All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

Well it's been more than 24 hours, I would have thought someone in the Houston area could help me. It's really hard to do this from 1,500 miles away and pick the right people without some recommendation.

And why was my post edited to remove some of it?

We are moving from California later this summer to this area for my wife's work (just outside The Woodlands), we are going to look around The Woodlands (just outside)/Conroe/Magnolia areas for a 5-10 acre property for our own home. So we need a realtor that can work with us on this and single family rental properties that could be anywhere in NW Houston.

If anyone knows of a realtor or builder with good rates let us know. I would also like to meet other people in the area. We already checked the area out just after Christmas so I know the place pretty good and where we want to live.

Thank you!

Jeffrey

I have one of these myself where the garage was converted with permits and has a full bath but no kitchen. I would be interested to hear more on this subject because I have let it sit unused since vandals got in sometime before I purchased the place and trashed the walls inside.

I did recently put a new foundation and slab in the main area and have new windows and doors for it but that is as far as I have gotten. It's on the same utilities as the main house but has its own breaker box etc.

Let me add my two cents since I have delt with two properties that were ruined by dogs urinating on the carpet.

When a dog urinates on the carpet it not only soaks the carpet and pad but will also soak into the subfloor where it will stink forever! Sometimes if the dog did its business near the wall the base boards need replaced. Even if the floor is cement like one of the two houses I had with this problem it will get into the porosity of the cement and forever stink. New carpet will never get rid of the smell until you eliminate the trapped source. Wood floors are an even bigger problem and may not ever be smell free if any ran under a wall.

What I do on cement floors to remove the smell depends on what flooring I will replace the carpet with. I always start by ripping up all of the tack strips then mixing bleach and water 50/50 and soaking all of the floors for an hour. (Open all the windows before you do this and put a fan or two in the doorways to keep the air moving!) I then mop and vacuum the excess water off and let it dry a couple of days.

If carpet is going back down I paint the floors with oil base primer to seal in any leftover scent. If I am doing tile I just use the mortar and tile for the vapor barrieor. Sometimes I do concrete stained floors so I will float in a new layer of concrete and that seals any leftover smells.

On wood floors you will be limited to just taking up the tack strips, mopping the floors with the bleach solution and then using oil base primer to seal it. DO NOT USE LATEX BASED PRIMER! The smell will go right through it and you will have to re-prime with oil base. ( I told another landlord about this and he did not buy the oil based like I told him and his house still smelled.)

You need to get that tennant out of there ASAP and charge him for the damages to the carpet and subfloor prep.

For this reason I do not allow pets of any kind in any of my rentals, if they sneak a pet in they get a three day notice!

Good luck!

If it were me I would weld a heavy steel tab like a 3" section of square tube to each steel post on an angle then about 6' away dig a 4' deep post hole and put a large timber or steel post in it and use my air over hydrolyic jacks to push the wall back.

This would at least get the wall away from the house for a few years until you can come up with another plan and the money to do it.

I just jacked a house up 6" that had sunk in one corner using four of these jacks, they lifted the place effortlessly.

I'm sure you can find someone to temporarily push the wall back and brace it. This would be the cheapest option. 80-100 tons of pressure should get it back in place.

In the little town out in the central valley I live in, all the newer homes are on slabs and all of the water lines are pex run through the walls and attic. Only the sewer lines run under the house.

I have no problem cutting and jack hammering a normal slab if I need to. I have the wet saw and jack hammer because I look for those kind of homes to buy cheap! You can bet if there is a broken sewer pipe under the slab you are getting a steep discount.

I have a few of these I purchased during the recession and they were fixed up to be the nicest homes in the neighborhood. They have almost doubled in price since I purchased them, I have the same tenants in them since they were rebuilt (they are very nice for the rent so tenants don't want to leave) and since I picked them up cheap cash flow is good.

I don't buy them now because the numbers don't work out for me but if I found one cheap enough I would.

I had this same thing happen but the tenants took all the patio furniture and refused to give it back. I called the sheriff on them and they said I gave it to them! I was told by the sheriff they couldent do anything about it and for me to take them to small claims.

I deducted the cost of a new set and the other damages they caused from their deposit giving them nothing back and in fact they owed me money. I told them if they would like that part of their deposit back simply return the patio set. I guess they liked it enough to buy me a new set because they kept it.

I use deck and fence wash, then use a pressure washer 10"-12" away to wash the wood off. Most of the time this is all the prep that is needed to stain a deck and will save you hours of sanding. Do not let the tip of the pressure washer get too close to the wood because it will etch the wood leaving permanent marks.

I'm not sure where you are but out here in California most new homes have 9' or 10' ceilings, it's a huge selling point. My own home has a great room with 20' ceilings and the rest of the house has 9' or taller and it was built in 2005.