All Forum Posts by: Bart H.

 No, Natural gas is a LOT cheaper than electric.  like a huge difference. (doing it from memory but it was something like 2x's for conventional resistance heating vs electric)

As long as the furnace is properly vented (ie no birds or rodents have climbed into the stack, I would stick with natural gas.)

Contrary to the isolated incidents that hit the news, natural gas is very safe, and carbon monoxide poisoning from a natural gas furnace is almost non existent.  Natural gas itself is one of if not the cleanest burning fuel and generally produces no CO.

I would just make sure you get the furnace serviced on a regular basis, and have CO monitors.   and/Or buy a new gas furnace.

I would not replumb my house to covert to electric.

 A GC will likely try and save the floor and one wall because on many of the streets in that area you can keep the setback variance, if you tear the whole thing down you have to build to the new setbacks.

 I know the area very well, in fact I live in that neighborhood, and we are thinking about doing a tear down as well.

The good/bad about the M Streets is it is basically small prairie style/tudor homes built in the mid to late 20's.  The homes typically are fairly small (1,200-1,500) and have only one bath, with lots of old trees, great access to downtown etc.

Those small homes are either being town down, the roof popped off for a second floor, walls moved or the house being scraped and replaced  with a 3000-3500 sq ft, or being completely redone.  There are huge variances in price points, everything from $350K to slightly over a million.

I would say any real "flip" would require high end finishes,  since the target buyers are usually young two income professionals (finance, lawyers, docs etc).  

Depending on the block there could be historical/conservation districts to work with.  Its probably not a great place to try your first flip, and its not the kind of neighborhood where you can just do a Home depot cabinet/paint and put in some laminate floors to make money.

As far as the original question, I typically believe that you get more in a final selling price by using a realtor. Even factoring in the commission. Plus any buyer is going to knock off the realtors commission on any FSBO. Not to mention all of the things that could go wrong during the sales process that could open yourself up for liability.

Now having said all of that, I am in the neighborhood, I would be more than willing to take a look at it and see what we could do before you listed it .  IF that didnt work, I know an agent that works that area fairly heavily and works with some investors.

 Charge a trip charge.

our lease has a trip charge for any tenant caused problems.

Not to mention, if its tripping the breaker, she is pulling too many amps.  Resetting the breaker over and over is ignoring why its tripping.

 There is no way I would allow for someone to keep chickens.

Can a real estate agent threaten a lawsuit?

Regardless, see if they fill out an application.  I would check credit scores, references.  Double check that they really lived at the locations and check with 2 landlords ago.  and any missed line in an application.....

Sounds like someone who is a professional tenant.

May I ask what you are using for comps both for rental and for ARV?

 One of the big advantages is you can in many markets charge by the room.  (depending on local ordinances.)

Also you can often get parents to be cosigners since the kids will likely not have any credit score.

Downside is you are in a perpetual annual rental cycle.  and you will have more wear and tear on the house.

 I don't know the exact statute, but we are talking about safety items. And in that case, make sure your tenant isn't in immediate harm (one way or another), and then get it fixed as soon as possible.  

Most tenants will react favorably if they know you are right on a repair.

I cant imagine anything taking 30 or 60 days that was life threatening.  Heck we have done total rehabs faster than that.

Here is the thing, we fix major things and safety issues as soon as we find out about them.

 Welcome to Dallas.