All Forum Posts by: Levi T.

Looks fairly run of the mill water issue...Generally speaking; You have tile, grout, durock board, and adhesive. If it's confirmed that it's non-plumbing related, you likely need to re-grout  the section in question. Assuming the picture provided is up and no down, that's you problem spot. Easy fix, grout, maybe put some tile sealer down to help the grout, and enforce the wood underneath. It's not uncommon for grout to separate at corners, that right at the shower, just takes a small crack or hole, and the water an flow an through. What you see in the photo is long term damage, like years.

BP's feed has been jacked for a long time. It keeps repeating itself. See the attached image (only putting a ticket here because there is no option to report bugs under support, and there is no attachment option). It's the same thread ID, etc.. After a few jquery request, it just starts to randomly repeat threads:

Turn the water on and leave it running, then go look at the issue and see whats leaking.. See nothing, wait a little more, still see nothing. Pour a cup or two, of water on the floor beside the shower to see if it's just water from the tenant getting out of the shower. Once you find the absolute source, go talk to the contractor. Good luck!!!

 It means find someone who is not actively listing or selling their property. You get in contact with them and see if they'll sell it to you.

Get off MLS, and got after off market deals, this will remove over bidding, and likely allow you to get well below market price. When your ready to sell, wait for the end of summer season, and sell it on MLS. You will never lose! The smart investor is not the who says o'well, and let's the chips fall where they may, the smart investor is the one who refuses this idea, and always buys below market, even if that means waiting for years.

We buy a lot of these places in bulk, clean them up, and raise rents, you all know the game... people in the region love of us for it, our investors love us for it.... Things getting a lot nicer... The people that rented before we took over, are now without a home, looking for the next ghetto as they can't afford the nicer version of where they lived before.. or have something wrong with their background or their loved one's background.

After years of doing this, I started look at some of these properties from another view point... holes in the walls/floors, roaches running in herds like cattle.. yet people continue to rent them, no background checks, no income requirements, just deposit and first, maybe last months rent... whoever shows up with an application and money in hand, is in. 

If they stop paying, the LL evicts for less than what it cost to take his family to dinner, trash out and move onto the next tenant willing to move in.  In Virginia, one can get two people evicted for around $72 within 30 days no problem, trash out for sub $250. Maybe a repair to cover up something... in all, your out of pocket for $500 or less, when your renting for $600-$900 per month in these slummed properties, compared to market of 1.1k - 1.3k for cleaned up versions that cost you 10-30k, and a long year of whipping the neighborhood into shape. After all that, turnover still runs 1k-3k just to turnover and reset things to perfect.

At some point the property hits a bottom, not totally sure what point that is, lots of times its because the LL retiring and just don't want to deal with owning them anymore. The only thing I have noticed beyond the condition, is most these tenants have been renting for 10-30 years from the same LL, in the same unit. That's when it starts to sink in, take the lower rents, plug holes with tenants till you get one that stays for life, and only do the absolute minimum to get it rented again at sub market rents, never fix anything. Downside is your chasing tenants non-stop.... However, even if you buy these places to clean them up, your still dumping large cash to clean them up, and your still chasing tenants for rent. Makes you go hmmm after a while.. but still, not my style.

Should be in the $4K - 4.6k price point to replacement for a 2.5 ton. Get more quotes.

nope, but you got to do little title work to make it yours-yours. After a while, unless they are leaving gold bars, you only care about trashing it out.

Andrew Bayarena, any good townhouse rental neighborhoods you can point out?

We have searched the region to try and find some from time-to-time, maybe it just me, but we can't seam to find anything that looks remotely like the townhouses we have in other regions. Everything comes back as a Condo style when looking for a TH. We'r into buying hundreds of these things when said and done... We are looking for stuff like this, in B-C areas:

Welcome to party!

Trashout price is crazy, you can rent a UHaul truck and pay someone $15 an hr for a few hundred. Hit up CL. Most we have ever paid was $400 for about 1.2k sqf house. Average is $150-$200. 

The dishwasher price is outrageous IMO. Must be a really high end unit. We get them for $200 from Lowes.

They are nickel and diming you on the smalls.. $20 here, $60 there.. $100 over there. That's pure profit for them. They should be doing that pricing in bulk. How long you think it takes to replace a light switch cover that cost less than $2. Couple minutes at best. Our guys will do all that normally for $200-$500 total.