All Forum Posts by: George C.

Years ago I used to work for a Redi-mix concrete company, we did big projects down to small jobs. I remember a new big condo townhome project that a couple buildings in the first phase already had to have concrete pumped underneath the footings because of soil issues...while they were still building out the complex. I even saw a couple of single houses had to have this done. This is a very rare thing in northern NJ with it's hard soil. This is such a specialty job, I would imagine it would cost a fortune & you'll never know when your done till time passes and it does or doesn't sink any further.

I doubt this would make a good flip project. Who can guarantee that the first pumping will fix it for sure? Won't you have to disclose this to an end buyer? This will be a huge buyer red flag.

If you got it for next to nothing, it might be a good buy & hold long term rental.

A vs. C, I think ease of management & values has more to do about the overall economy than it is to do with the kind of housing stock you own. When decent jobs are there, there is money to spend on rents, things are good everywhere.

Nobody complains when the rents are dumping in on them, when the economy slowed & the jobs died off, everybody is hurt by it.

There are pluses & negatives to both A & C range rentals. I remember around 2004 we Landlords were complaining that our good to marginal tenants were all leaving us to buy homes of their own & that will happen again when and if things finally recover. Meanwhile lower end tenants tended to stay put. With the slow down, even the lower end is rough renting, but is still easier to rerent than an upper end emptys (at least around here, nowadays)

Junkers in bad neighborhoods do appreciate in good times (In areas where things bubble). I think most of us saw everyone jump on the real estate bandwagon in 2004+ speculating in R/E making money till the bottom fell out. People who knew nothing about R/E & rentals jumped in with reckless abandon. And guess what? It will happen again some day, not now, maybe not 5, 10 years, maybe 15? That will be my time to sell, then I will buy again after the next crash. At my age I've seen the cycles in R/E over the years from when I was a kid.

Those junkers you see for sale now, see how much they sold for in 2005,6&7, then ask yourself if you'd like that in your pocket.

I got my license because I had to deal with too many liars & incompetents for agents. I wasn't interested in dealing with the public as a typical agent, I wanted to do my own thing. When I joined a brokerage they of course wanted me to do floor time, I was on the schedule for two months, one evening a week. Those eight nights all I was, was an (unpaid) secretary for the #1 agent in the place answering calls for her and nothing else came in. This #1 agent was good, but the poor thing lived with phones stuck to both sides of her head, good luck trying to talk to her in person, the phones were always ringing. They weren't all happy calls, often she was putting out fires, a lot of stress there. I knew that wasn't for me. From then on I told them I was too busy to do floor time, they were ok with that because I was buying, building & selling my own properties splitting the commission with the office. I only did a few sales for others when they fell into my lap from people I know.

How nice it is to have the MLS at your finger tips anytime you need it & to be able to do a showing for yourself when you want without having to figure in someone else's schedule. Cutting out one more link out of the game of telephone was a very good thing. Cutting yourself in on the commissions is the best thing!

Even out of state, when I call the listing agents I tell them I'm from "abcdef realty" and get a commission when I buy. I'm buying REO's, so often they have the old combo lock boxes so they give me the codes and go look myself when I want there too.

Don't get too tied up working for nothing, badgering everyone you know & strangers too, make that license work for you and your own deals. Just my opinion.

Purchased 2012 for $21K (got a $500 commission on the sale too), put in $17K, $37,500 all in after repairs and rents for $950 (N/E PA).

Can't get the outside "after" to load...

Before

After & staged to rent

Yes, there was a new wrought iron railing installed on the stairs. Notice I added a landing & a turn. The stairs use to end less than 2' from the wall & heater, go figure... was a simple fix that made a great change in looks & safety.

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In 2003 I bought an REO for $3K (yes three thousand dollars & got a $500 commission on that too), I put in $1,200 & three weekends of elbow grease and rented it for $425 a month. The house was a half double in Luzerne Co PA and in great condition, it had a retail value then of $30K. The old lady neighbor would run out and tell everyone looking at it that there was a big oil spill in the basement, fire dept involvement, that it was condemned, etc... I bought it anyway :) It was all BS, she didn't want to be terrorized anymore by renters, she kept buyers away for over 5 years with that routine of hers. I made sure to tell her how much I paid for it and thanked her :)

I have a "friend" that buys wire & plumbing in bulk at times, so the dates on them are a couple years older than his purchase of the property. BTW the dates on the pvc come off with the pvc cleaner. You also have to keep in mind pictures of the property online from prior sales, they may show how the property changed with or without permits, so keep that in mind.

Six years ago I was talking to a town inspector about a lot I was about to build on. He mentioned that he saw an old driveway on the property via the satellite photos, so I didn't need to get a driveway permit... Wow, I didn't even know there was an old driveway under all the brush that sprung up, I was equally shocked to know that he was looking at satellite photos, too. Yeah so that a good thing to keep in mind about decks, shed, carports/ garages & pools that spring up with out a permit.

I've used Allure twice so far, both times were over a very rough subfloor and the thickness & forgiveness of the Allure covered it all well. It has held up for two years now and It looks like the day I installed it. I couldn't be happier with this stuff.

This drives me crazy when they disable the smoke detector systems. I always install a hard wired interconnected system when I buy a house or building because I want to sleep at night. The last thing I'd want to hear is someone died or got injured in a fire in one of my places.

The last tenants that moved out of a sfh were perfect tenants with the exception of that they took the batteries out of all the detectors & shut off the breaker for the entire system! How stupid, 0 protection after all that money spent to install. They lived there for one year and the batteries were new when they moved in. I just shake my head sometimes.

How did you find out he fell & got hurt, certified letter?

I've had " injury claims" pop after filing for eviction or telling people to get out. Each time it was a bluff, I was never presented with hospital or doctor bills after being told there were such bills. In eviction court the tenant brought up that they got injured, blah, blah. The Judge told them, "we're not here for that now" and went on with the eviction.

Been there done that, I'd wait until I'm presented with medical bills before I'd contact my insurance company. I wouldn't try to buy them off, if it's true, let the insurance company handle it, that's what they are paid for.

Chris,

Steel frame? are you meaning "manufactured / mobile homes"? I know a lot of people think the term "modular" is interchangeable with manufactured or mobile, but not here in the N/E.

The ones I built were all OSB or plywood, depending on what you want to pay for, but never have I seen particle board or a steel frame. The N/E (NJ,NY CT & Mass) have stringent building codes compared to other areas of the country, that might have something to do with the differences of our opinions.

I've stick built many homes over the years, too. A spec home is gonna get OSB compared to a custom home or a home for myself being built with plywood. Most homes I bet were spec / tract homes, at least around here.

Stephen, the inspector said the w/d looked old? My old house has been a rental for the last 5 years and has our original w/d from when we we're married, they are (drum roll) 24 years old! They are clean & run fine, tenant was glad to have them. This is an upper scale home, too.

My props are middle class, I get used from craigslist, real cheap too. Haven't had a problem. These days people are swapping good appliances for stainless, or are selling everything due foreclosure, so there always is something good out there when you need one.