All Forum Posts by: David C.

The fact that your aged improvements lose their value is lost on so many people, and is why all the logic about: improve your kitchen and get 80% back! is such a sham. Only improvements done close to selling, and done prudently, and with generally accepted taste - can be relied on to return anything.

The kitchen we just put in was CONSUMPTION, by the time we sell, it will be a 20 year old kitchen, we will get none of it back. The roof we put on, will be a 20 year old roof. I hate when people fool themselves into thinking that their home maintenance and home improvement is an investment when its the home they live in, and plan to stay in. I'm happy to spend on consumption, when I can afford it, and when my wife and I are being honest with ourselves.

If I was young and had time but not capital, I'd consider trying to get a job at a large apartment complex office. They show units, screen tenants, deal with eviction, maintenance, etc... Observe and ask lots of questions.

But... do you have time? can you get something like that and keep your primary job which likely pays better? I don't know.

I wish when I was young and single I had taken more part time jobs. Like selling cars or furniture or something. I dislike sales and marketing, but the older I get, the more I realize that is limiting my success. Some hours spent in a tough sales process, learning to close and deal with difficult people, and to be difficult when I had to, that would have been many lessons well learned.

can you solve this with a hedge? even if it does not completely hide it, it will show the buyers you recognize the issue, and when the bushes grow a bit, their view will be nicer.

Bamboo grows really fast but is massively invasive and should be 'curbed in' which would probably cost more than the fencing.

what about pine trees? I guess any tree will take way too long for a flip. But again, even a row of 18" pine trees along that property line would have the promise of a future screen.

put up a few sections of lattice on your side of the shed with vines planted on them. No need for a full fence unless there's a long line of sheds :)

The difference is that there's an entire industry built on teaching people that Real Estate is simple and easy riches. Sit back and collect rent checks from the beach.

Its easy at 1, 2, 3.

1. buy properties 50% below market

2. sell them at market(or rent them out)

3. leverage like crazy to do many of these! and...

4. BONUS: pay no taxes due to depreciation and expensing your living expenses to your business!!

Thanks for the feedback everyone, I'm not active in RE investing, still in the 'failure to launch/analysis paralysis' spot. I knew this group would know a lot about this topic, and I often need the kick in the pants about getting multiple quotes and negotiating. I have no trouble in my consulting business demanding that I get paid a high rate, but when it comes to buying, I'm a pushover.

I play great financial offense by pulling in lots of revenue. I play my defense by choosing to live modestly. My defense lacks: 'getting what I buy for the lowest price'. I will need to adjust that before getting into this business, it will erode all my profits but make for many happy vendors.

For now, I have 2 sections of PEX in the basement, and my fingers crossed. We may get a new master bathroom next year, maybe when all those walls are open, we'll attack the 'whole house PEX' project.

Got a quote of ~10,000 to PEX the whole house. 2.5 baths, kitchen, laundry, 2 hose bibs. 2 bathrooms+laundry upstairs, half bath, one hose-bib and kitchen on main floor, one basement hose-bib, hot water heater etc... plus they would put in the big control board thing for pex lines next to the hot water heater.

For today - $300 to replace about 8 feet of cold water pipe with PEX.

Lots of thinking about dropping this coin to prevent leaks that might happen or maybe I'm done for another few years?

Amazing fast replies everyone.

I'd be happy to do the whole basement, but there are 2 floors above it, to get all the way up to upstairs bathrooms seems like a very big job to do preemptively.

I'll talk with the plumber about doing at least a really big patch.

I don't see any metal hangers, but about 15 feet from this leak there was a piece of steel or aluminum conduit? that was stored up in the ceiling, sitting on the block wall on one and and on this water pipe on the other. I've moved it. Its a piece of what they used to run power lines down the block wall to outlets. Could that just 'being in contact' be the root of my problem?

This has now happened 3 times in my primary residence.

I find a puddle on my basement floor, look up and a copper pipe is dripping very slowly from the middle of a length of pipe, its not at a joint, and the rest of the pipe is dry. Just a spontaneous pinhole leak.

So far I've been lucky, this keeps happening in the basement, but now these last two are only a few weeks apart.

What would cause my copper pipes to corrode spring spontaneous leaks? This last one was in a part of the ceiling with a drop-ceiling that has not been touched for months. The other 2 leaks were in an 'unfinished room' where I figured I probably hit them with something I was moving. But this last one is clearly an undisturbed pipe spontaneously leaking.

Should I not be drinking my water? Should I be getting the whole house re-done with PEX? Home was built around 1989.

Thanks for any ideas.

I copped out a bit, this is a very old picture, very few in RL would recognize this as me. But it is how I looked about 15 years ago.