All Forum Posts by: Jim Goebel

@Forrest Shealy

The truth of it is, most of these A/E firms hire warm bodies, and the young engineers don't really know how to add value 'during construction'.  They are CAD production monkeys, until they get some good real world experience.  So, the 'process' that these docs are bid out typically go through a 'mainstream' method of going to bid with traditional GC companies.  It's how most projects go to market.  The issue is that if you're looking to save money there are lots of inefficiencies which means costs in going this route.  You'd need to get those docs and bid them yourself, into the disparate parts of the project as needed.  For instance if you need a trench dug, find someone you can pay $200/day and have them dig the trench when you rent the machine.  That's how you save a bunch of money compared to the mainstream route.  It's work but it works.

@Nisha Hyde

Not many lenders want to be in second position on an asset.  If you're exploring tapping equity, consider a cash out REFI of your primary, or bundling stuff with a single lender.  If stuff goes south that equity is worth nothing to your second position lender when they get wiped out (along with you).  If you still are being told you need a cosigner... Well, keep checking around, but take that as a sign that you need to improve your credit!

@Kendrise Colebrooke

Wait, you want to buy a place for $40k that needs $56k of rehab?  With no experience?  

That 'may' be worth 122k?  

Why do you want to do this?  Sounds like not just tight, but like it doesn't make any sense.  Even in this market there's better deals to be had....  

By the way the equipment (furnace, coil, condenser) will cost YOU somewhere around $1800 - $2400 depending on the house size.

It will cost one of these shops far less than that, but of course, they will when asked say it's $3000 + worth of equipment.  

That moonlighter you have to be prepared to get them the equipment they need, and even if you have to purchase:

• OXY ACetylene set
• vacuum pump
• refrigerant

You'll usually come out WAY ahead after just one project.  And you own that stuff for the next one.

@Griffin Stephens

Credit cards (used responsibly) can help a lot.  Any regular occurring bills you can look for ways to pay them with your credit card, and then just make sure you always pay that back on time.  Even if you can pay utility bills, these would often not be reported, whereas if you pay them with your credit card, you are building credit by using that card and paying it off.  Plus, it can help with cash flow (delaying the payment by a month) in some cases.  

@Clara Brashear

There's tons of resources on this site (note the search feature for forum threads) and online on that.

But... In a nutshell, it's buying a place (usually with cash), rehab, rent, refinance, and then REPEAT.

Whatever of those steps you have questions on.....  You can further search or ask here.

@Melvin Kim

If you can find that qualified moonlighter you should expect to cut this number in half.  That's about 20% more than what they'd make in a full time situation is my guess (all that $$ goes to line owners' pockets and pay for lots of overhead for those shops).  Understand though that most shops try to keep their 'people' down and do not allow them to moonlight, so you're introducing a decent amount of risk to someone doing that in going that route....  There are people transitioning in and out of the industry though and sometimes you can catch them at just the right time, when they're hungry and ready to work and have the experience.   

If it's a hot item and you don't have that person in your network then that number seems 'middle of the road' to me.  With shops, at least around here, for what you've described of scope I'd expect to get quotes to come in with a 95% confidence interval plus or minus $2k from that quote you listed.  Depends of course though on the details and especially the time involved in the duct routing?  Is everything exposed and pretty simple there or is it going to be a 3+ day adventure to get the ducting adjusted?

@Toby Jurging

You're in a very weak position raising an offer without a counteroffer, after it's been rejected.  After that point, you basically negotiating against yourself.

@Forrest Shealy

Call companies.  See if you can talk to engineers.  If you can, ask them what they think and how they price their services.  Ask them how much their projects cost, and who bids out the design docs.  Trenching, digging, etc... Isn't that bad.  As the guy at the equipment place said, 'live a little,' and rent it yourself.  Good plans let you do that.  Good plans also let you get <$1000 for the actual 'heady' plumbing work.

@Randy S.

Exactly!  Whether it's an equity/stock, or any investment, price matters in a big way, relative to earnings.  While we can be long term buy and hold investors, if we don't get something at the right price - we're losing.

The public sentiment here reminds me of Orlando in 2007.  It's Florida, after all - nothing can go wrong.  People just keep want to move there, and things just keep going UP UP UP.  Luckily for me, I was a young engineer and prices were SO inflated that I was priced out of the market at my wages.  And, luckily for me, I had just enough critical thinking skills to also sense that something was 'off' in that conventional wisdom.  Sounds familiar....