All Forum Posts by: Adam Johnson

@Randy F. - one of my more expensive life lessons involves working on a large project that ended with me getting stuck for over $ 100,000. Job was completed, on schedule and as agreed by me. Even though I knew I was headed for trouble the last 2 weeks of the job and likely would have problems getting paid, my contract said I could not delay the schedule for any reason, and I didn't. Unfortunately, I didn't get a chance to ruin his shoes. I didn't get paid and never will either.

My family suffered greatly as a result. I don't apologize when I ask for tough payment terms and don't look back if I smell a skunk.

It is unfortunate that, generally speaking, it becomes an us vs. them situation, with "us" and "them" being vague. I run my businesses as a team operation. My perception of a team is that every member has a purpose and that the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. My customers are team players. When they stop being team players, they stop being my customers.

I think the original post was intended to illustrate that it doesn't have to be us vs. them because, as you said, we are people too, with families to feed and dreams to realize.

J - it was a little more complicated than simply walking away. It was a $ 250,000 contract as part of a $ 2.5 million dollar project. I had a contract to live up to, which I did. It wasn't my first rodeo and won't be my last. The guy was a jack a$$, plain and simple. Whether what I did was right or wrong is for others to judge. For me, I felt pretty good about it, and I'm not normally that way.

The original point I was trying to make got lost somewhere along the way (many, many posts ago). It seems nobody noticed that I compared that story to the one about working for 3 days straight, 24 hours a day with 20-30 minute cat naps on my steering wheel trying to help out a customer that had always been good to me and treated me right. I offered both stories to demonstrate that you reap what you sow. That lesson goes beyond contractor relationships.

@Tony Reale - my apologies for leading your original post astray. I seem to have stirred quite a response, which was not my intent. I relate 100% to your original post - as an investor, as a property manager, as a real estate broker, as a leader in my local REIA and most of all as a fellow contractor.

Best of success in all you do and thank you for sharing.

@Karen Margrave and @j scott, I'm not not exactly sure how/why this turned into bashing me. Maybe my original point was missed. This particular developer treated everybody like the dirt on his shoe. I had enough of being treated that way and I fixed it in my way. The mention of the vehicle and clothing went along with his attitude. I judged him by his attitude toward me, that simple.

I choose my customers and I don't hesitate to tell people that I don't want to work with them because of their attitude or if they disrespect me because I wear steel toe shoes and blue jeans.

I've said all I want to say. Good day.

@Bill Sonzogni - glad to help. I'm not really sure what got into me when I ruined his shoes, I guess I had reached my limit. One of my foreman watched it happen and I thought he was going to fall off of the dozer he was laughing so hard.

I like your comment about building a team, that couldn't be more true. There are going to be good contractors that don't mesh well with your style. That's ok, find another good one that does. Just like I don't care for arrogant customers, I also don't care for arrogant contractors. I will settle for an "almost as good" person if they have the right attitude. Drama is a huge waste of time, productivity, and money.

To expand a little more - for those contractors that are in the middle or high end of what @Tony Reale describes - we know what our costs are to complete a job and we are intelligent. In spite of what many of the guru programs say about low-balling your contractors during pricing negotiations, one of the quickest ways to lose a relationship with a good contractor is to continually want to lowball them while negotiating pricing. Your calls will no longer be taken and when YOU are in a bind and really need a helping hand, WE will be "too busy" to help you.

It is important to recognize good contractors as also being good business people, just the same as you are. Treat the right ones right and when you need something, they will jump at the chance to help you out. Kick them around and look down your nose at them, and they WILL get even! You may not even know how, but they will find a way to cost you more money than you thought you saved by beating them down to working for nothing.

I have been in construction for over 20 years and have worked everything from small remodels to major commercial construction and heavy/highway work. This is my world and I will make sure it is a win for me and a lose for you if you try to step on me. Conversely, if you are a loyal customer and fair in our business together, then it will be a win/win and I will go out of my way to help a good customer out of a bind.

