All Forum Posts by: Eddy Dumire

@Brian Chadwick if you want to head a little further south, the Rappahannock REIA meets this Monday in Fredericksburg. Obviously their focus is more towards Fredericksburg, Stafford, and Spotsylvania. You can find them on meetup.

Lots of good properties in Woodbridge though.

Listen to ALL of the podcasts.  They have given me more info than any book and more info than can be easily found on the site.  I've listed to every one and started back at podcast 1 again!

Eddy

@Gail K. I've heard about the fabric softener and will definitely give it a try if I go the peeling route.  The wallpaper seams aren't good at all, so painting over them won't help with that at all.

@Max T. good summary of the time vs cost aspects of the debate.  I certainly don't have a lot of time.  What I do happen to have is 7 sheets of drywall in my garage that were left over from my last renovation so that starts to shift the balance in favor of ripping it out.  My house will also need to appeal to the higher end rental market.  It's definitely a class A area that should command about $2400 per month.

But... This is a master bath that has two rooms (one with a shower/toilet and the other with a jetted tub and two vanities).  Once I get started, I'm going to have to commit to the whole thing.  The floors, shower, and the tub surround are all tiled in the same boring off-white ceramic squares.  Its really tough to decide which way to go.

Peeling wall paper and painting:

16 hours + $200 in supplies -- still outdated bathroom

Full bathroom renovation:

2 weeks (evenings and weekends) + $$ thousands -- brand new bathroom

@Bryan Williamson I've heard about the peel-what-you-can-skim-coat-the-rest strategy too.  Have you ever done this?  I'm just wondering if it holds up over time.  It may be an option.

I delivered the new stove last night.  The tenant and a friend of his even carried it into the house for me.  Next step will be cabinets and countertops.

My own personal residence has wallpaper that's been painted over in the master bathroom.  It's pretty glossy and water resistant.  We've been there for 10 years and there's no sign of peeling yet.  If I try to peel a small corner then practically nothing comes up and it just a shredded paper mess.

I've done drywall before.  I'm not an expert at it though and it will probably take me 2-3 times longer than a pro.  I've never done ceramic tiling before, but I'm sure I can figure it out.  The bathroom is about 26 years old anyway and could use an update.

We will be moving to a new house in about 2 months and will convert this to a rental property.  Should I invest the time and effort in a full bathroom demo or just peel the wallpaper off one tiny strip at a time?

So a little over a week has gone by and things are getting more interesting every day.

I had my contractor come out and replace the front and rear doors.  He also replaced all the windows (except one) and secured the crawlspace by building a door for it.  We used standard off the shelf replacement windows from home depot.  They were $147 each and we replaced 8 of the 9 windows.  My contractor is paid $500 per day.  Its a little steep but he works pretty fast and really knows what he's doing.

The one we didn't replace is located in the bathroom -- behind the shower -- literally.  It is sealed into the wall.  I told the contractor to hold off on doing anything else with it until we move on to the bathroom.  I can't believe someone would wall off a window.

He also wrapped all the window sills in aluminum.  It looks really good.

He was there working on this over the span of 3 days.  During which he said he noticed a constant flow of people coming and going carrying backpacks.  He also observed that they all were up and about moving around -- until they all suddenly got very sleepy and took an afternoon nap.  While I was there I also observed lots of people who I hadn't seen before wandering in and out, some in various states of lucidity.

I'm not going to make any further comments... you can figure it out from here.

So far I've invested about $3200 in windows and doors.  I've tried to buy a good balance between cheap and durable.  Today or tomorrow I'm going to buy a stove.  I've found a self-cleaning model for $329 plus tax.  I realize I could probably save some money by going with something used off craigslist (a few options for $125-$150) but I'd rather try to avoid the future service call rather than cheap out on the purchase.

The delayed financing rule will allow you to pull cash out based on a 75% LTV of the original purchase price. You'll have to wait the 6 months (or find a portfolio lender with different rules) if you want to use the new appraised value.

Thanks for the info @Michael Clanton.  I conferred with my contractor and he says he'll be able to make it work.

Eddy

My contractor just provided me with the window measurements for my newest rental house.  He's telling me that we have two window sizes, 31.75 x 45.625 and 27.75 x 37.875.

Home Depot sells standard windows that are 31.75 x 45.25 and 27.75 x 37.25.  Are these close enough or do I need custom windows?  The American standard windows in HD are $147 and $129 respectively.

These are replacement windows for an all brick home built around the 1960's.

Thanks in advance!

I wanted to give everyone an update on my pig.  One half of the tenants called me the other day saying that the other was partying and had people stay over the night before.  She wanted to know what her options were.  I assume she was asking to break the lease (after only about 15 days of the 1 year lease.  I explained to her that they were jointly responsible for the lease and there's nothing I could do about it.  I encouraged her to talk it over with the other party.

On Monday I had a contractor come out and look at the work to be done.  We're starting with the drain issue and replacing the door.  Interestingly when we showed up at the appointed time, a woman was there that I didn't know.  She offered to let us into the house... a little while later after reviewing the repairs with my contractor, one of the tenants showed up.  He said he wanted to make sure we had access, but had to leave to go to work.  He asked that we leave the back door unlocked since he didn't have a key.  Later, the other tenant showed up.  After talking with her, we found out that she didn't have a key either.  This, combined with the fact that the glass on the back door has been broken since day one pretty much confirms that they were squatters.

At any rate, the doors will be replaced and new locks will be installed on Monday.  The end of the month is about a week after that and we'll see if the rent gets paid.  With my last rental we found a lockset that can be rekeyed really easily without taking the lock off.  We'll throw that on this house so we can rekey quickly and easily when the time comes.