All Forum Posts by: Chris Svendsen

Google helped me but I can tell you what I found best for inside corners is coping the joint. This leads to a nice tight fit that last.  Did my home office in stained oak and coped all inside corners and looked great and still does 14 years later.  Outside corners I  take an angle finder I got from home depot, get angle, make half and start messing around with scraps until I get it perfect.  Sorry not much help, it is one of those things I can do, just not great at giving directions on how to do.  

Welcome sir.  My wife and I live in Front Royal and are in the middle of our first investment property at this time.  This forum is a wealth of information and I have just scratched the surface.  Like you I will be looking into meeting in realestate groups.  Look into google meetups there seems to be quite a few large groups that regulary meet in the area.  Good luck on your goals and please let me know if I can be any assistance to you. 

I think that is a nice tool to help you evaluate a property when on the go.  Something I have been doing in my head and on paper but nice to see in a simple to use spreadsheet.  Great start there.

As others have said I would focus on ONE area to start.  Figure out what you are most comfortable with and proceed that route.  My wife and I were most comfortable with buy and hold properties that need rehab work.  We purchased our first home and are in middle of rehab process now to goal of having a renter in it in a few months.  My goal is to have a steady cash flow so I can step away from my fulltime job.  We both are comfortable with doing most of work ourselves so properties we look at we keep that in mind of what needs done and what we can do.  Once find one it is all in the numbers.  I like a focused approach as opposed to being everywhere as then you never seem to get anywhere.  Also, the best thing I learned is be ready to move NOW so when the right deal comes up you are ready to move.  We had been half way trying to get into this for years but never were ready to move when found that just right property.  This time i got things lined up so was ready to move the moment I found something I like. 

For us being ready was moving funds around to make things look good to the banks, change other investments to have move money available for purchase and rehab, paying down all debts  that we could, and getting a good realtor. Once that was all done the rest was easy.  When we finally pulled the trigger everything fell into place fairly easy.  There were ups and downs to get to closing but in the end the preperation before hand made things work out great.  

First deal was MLS. Was a 6 month process, our offer was rejected twice, after two previous closings fell apart suddenly we were back in running unexpectedly. Closed on property, and in middle of rehabbing house now. Even with needing full rehab the appraisal on house is $10k over what we paid for it at the time of purchase. After Rehab value is projected to be $100k more than we paid and we will have about $15k into the rehab. Will be renting and expected to see $500 month positive cash flow. I agree with others that MLS has a comfort factor and allows for someone like myself, who has time for searching for deals from 10PM till about 2AM, an easy way to search the market. There are diamonds in the rough to be found, just not always as many as off market.

If you want full time recording you need to get something with an on site recorder.  There are mulitple optoins on the market which allow for full time recording.  If you are looking for something to provide usable data if something does happen either with theft or injury that would be the best way to go.  The worlds largest manufacturer who also rebrands to many resellers is Hikvision. They make good products for your dollars.  I would purchase an IP based system with at least 2MP cameras.  They make a good plug and play NVR which all you have to do is run network cables from the cameras to the recorder, plug them in, and it begins recording cameras.  Here is link to that product.  

http://www.hikvision.com/us/Products_1_10649_i8678...

Nice camera for not a lot of money

http://www.hikvision.com/us/Products_1_10533_i7696...

Products like SimpliSafe are good for live views checking in to see what going on around the property and generally the recording of these cameras are based on alarm activity but the video quality is not very good at night or low light levels.  If you have internet at the property the Hikvision units can be setup for viewing remotely.  

I personally would shy away from a product like SimpliSafe as their backend and systems are not as secure as others on market.  Products which use the Alarm.com system is the best on the market and the most secure for alarm systems.  In the end it is your money but I would hire an alarm professional to work with you to provide a secure and cost effective solution for you.  

Lastly, I do have a biased opinion as I have worked in the electronic security industries for the last 15 years.  I have seen many products like simplisafe come and go and also have installations done by the end user where the products never would of worked as inteneded in even of an incident.  In the end you get what you pay for.  My newest property I installed a panel connected with alarm.com services right away.  I have monitoring during renovation and when occupied by renters for Burgulary, Fire, Freeze, Carbon Monoxide, Water Leaks, and Gas Leak.  In addition do that during the renovation I am able to link a smart lock to the system to manage who is coming and going from the site by giving them a code to access the house and when they are done I can delete code and rearm the alarm, all from my office.  

Let me know if you have any other questions I will gladly assist however possible.  I have lots of experience with what you are looking at.  

Sorry no kitchen photos as they were panoramic photos and to large to post.  Same with a few others.  

Today day one of the home rehab.  We got a pickup load of trash from around the property cleaned up, did some general yard work and mowing around property to clean up place, and got to meet the neighbors.  Here a few photos of what we got ourselves into.  

Thats fantastic.  Can't wait to see final results. Congrats on the first house.  

Tonight the wife and I have officially become real estate investors.  We closed on the property tongiht. House was built in 1755 with a couple additions over its life.  Has had forced air heat, new electric, and water heater all installed by previous owner.  We have lots to rehab but hope to have this on the market for rent by February.  Short list of items to do are roof repairs, new kitchen, 2 new bathrooms, add laundry room, inslaute attic, new plumbing for one bathroom, paint the house inside and half of outside, and a host of small items.  We will be doing work ourselves and some contractors.  Will post pics up tomorrow of what we are starting with.  We are quite excited. This is the start of many more to come.