All Forum Posts by: Chris Calabrese

Rob K They haven't caught the guys yet, but they think they're responsible for all the break in's in the area. They tried to fingerprint everything, but they wore gloves. They found a couple of footprints and some possible DNA, so they are trying. They stole 2 guns that are registered with the state, so they will be flagged if they try to pawn them.

Mary Joe I don't require renter's insurance, just encourage it in my lease. I just wondered if anyone did.

So after a few years of investing, I had a career first on Tuesday. One of my tenants called and said they had been robbed. Someone kicked in the back door, ransacked the house, stole TV's, etc. All in broad daylight. According to the police, there has been a wave of break-in's in that immediate area since Christmas. The damage was only to the door, which I promptly replaced, so really no big deal for me, but definitely an interesting day.

Luckily for this tenant, they had renter's insurance. I'm sure most tenants don't carry it, so I figured it's a good time to remind everyone of how important it is. In a lot of cases, a major loss like this for a tenant could mean them not being able to pay their rent in the near future. I have been putting a reminder in my leases for tenants to get a policy. Does anyone require their tenants to carry renter's insurance?

We pay $1.25/SF for sanding and 3 coats of poly (no stain). This includes materials.

If you are budgeting $2000, you should be fine. Our plumber re-plumbs entire houses for much less than that, and if it's a simple leak you can find, you could be done for a few bucks.

The 80's were the era of pinhole copper, so there's always a chance that your supply lines are shot when buying a house from that time period, but it could be something minor too.

Wow looks like an amazing project! I buy 10 houses for that much, but would love to be able to do a project of that scope someday. I imagine there's a lot of room for profit with a $500,000 increase in price.

While they won't "rot", if the blocks stay saturated with moisture, they will degrade faster but still over a long period of time. However, if they are full of water this will probably happen anyway. The only surefire way to waterproof an underground structure is from the outside. But if your basement is already dry, then I would do nothing extra.

I use my home address for everything - rentals, flips, leases, etc. I always figure people could find my home address in 30 seconds on google if they wanted to.

Justin, I have an old loan with BoA on a condo and I just went and talked to a mortgage guy there and it turns out its really easy, but only because they have the existing loan. This is on a NOO condo with a LTV of over 200%. It is a streamline program with basically no documentation. I called some other banks and they said it would be a nightmare because they did not have the existing loan.

On another note, negative $8000 a year seems like a lot for that size loan and 4 rental units. What are your rents and other expenses?

Looks great! I keep walking by these displays at Lowe's and I'm just waiting for a good opportunity to use the "wood tile". The next time I need to replace carpet or laminate in a living area, I'm going to use it and see what happens.

We use Kilz oil primer, and just the bright white base, no tint. I can't really speak to the long-term durability, but you get a nice hard finish if you let them set up for a couple of days before handling. The ultimate finish would probably be lacquer, but you need someone with some good experience spraying it.