All Forum Posts by: Jonathan Kretschmer

That's a good point regarding only making one call, I suppose things would have been less expensive calling an electrician directly. Thank you for your response.

Hello everyone,

I received an invoice from a general contractor here in San Francisco, California for $267.25. It is broken down to $135 for "Service Call" with a $50 discount applied, and $202.25 for "Electrical" with the description "Troubleshoot and identify electrical issue(s). Replace 3 breakers in main panel," with a $20.25 discount applied. I paid ~$16 for the circuit breakers at a local hardware store once the issue was diagnosed. The whole process took maybe ~30mins once the electrician was on site.

For some added context, I have worked the contractor and his team over the past four years. They remodeled a bathroom and installed recessed lighting in my kitchen, and I was satisfied with the work. I was hoping to utilize his services moving forward as I will be renting out the condo, and have him be my "go-to" while I live out of state for a year. I do trust him and his integrity.

I'd expressed to him that I was interested in using his company for service-calls while I'm renting the condo from out of state. I was (maybe not so) secretly using this opportunity to evaluate his ability to respond quickly and send someone over for an issue. He, the contractor, worked quickly, lining up an electrician within 24 hours. However, when the electrician got here, he spoke little English which complicated the troubleshooting process. I had to suggest cranking all the appliances to full blast, after which he was able to see the light flickering I'd been experiencing and diagnose the issue.

My questions for the BP community:

1) Does this sound low, normal or high in cost? I know San Francisco is a very HCOL area, but these prices were a bit of a shock to me.

2) Since I have a good working relationship with this gentleman, do you think it would it be a good plan to make him my "go-to" in the future when I am renting the unit?

3) Do any of you know good "go-to" contractors in the SF, CA area whom you might recommend for service calls of this type moving forward when things go wrong for my renter?

Thank you all for your time.

Jon

Have not read the book, but I am a California resident and have a property manager taking care of 3 SFRs in Kalamazoo, MI.  It’s a very rewarding process but there have been no shortage of hiccups along the way.  However, I think this is par for the course and I’ve been making money while adjusting as I go along.

I find the hardest part is to give up the sense of control that is natural to have in this endeavor. What I mean by that is, if I don’t hear from my property manager for a day or so, not to worry. She’s built up my trust that it will get done, and that she has a team in place to take care of problems.

I lucked into this prop manager in the sense that I knew less than nothing when I moved away from Kalamazoo (I did live there for 5 years so i know the town well). I think I googled “kalamazoo property manager” and signed up with the first hit, that kind of clueless. Turns out she is a great boot on the ground and has gotten tenants, good ones, within 1-2 weeks each time there has been a vacancy.

Welcome! This is a common point of debate in the RE investing community, and what’s best for one person may not be best for you Briefly, buying outright offers security and not having to be in debt, however it means that you can’t use equity elsewhere. It is a slower way to build wealth. Leveraging a property with debt allows you to control multiple properties (or a much larger single asset) with the same amount of money, and increases the velocity with which you can build long term wealth. As an example, you can use $100,000 to buy one home. Or, you can take $25k and spread it across three properties, with the extra 25k used for repairs, cash reserves, etc, and borrow $225k. In the second example, you use your $100k to purchase 3 properties instead of one, allowing you to take advantage of deducting your mortgage interest, as well as depreciating 3 properties instead of one. But, there’s three times the expenses, three times potential headaches with tenants, etc. Personally, I have gone back and forth on wanting safety vs accelerating my growth. It’s a personal decision you need to make once you’ve educated yourself and are ready to take the plunge. A quick note, leveraging requires that you REALLY know the numbers, make good purchases at a discount, and are comfortable with making sure those mortgage payments get paid every month.