Quick story for you to understand how it works - I was once working on a commercial development for a developer that drove very nice cars and was always dressed to the nines. He also looked down on his contractors as being "less than". One cold and rainy day, he rolls on to the job site in his $ 80,000 SUV, beeps the horn and motions me over. His wipers are going and the heat is rolling out of the window as he rolls it down just enough to talk to me. I'm standing in the cold rain answering his questions. On this particular day, I wasn't in the mood to be talked down to. I started asking questions about the grading on the back side of the buildings, areas only accessible on foot and the mud was a little over ankle deep. We had a schedule to keep and I know he didn't want to be the reason we fell behind. I acted confused and asked him to "show me" what he meant. Long story short, he was NOT dressed to be in the mud, but I knew him well enough to know how to get him out of his nice warm and dry SUV in his nice fancy shoes to ask stupid questions that I could have figured out all by myself. I successfully ruined his shoes and his pants and he didn't even know.

On the flip side of that story - I had a very good customer that always went out of her way to help me when I needed something or give me a little work if I was slow. She called and said she had a huge deadline with heavy penalties if she was late doing work at an airport 2 hours away. She needed me there the next morning prepared to run my equipment 24 hours/day OVER A WEEKEND! Her call was Thursday night and the job had to start the next morning. I made it happen. I was there personally and slept on the steering wheel of my truck 20 minutes here and 30 minutes there for the entire weekend. The job was completed on time late Sunday evening.

Whether it is a tenant, a contractor, a fellow investor, or somebody you are walking by on the street, treat them like a human and with respect, you never know when you might need the favor returned!

@Taylor Green - got it. So you are speaking of LAND space, not BUILDING space. You could run numbers quick, but my guess is that building a new building is probably not going to give a great return. I could be wrong, as I don't know what storage rates go for in your area.

@John Sheedy -great point on the curb appeal.

@Taylor Green - I was led to believe that you had existing space somewhere in the building that you would convert to storage. If you are building new or bringing in container type storage for only 6 units, I would strongly question the economics. I would also encourage you to check local zoning laws first. No sense spending hours/days planning something that will never get approved. Time to do your homework!

@Taylor Green - we need to work on the way you think! Never leave money on the table. If area self-storage's charge that amount, then that is what you should charge, or maybe even a little more. Remember - you are offering them a convenient service, don't sell that short!

One thing you may want to consider, however, is that self-storage generally is fairly long term (not always) from what I have learned from some of the operators. People need a long-term home for their junk. If you are only renting to your tenants, then you may want to tie the leases together so that if they move out of the apartment, they have to clear out the storage as well. I would save sharing that little "detail" until later on in the discussion about the storage so they have a chance to fall in love with the idea before they cringe at the details.

This may or may work as a tenant retention tool. My gut tells me that it won't make a lot of difference, but will give you a chance to boost your rent roll up a little bit.

@Diego A. and @Taylor Green - I will clarify the water issue first, didn't mean to cause confusion. In my 5-unit, there is only one water meter with the bill paid by me. That's the easy one.

In my 4-unit, it has 4 separate water meters with each tenant paying their own water. However, the way the law reads in NY (and elsewhere probably), I can't make a tenant pay for water they don't use themselves unless it is metered. It really didn't make sense to add another water meter for a washing machine. Instead of doing that, I bumped the rent up $ 30/month for one of the apartments and include the water for that apartment in their rent. I then use that meter for my laundry room and pay the whole bill. I technically get reimbursed for the tenant's usage in that unit by way of slightly higher rent. I stay legal by including the water in the rent, but not charging separate fee without a meter. Hope that clarifies things.

Now, regarding the storage to NON-tenants, check zoning laws and think about this carefully! This use may require specific zoning and likely it isn't the same as multi-family housing. Also, you are going to create some extra foot traffic in/out of your property. You may not want that, for security and tenant comfort reasons. You should also check with your insurance person. You may also want to speak with the fire marshal and/or building/code enforcement. Separate uses may require fire separation, greatly increasing the cost.

If you only rent storage space to your tenants, you might avoid some of the extra complications and "fly under the radar". Renting to others may open up a can of worms.

Regarding the 50/50 deal on the laundry machines, I only did it because it was my kids. I only used the idea to come up with a fair way to split the coins. If it were not for that, I would simply buy the machines. We bought them new and have had no problems with them, with the exception of a tenant prying into one of them to bypass the coin-operator. That tenant is gone and the note on the machine telling the other tenants they were not stealing from me, but from my kids, seems to have prevented any recurring problems.

I didn't mean to hijack your post about storage and shift it to laundry rooms, I just thought it was another cool alternative way to make $$ with otherwise wasted space.