getting a reference for a prospective tenant we were evaluating. We felt fine about the interaction with the owner in evaluating going with Renters' Warehouse on the PM side, beyond just the observation that the offering seemed very formulaic and we did not 'buy' the value proposition (for the right price of course we may have bitten).
During the one other experience we had with them, though - the service was poor, at best, but extremely dysfunctional. They didn't do what they said they were going to do. Although they didn't directly cause every part of the situation, they didn't help and contributed to a situation in which I needed to offer a prospective tenant an 'in between' option (of our own house) to stay in during a gap period after we had committed to renting it them.
I get the impression that Renters' Warehouse has their process, but the flexibility that is often needed to handle things that are even just slightly outside of the box, was not present. It doesn't surprise me at all that the basics of operating / maintaining a network of rentals is not in the 'sweet spot' of this companies ability to provide value.
I'd honestly suggest shopping Renters' Warehouse's services if that's an option.
Johnston, IA · Member since 2016 · 1 post · 1 vote
8y
Hi Erin, I use Mike Sudman at Top Shelf Property Management as my property manager and have very good luck with him. He's very responsive and has at least 100+ properties under management.
Altoona, IA · Member since 2018 · 11 posts · 5 votes
8y
Erin,
Congrats on your acquisition. Contractors are inundated right now due to all the flooding. I have been waiting for an estimate in my basement since July and also was recently told by a friend who does all sorts of interior work that he is booked through the Fall.
Rental Property Investor · Algona, IA · Member since 2015 · 43 posts · 33 votes
8y
Congrats Erin! I'm a few hours north of you in Algona, IA. I'm new to Iowa, but I'm learning that most contractors are booked out 6 months - 1 year for projects. Yes, the weather (flooding, tornados, etc) creates extra additional work for them. I have lined up contractors and individuals to help with my rentals. We ended up investing in a professional paint sprayer ourselves since we end up painting often. Sometimes, it's best to gather up some friends for a pizza and beer party and just get the job done yourselves. Otherwise, you may have to wait til winter to find a good contractor. Good luck!
Real Estate Broker · San Diego · Member since 2018 · 3 posts · 1 vote
8y
Thank you so much everyone! We finally got a painter lined up ourselves :) and he can have it done next week. I appreciate the PM recommendation @Nicole Grimm