All Forum Posts by: Candy Marshall

@Erin Elam. You may be able to get a much better price from someone who just does painting. A painting contractor. If you involve a GC, they WILL raise their prices and percentages as well just to "deal" with the paint. On the flip side, you will see a much better price from a GC if he has FULL TIME painters on his payroll. Some do and some don't. So start now in building up a construction "base". Calling several GCs to get a price on doing everything. Then once you get those prices, then call the individual subcontractors and get their price for doing their part of the job. Keep these numbers and names. Sometimes you will run across somebody that you just click with, real gun ho on getting things done in a timely manner, but they may be a tad more expensive than another. That "relationship" can worth its weight in gold!

The first thing you do is to contact the utility department for water and electric and get vertification of the turn off. Next is the department of health. You get a copy of the legal implications of having the water turned off in conjunction with the dates of water/electric being shut off. Next is code compliance, showing them the paperwork from water and health. I don't know if in your area, code compliance can contact the sheriff's department to have them evicted immediately. All of this rests on the dates of water being turned off. Do these people work, or just hang around doing drugs? If so, see if the city police would be willing to park in front of the house. If their "income" is cut off, they may get out of their a lot quicker. All of these things should give you immediate results. 

Good luck!!

Rick Pozos- There is no contract, they have no legal right to be there at all. And most important, the water has been shut off. The state of Texas considers that a huge health issue and they can be evicted in 24 hours for just that. Steven Payne has been way too nice to these people, because DEA or even local police can confiscate the house if drugs are found there. 

David, I guess that's why so many millennials are moving to San Antonio because of the the huge difference in price to buy a home. Housing prices are STILL way less there. Cost of living in Austin, is off the chart in comparison to many other Texas cities. 

I don't know if you are smelling mold in the crawl space or if you've seen it. But, Kilz was originally used to seal out mold so it wouldn't bleed through the paint. My guess is there is a real good reason why its been sitting for so long, and has nothing to do with pet odors. See if you can find a common wall in relation to the crawl space and the "pet odors" wall. You may have a water line in the wall that would involve both the crawl space and the odor wall that has been either leaking or seeping for quite some time. 

See if you can get some comps in the area and I wouldn't do squat until I did or at least contacting the property taxing unit in that area to see what the property is appraised for. Since there is a realtor involved, ask them specifically about leaks, OR if you have a friend/relative whose a plumber...

What is the condition of the roof on this duplex? I'm thinking also the possibility of leaks in the roof or walls from rain. Just a guess. People who are 74 years old will always go for cheap, and not necessarily the best or right way.