All Forum Posts by: Brian Mathews

Seems like lots of cooks in the kitchen. Everybody's role needs to be defined, written down and notarized. You don't want 5 different people and their spouses deciding what flooring or cabinets to put in. You don't want one of their closet dream of being a trim carpenter to come to fruition and decide they will do the carpentry work to save a few $$$. Or one of them to hire their loser painter nephew who painted a wall one time so they can help him out. Personally I think it's too many personalities to get involved in something like this.

Area to area varies a lot. As does the difficulty of the job. You might be in an area that uses union installers which cost more or an area using low paid guys which obviously don't. It also will depend on the type of furnace you put in, which could be based upon codes in an area. Average price between $1000-$2000.

If I were a homeowner in the "HOA" I would never approve of the money going to anybody for an investment except a money market. It is not there to make money, but to fix my road. Especially to one of my fellow homeowners buddies. And while your intentions might be honorable, it sounds to much like a scheme likely to be seen on American Greed and Scams tv show at some point. I also would want to know what it costs to repave this road and an estimated maintenance cost on it and base my dues upon that amount.

So you're looking at $1700 a month potential profit before repairs. Who manages it and how do you compensate them? A free lot? Who performs general maintenance such as mowing common areas and picking up trash and how are they compensated? On the surface it doesn't look like much of a money maker depending on how these items are handled and barring any major repairs that will inevitably be necessary.

Expenses: $450 per month, Owner pays for trash, sewer, water, taxes, and insurance. That seems awfully cheap to me for all those lots. I'll guess there is a dumpster on site. So there is city water to each trailer and you pay for that as well as sewage? I know I'm in a different area, but all this for my house runs $70/month and that's not including insurance. I would think insurance for the land with all these trailers on it would be a pretty large liability. Maybe I'm wrong. Have you verified those numbers?

I'm an hvac contractor, not in your area. I wouldn't mess with putting 16 seer in a rental unless the city requires it, which I doubt it does. Put in a 13 seer, that will work fine for your needs.

I'm a contractor and have my own. Nothing too fancy, it just spells out whether I get a deposit or not to start and when I'm done, you pay me or I'll slap a lien on the property. I'm pretty basic being an hvac guy, I install equipment and ducting and you pay me when I'm done. Go look at Office Depot or one of those places, they have a bunch of legal forms. A lawyer isn't that expensive to draw up something, a couple of hundred dollars. If you don't have that, you might want to think a little more before you go to flip a house, what happens if something unexpected comes up than requires cash? Nothing ever happens as planned in construction.

You probably won't get very good deals to start. After you prove yourself that you aren't doing this as a hobby and will do 1 deal and give up. Which happens a lot. You might be able to start negotiating some sort of lower rate. The first thing you need to do is be very organized and don't waste people's time constantly changing your mind about the scope of work and if you do change your mind, be ready to pay more. The next thing is that when a bill is due to a contractor, pay it very promptly. I'll be honest with you, I'm an hvac contractor and if you came to me, letting you know that you are just starting out, I would give you a bid, but most likely not take you very seriously. No offense to you personally, but there are so many people out there trying to do this that fail or never get off the toilet, its not even funny. I might try to shadow with somebody or partner with somebody who brings some legitimacy to the process, that might be a good start to meet people and get the ball rolling.

I personally won't do any business with friends or family. But that is me. I think it can make Thanksgiving dinner or social gatherings awkward if something goes wrong. Spouses have a particular way of screwing things up. Saying that, if you decide to do that. You need everything layed out in writing by a 3rd party that both of you pay, not your lawyer or theirs. Everything needs to be spelled out as to what will happen if somebody wants out, something gets divorced and the spouse wants half, etc... No handshake deals and everybody put in equal parts money and time, not one person funds the deal and the other one does the work. Because perceptions of what is more valuable when the deal goes south will vary greatly.

A director of a housing authority sounds to me like a government employee managing the projects. I think you might need to clarify what you mean a little more. If this is the sort of person you are speaking of, I'm not sure how they can help you out. I would think a person working for HUD in this division wouldn't be affiliated with homes owned by HUD, but I could be mistaken.