All Forum Posts by: Juan F. Saa

@Crencenthia Brown, did you ever find a good wholesale lawyer in Durham?

@Shanequa Dames, did you ever find a wholesaling friendly title company in Durham?

I registered all my numbers (200) from ReadyMode (XenCall) for free with 

https://calltransparency.com/ (https://portal.firstorion.com/).

While it seems to "work" (I have been using some numbers without seeing them flagged) I don't know for sure. I still call my personal phone every now and then to check and rotate 5 numbers periodically.

@Gene Guarino, it has been a while since you replied until I checked back a few days ago. I am going over the videos in your website. Thank you!

@Jason Rhodewalt, I am sorry I missed this question. I paid $2,997 for the Business Essentials package which includes: Platinum Program (a custom-drafted entity (LLC, Corporation, or QRP), Company Assistance Program (verifiable corporate address, entity maintenance support, mail forwarding, reconstruction of missing entity records, annual corporate compliance, phone answering service), tax toolbox, and virtual bookkeeping for 1 year. I haven't used several of these to the full extent yet after 5 months, though.

@Genny Li, thanks for sharing these numbers. I am trying to get recommendations for a trusted carpenter in the area to quote/do the job instead.

@Le Jia, thank for your reply. I agree, I was expecting higher installation cost, but not that much. I am in the process of finding a handyman/carpenter alternative.

I am a newbie in the whole repair estimation process so I am seeking opinions on what I am missing. I ran an exercise after reading the J. Scott's Estimating Rehab Costs book to estimate the cost of replacing the front door and two sliding doors in a townhouse in Ashburn, VA. I used Home Depot's Web site to select the doors I wanted and also used the Homewyse website to get a second set of numbers, and they came both pretty close to each other at $1800 products and $1300 labor.

I then contact Home Depot to get a person on site to inspect and take measurements, and a couple days later I get an estimate with two sections: Customer Pickup #1 for $2695, and Installation #1 with $0 total. At that point I didn't know whether they included everything in the first price or just quoted higher end products and didn't include labor for some reason, so I go to the store, and the guy just starts "a new design" where we adjusted the products to what I needed (he was surprised I had found such good cheaper options), but the kicker was that the base installation price (regardless of products) was about $3000. So the total cost is $4800.

I know I have to factor in the pandemic years with higher costs (although I think differences would be mostly in products and materials, not labor), and the fact that the numbers in the book are from 2019, but I was wondering if someone could help me see where I am making a 130+% mistake in my estimation of labor costs.

Thank you in advance!

@Jamir G., I am just getting started with my first rental and you couldn't have expressed better the frustration I have felt with the lack of resources. As @Greg O'Brien mentioned, I am concerned that those "small" mistakes that might end up being very costly.

After I created a separate post requesting CPA-related guidance and mentioning Anderson as an example of what seemed to me excessive costs at the time, I went ahead and signed up for the Business Essentials package with them about two weeks ago; this is basically the Platinum subscription plus everything needed to set up the first LLC.

I did this after building trust from the wealth of free content they make available online (the free Tax Tuesday events where they answer questions on the spot is priceless!). So far, at least for me, just the education, resources, and the couple of sessions I had with the advisors are worth the investment. They even have what they call "working hours" where and attorney and I think a tax expert are available so you can dial in and ask a question live without being charged extra; I haven't seen an attorney providing that.

I am still debating the Titanium membership just because, as I said, I am getting started, though. @Genna Golden, from your description I guess you have gone Titanium, correct? If so, how is it so far?

I am looking for creative ways to help parents in Central FL, particularly around Kissimmee. Has anyone used a creative way to cover this need to turn it into an investment rather than an expense or, at a minimum, reduce the latter? I have looked in places like Good Samaritan in Kissimmee.