All Forum Posts by: Eric Gutierrez

I'm not seeing the road being higher than the house?  I'm surprised that place is drywall inside rather than plastter.  Any idea when it was built?  They should be able to skim that and make it look great, but if it smells and you're running new electric I'd consider just tearing it all out.  It sounds like youre going to have a fair bit of new rock going in so it probably wouldn't be too much more to do those areas.  

How are the dogs ruining the fence?  If they are digging under it I wouldn't consider it wrecked.  Honestly as long as the new fence would look good on your side of the property I wouldn't worry about it too much.  The fence getting rough looking on the otherwise would more so impact their view and value than yours.

The old landlord should turn their sd over to you

The one place I've bought that was "professionally managed" by a twin cities PM was an up down duplex with the bathroom stacked on top of each other.  Apparently for 6 months prior to me purchasing the duplex the upper shower dumped around 2-3 gallons of water through the 1st floors bathroom ceiling.  That was not the only thing they had someone not fixed/kept up with.  

I've also seen another huge player that advertises all time on the radios where they were trying to get top top dollar rent on a house that was in a specific submarket where if you're off the lease schedule you'll be lucky to get 65-70% of top dollar.  Watched them sit on that sky high top dollar rental rate for like 3 months before they reduced.  Just because they claim to be a "pro" does not mean that they are any good.  I'm sure there are some really good ones out there as well, but there are definitely some that aren't all that they claim.

I just picked that clause up recently.  Were you by chance talking about that in another post I might have read?

What are you favorite ways to find good contractors (google, networking, angieslist etc.)  Ideally before even getting estimates.  Any ways you filter through who to call or not?  

So what are your favorite clauses you have in your lease?  The ones that help save you $ through avoiding damages or calling out specific things that you learned the hard way

Id say the biggest if in your questions is whether you can actually find a duplex or a quadplex at those prices in your specific area?  I'd think a good step would be to start looking at and tracking sales prices of duplexes/quads in your area.  If nothing else its a good exercise to learn your desired market and help you spot a deal when it comes by.  I think its hard to buy anything and get a good deal (other than luck) if you haven't take the time to your specific geographic market whether its a duplex, quadplex, car, boat etc.  

 They require it here for sanitary purposes.  I always leave a couple inch gap on the far back so it can still run out.