All Forum Posts by: Drew Clements

Awesome! This is why I love BP! Thanks everyone for your responses!

Here some stuff that stood out to me: REI can be self-employment or and investment as well... so although I would actually love to be self-employed in real-estate, I can see that for my current situation, the best approach may actually be the true "investment" side - partners, teams, etc. where I'm not as hands on.

Again, thanks all for the perspective and encouragement!

I'm remodeling my duplex right now - 1890! So it's all plaster. Advice above is sound for sure - there's definitely disagreement online with it comes to materials (hot mud vs fix it all vs traditional lime plaster, etc. etc.). I came to the conclusion that it really only matters if you're doing historic preservation or something of that nature (then go with traditional methods)... Personally, I'm kind of in the middle...

DAP makes a product in 25 pound bags called Plaster Wall Patch (DON'T use true plaster of paris for big reparis because the working time is too short - like 5 min). It is more like a traditional mix, but is easier to work with (mixed like joint compound, but can be applied thicker).

Regarding the repair process, @Ben Skove mentioned Big Wally's Plaster Magic - they are crazy expensive, but their videos are great! Very informative for how-to. For loose sections that need to be secured, I used their process (plaster washers, etc.) but used liquid nails instead. I also skipped the plastic washers and just used fender washers backed with pre-drilled pieces of wood (lath scraps). Worked great! Just be careful while screwing them down since they don't give like the plastic washers.

Also, I haven't tested the difference, but I use a plaster bonding agent (lots of different brands, just read labels to make sure it works for plaster) where I'll be applying new plaster to old.

Oh, and it's best to get carbide/masonry blades/scrapers/bits etc. since plaster will eat through your common steel implements CRAZY fast.

Good luck with your projects!

Listening to podcasts and reading articles, etc. it's clear that investing in real estate while simultaneously holding a full-time job is possible and common. But I'd like to target this question to a more narrow population and I really hope there's some of you out there...

If you are/were self-employed (and have employees under you, and possibly share ownership with partners), how do/did you invest in real estate at the same time and/or ultimately transition into real estate full time? Any particular strategies? What did you find difficult? What did you have to give up/change? How would you do it differently, etc.

I love being self-employed, but my business model (advertising agency) makes it nearly impossible to remove myself without staffing up in a big way... which has it's own challenges. So I feel like I've maybe painted myself into a corner. Anyone else have this experience?

It often seems impossible to escape during (and even before and after) regular business hours, so I'm not sure how I'd go about business on the real estate side.

Right now, I'm rehabbing a duplex nights and weekends (my first property), but that's no fun... so just reaching out for ideas and advice from those of you who have "been there".

Hey @Jeremy Hauben,

Not worried about a lien, just following best practices - and trying to get docs in order as I go along should I ever need them in the general future.

I'm doing most of the work on the rehab myself, but using a contractor for the big stuff. So it's project by project.

Thanks for offering to share your form - I'll shoot you an email.

P.S. - Just reached out to my title agency and they said they don't have the form on hand - confirmed that they rely on the contractors to provide that.

Hey @Bill Gulley,

Thanks for the amazingly detailed response! This answers my questions for sure and will certainly come in handy for other members!

I'm doing some remodeling on one of my units and trying to follow advice from some of the articles and posts on BP regarding working with contractors - most everything seems pretty straightforward, but I'm trying to figure out the release of lien (mechanic's lien) now.

Anyone have any recommendations on where to find a form/what it should contain. I've never seen one, so I'm very green on the subject.

I live in Colorado if that would make a difference on the form/details included therein.

Thanks in advance for any input on this!

There's a lot that factors that go into conversion rates - your site is only one piece of the puzzle. Your traffic sources, volume, calls to action in ads, etc. all play a role. The right question to ask is if you're making money doing what your doing now - even better, what changes to make to get more. You'll want to start a regiment of disciplined testing over time - split testing (also called A/B) testing. These test factor out a lot of noise (seasonality, weather, holiday flux, etc.) and give you clear cause and effect insights to your changes. In your PPC campaigns, you should always be split testing your ads (at least two ads per ad group, rotating evenly) and on your site, you should run split tests as well. For tracking test performance on your site, you can use content experiments with Google Analytics, or you could opt for something more user friendly like Optimizely, etc. Don't just settle for what the "standard" or "average" might be, but test to arrive at your maximum.

good points, @Steve Babiak

I'm doing a similar think in one of the units of my duplex - pretty much gutting the bathroom and redoing everything. For the tub, it's just a 5' soaker tub and the bids I'm getting for refinishing the thing are around $500 total whereas I could buy a new one at $200 and replace it myself (cash is valued higher than time for me right now). Am I walking of a cliff here? Or am I missing something? Why would I want to refinish (in this case) where this isn't a fancy tub?