All Forum Posts by: Brian Krause

@Jerrid Burke I used to own a construction business and have rehabbed my own homes and tons for other people. One nice thing about condos is that they are relatively simple compared to a house since they are a concrete box, for the most part. I've done this for budgeting in the past. Have your realtor take you to a style of condo you are looking to invest in. Find something that is a similar year and floor plan. I.e. Condo built in the 60's, 2 bedrooms, 1 bath 900 sqft) just close that is all. When you visit the place you are going to do two activities. First take and out side pictures of the build, front of unit and any sides with Windows. The go in the unit and take a picture of each room from each of the four corners. Take a ton of pictures of the kitchen and bath (these are your expensive rooms). Also take pictures of all the light fixtures, electrical panel, the furnace/AC (mechanicals).  You should be able to snap off these pictures in a couple minutes. When taking the pictures take way more then you think is necessary and of every detail even the ones you think are stupid (not like it costs you). Then this is the part that sucks. You need to draw a floor plan and measure all the rooms. Just measure to the nearest inch even nearest 6 inches is fine (this is a budgeting exercise). On you plane make sure to draw in all the doors and windows. For the doors just put the width of the door to the nearest inch as it doesn't matter (Reality is your front door is 36", your bifold a are 60" and most of the interior doors are 32"). Then write down the windows of width by height and what kind of window (double hung, casement, slider - if you don't know you have pictures). Now take your horribly drawn floor plan and go to Fiverr.com and find a guy that draws floor plans (seem like I really get things for under $5 but should be under $25). Now you have your floor plan and picture so go to Home Depot and get prices on each room. The talk to a couple contractors and have them give you quotes on what it would cost to Rehab each room. Now put it all in a spreadsheet  Now you have a super accurate quote tool when you need to make a quote.

I'm in Chicago as well and had a contacting business where I did a ton of windows. I assume NYC is more expensive then Chicago but similar price range. The $400 is a loaded question but I have a feeling it isn't a bad price. If you are just doing a plain jane replacement job like you see on the Home Depot or Lowe's do it your self video page and really are just replacing the wood sashes with a white vinyl pocket window then yes, you could do cheaper. If you there is some metal work (that is the aluminum that gets wrapped around the brickmold, wood, on the outside of the window) then that adds a ton to it. Usually your handy man or homeowner type can't do that work, well. With metal work or trim work, $400 sounds pretty reasonable, assuming your using a good window and not a piece of garbage single pane. 

@ Dan Dawson To get started go to a site like https://www.godaddy.com/offers/online-business.aspx. There are a million of them but if you sign up for their basic hosting, is only a $1 a month and you get to buy your domain name with that price. You'll need to search for a domain name and Dan Dawson is already taken some hopefully your company name isn't. Once you do this there are some free tools to use to build a site. However, this will probably be way harder then you want to do. I'd first ask your kids or grandkids if any of them know how to build a basic website (if you have a family member that is a designer of some type the probably do). That will get you up and running. If you don't have someone you know to hook you up, then go to fiverr.com and pay $5 to $100 to have someone make you something basic. It will be basic and kind of lame but you'll have a site. I'm sure you'll find out quickly what you want to do and in a few months drop the $500 or $1000+ for a good site but don't waste your time doing this until you know what you want. Make sure you get input from some people close to you that you trust so you don't get scammed.  

Start reading up on how to fix your credit. With a little hard work you probably have some stuff you can clean up. You probably won't get to an 800 but if your understand how the scoring works you learn a few tips. Do the free recommendations first that your quickly find from some google searches. After that you may want to look at someone like Lexington Law. Will cost you $80 a month for a few months but they are pretty good at results. Also subscribing to freecreditreport.com for a few months while you work on your credit is worth while. Just so you know I speak from experience and raised mine by about 100 points. Keep in mind it is a pain but it worth it.

I'm Brian Krause from Park Ridge, touches O'hare Airport for anyone that has flown through Chicago. By day I help IT Resellers built Security Practices around the products I represent. I'm looking to start investing in real estate as a means passive income for retirement in the next 15 to 20 years, not that I really expect to every really retire since that sounds boring. In my past, I have owned a couple businesses and ran a construction business full time. I've also rehabbed 3 houses that I lived in (turned profit on 2 of them and are outlined in my profile). My Dad recently purchased a condo that he rented in the Schaumburg area. I'd like to do something similar. Really looking forward to building a business with a buy and hold strategy. I have strong research, analytical, sales, business planning and negotiation skills. I attribute my success in the world of sales to understanding what motivation a person has to make a decision; then crafting a solution that is mutually beneficial. I've already read most of the free books on this site and browsed many posts. I have to say that I'm very impressed with the knowledge and backgrounds everyone has. I hope to learn, contribute and hopefully make a few new friends in business!