All Forum Posts by: Jon Wright

I have a tenant who is moving into a house that has storm windows screwed to the outside. When she previewed the house she asked me if the windows opened. The interior windows do open but there are storm windows on the outside. She now wants me to remove the storm windows and replace them with screens. This would cost me about $600 in my estimation for sliding storm windows. My long term plan for the house is to replace all the windows with new vinyl windows. 

It was really a miscommunication. So here are the options I gave her. I can replace all the windows in the house and go up $50 a month on rent or I can replace the one broken storm window with a window with a screen. 

Any advice on a different way to handle this? 

Closed on my second rental in muscle shoals last week and about to put my third flip on the market in Sheffield in about 2 weeks. Like to see Alabama posts in here.

Sure, house is in Alabama and we got it for 42k and plan to rent it for 700. It needs minor cosmetic rehab to be rent ready in about 1-2 weeks. As far as tax tips listen to the podcasts with Amanda Hahn. I used Evernote to make a list of every property we visited as a prospect and wrote off the mileage. Evernote marks the location. Really just keeping a record of everything you buy that is real estate related and writing it off. Owning a rental property in the first place has tax advantages built in. Amanda has an ebook on biggerpockets but I am waiting for the hard copy.

Closed on my second rental property today! Very excited to get it up and running and find a tenant. Not quite hitting the 2% rule but over 1.5 so I'm pleased. Also did my taxes today and was able to use tips from BP on rehabs and depreciation to wind up with a refund. Last year with just flips we paid a big ole bill to Uncle Sam. Knowledge gained from BP and the podcasts are making a huge difference in our way of thinking and ultimately our entire lifestyle eventually.

Welcome to bp! I'm also a teacher and have been investing and doing flips for about 3 years. Currently working on my third flip and closing next week on my second buy and hold and have the next flip lined up for summer. It gets hectic but it can be done. Best of luck!

Put a closed blind in the window then insulation and cover it up. From the outside it will look like a closed window blind. Maybe not the best solution but probably cheapest. Also keeps you from having to add " are you an exhibitionist?" To your rental application. lol You could also frost the glass with spray on or peel and stick film. Let us know how you solve it.

@Ron Woodswe have bought all 3 of our flips under 40k and in general have put anywhere from 10-35k in rehab and the target sales price has been around 100k. I don't have detailed numbers right in front of me at the moment but generally speaking we try to profit at least 20k on our flips. 

@Account Closed The first one definitely takes guts. You dive off into the unknown and figure it out. This was before I knew about bigger pockets so I had just the passion to do it and HGTV/ DIY shows that we watched over and over. I talked about it all the time until one day I was telling a friend of mine about a house he should buy and fix up. He looked me dead in the eye and said "You seem to know a lot about that kind of stuff. Why don't you buy it?" That made me realize I was just talking about stuff and not taking action. So we didn't buy that one but  found one closer to home and  jumped out of the plane. We borrowed the sales price plus 10k to rehab and went to work. The key for us has been to buy them so that if you needed to sell it for the same price tomorrow somebody would jump on it and bail you out. Do the research and go for it. You've found biggerpockets already so you've got more resources than we had when we jumped in. Best of Luck!

Closed on my third flip Monday and this one feels different. Already have guys rocking and rolling on rehab and the finish choices are quicker and more obvious. The process is getting more streamlined and it is exciting. Plus I now have J Scott's book on estimating rehab costs to battle rip off contractors. If they aren't in the ballpark of the book I just say thanks and move on. Hoping to have it ready in 2-3 weeks!

Biggerpockets has a book written by Brandon Turner. https://get.biggerpockets.com/rentalbook/ Also Landlording on autopilot by Mike Butler is great and comes with instructions to get all of Mike's customizable forms sent to you digitally. Best of luck