All Forum Posts by: Joshua Tessier

A few more mile stones crossed off the list for the week. We finally got the basement insulated. This was a program through the local utility and was greatly subsidized. I was able to qualify for a loan through a local credit union to cover the difference and now we are finally done a year later!  It was paid for and scheduled pre covid but then shut down then the guy spray foam truck died and finally he sub contracted it to someone else and they did a great job!

They did such a great job it go me thinking I could use the space as a work shop so I cleaned up a corner and went to work. I broke down some old pallets that were laying around and was able to use and old countertop I had salvaged from a lab work space that was being demoed. Well first pass and now I have a new work bench and after a bunch more work it’ll be a decent space to work. 

Next week I’ll be back to trim work and paint in the units. 

Things are getting closer and closer to getting done. It’s truly feels like this last 20% is taking forever. For the most part it’s just me at this point. Plumbing moved a bit forward but still needs to be completed and inspected. Electrical has been wrapped up and inspected but there’s a couple things that need to be added when time and money allow. I fired the electrican mid way through this project which was a disaster. His workmanship and schedule just didn’t work for me. Thankfully the guys at Bristol Construction have stepped in and are rocking it!  

you can see LED lighting is in and paint is coming along. 

The bathroom is in paints wrapping up and plumbing is coming along. 

This ceiling is killing me. You can see the old closet that was here in the ceiling it’s pretty ugly but a new ceiling wasn’t in the budget. To the right of the light you can see it dropping as well. I’ll do the best I can to push it back up and clean it up as best as I can. 

My worst mistake was entering into a government sponsored program to delead a property. On paper it all seems like it should be great! Per the contract I got $96,000 worth of work covered by the program and I contributed about $11,000. The problem is you have no choice in the contractors they select. I ended up with the most incompetent contractor I have ever met!  He walked away finishing approximately $17,000 worth of work that the city won’t stand behind. The city refused to follow there own contract and policies during the process and overall it took approximately a year longer to finish that it should have taken costing me thousands over the original estimates and months upon months of lost rent!

More and more tenants are asking me if I have anything that will become available as they want to send me friends and family for a place to rent. Purchasing a home in the market is tough but so is finding a reasonable priced rental that’s in great shape!

Lots of small updates we have progress on painting and cleaning but still need plumbing, electrical and HVAC to wrap up. Most of these items were prepaid in the lead contract but need to get finalized. Since they walked away from the job it’s been difficult to get them to wrap up work even thought they are promising they would. Lesson learned never do business with the city again! 

This is a 3bd units and I’m touching up paint and cleaning up drywall as best as I can. 

I’m using Bear paint from Home Depot and it’s decent but you can see it doesn’t hide everything underneath. The reflection of whatever was let behind in the mishmash underneath still shows through. 

This room was formally an entryway with a staircase. The electricians wired it up and now it could be used as an office playroom or spare extra space. 

lastly we got some snow and apparently random ******** in the neighborhood think it’s a good idea to block your tenants in park in your driveway. 

The Minivan doesn’t below here. Guess that what we get in a D neighborhood. 🤷‍♂️

@Axel Ragnarsson might be able to help you. 

@Vincent D'Amato

I look at the laws in Massachusetts and couldn’t imagine investing. It seems like a 6 month affair to get a tenant evicted in MA. The tenant seems to have more free legal advice and more protections than I can stomach. For me commuting to mass during Covid has been the easiest I have seen. most of my coworkers have no interest in returning to the office full time so I think you’ll see a big push from employees to stay home for years to come.

@Zev J.

I guess I’m more settling in on exactly that, what I do is invest in real estate what I manage are properties and what I want is more investment opportunities. So for now I guess it’s real estate investor.

Things are progressing all be it at a snails pace. I am working with an electrician to try and get someone to take over and finish the job. Unfortunately it’s tough when picking up someone else’s work but I might have found someone willing. The down side is they want to inspect all of the previous electricians work so that means every box needs to be inspected. 
Thankfully after all the permitting and declined permits and variances I finally got a permit to pave the expanded area of the  driveway legally! This now gives me a legal curb cut that’s wide enough for 4 cars with three of the spaces being two deep. For a total off street parking for 7 cars. So I went from parking for two units and 4 cars to now having parking for all four units and 7 cars total. This plus the 4 additional bedrooms should result in a nice increase when an appraisal happens. 
Unfortunately it took so long to get done I was concerned we missed any opportunity to get it done this year. Thankfully we had one warm day and we got it done!

I have been painting and trying to wrap up 190-1. Still a long ways to go. Both first floor units still need  finish painting, finish electrical, finish plumbing, and massive clearings for lead clearances. Countertops were installed in 190-1 so that’s one major step closer. 

next up is pulls, faucets, plumbing, and paint work. At this pace spring time looks reasonable but it all hinges on the lead inspection and final clearances from the city but I’m still plucking away one day at a time!

@Ryan Corcoran. Well done! Long term is your plan to exit as you approach the 6.5MM mark to realize the $260,000 in equity stake you’ll have or to ride the wave and keep the $13,000 in cash flow? Curious to know which you prefer and what your plan is to do with both.