All Forum Posts by: Johann Jells

I assumed he meant black painted appliances, it's good look if you want to save a few bills. A decade ago the difference was a LOT more! I also thought the floor was 18" ceramic tiles, I've never seen vinyl quite like that.

Here's a black appliance kitchen of mine (forgive the funky panarama, I need to get an SLR with a superwide lens)  Note the undercounter lighting, is very cheap now and makes a huge difference! I regret now only doing the main work surface and not the ones flanking the Range . I did those also in the identical unit upstairs from this one I renovated next. I also did stainless in that one, and slab granite instead of granite tile.

Wow. That is butt ugly! Anything you do superficially is just lipsticking a pig, and I can't tell you what works and is worth doing in your market.  If that were my place the thing I would be considering is bumping that dividing wall that the laundry is on out 30" and moving the fridge there in an enclosed space. You can build a closet with the remaining space of the bumpout. There's still 8' wide between the rooms, and you've gained critical counter space and storage.

Seriously? 12mm click vinyl plank for $1/ft? That's crazy, I'd drive down there and pick up a truckload! Or did you mean something else...?

This is what I was wondering. Once a person is in there you have so much less power. In NJ I don't know if you could get them out if you declined to put him on the lease. I have a similar situation where the moved in girlfriend is simply batsh*t crazy and harassing the other tenants and my maintenance staff.  But they're both on SSI and I don't think short of actual violence I could budge them, and possibly not even then.

 I have sort of the opposite problem, my tenants in the unit with the thermostat for the whole building boiler would open their windows in the living room when they smoked weed. The boiler would run, overheating the whole 4 unit house!!

@Tyler Brown lots of people buy in our area with negative cashflow depending on appreciation for their upside. Seems crazy to me, but there's tons of condos being rented out negative.

@Albert Colon you have to decide what works for you, personally. Even in a single city there's crappy areas with high cashflow and better ones with less headache but lower. Chasing cashflow alone can lead you down some dark alleys, literally.  Use the search function, cashflow v equity has been debated here endlessly.

Besides the obvious like no evictions, late payments or defaults, look for evidence the person has good judgement. Consumer debt to income ratio can be a problem,  as can excessive student loans. The latter can be tricky to assess because the payment terms might change during the tenancy.  I have rented to people with over $100k in student loans, but I was pretty cautious.

I picked them, I try not to pick difficult people, so I tend to like them. Obviously some more than others, and being in a gentrifying city with lots of bright young people looking for housing doesn't hurt. Sometimes I go to maintain something and end up chatting for an hour about politics, music or their career. It helps that these are college educated (usually) 20 somethings (usually) on their way up in the world, I'm not THE MAN the way I'd be if there were a big class divide or they were Sec8. Many of them will end up making more than me, some of them already do but see no reason to spend it on housing or have big student loans to pay down. I find it works to be a real person instead of "Mr Landlord".  

LOL, my wife chides me that I look homeless half the time instead of a wealthy landlord! I say I want my tenants to feel sorry for me.

I found the 5mm vinyl planks harder than 8 or 10mm laminate.  In general you need to do the end first, then the sides. Some baby powder beforehand helps an attached side to slide, this is the main problem, they have far more friction than laminate. The stuff from Lumber Liquidators says it's not supposed to be tapped, but I guess we all do. I use a scrap strip like 6" wide. You also need a pulling bar so you can tap in the last piece next to the wall.