All Forum Posts by: Luc Boiron

Wow that is an impressive amount of anger and destruction. It's just a cosmetic rehab, but a pain to patch all the drywall. I'm sure parts of that are worth just pulling down and going new, and some should be patched. As long as you got it at a good enough price it looks like a fun one.

Here, we aren't allowed refusing a tenant because they are on welfare. However, every applicant that I have come across who is on welfare didn't have a good enough credit score to qualify. I would imagine this would be a similar situation, if their income is from a less desirable source, their credit score would likely be too low to qualify.

If they have a great credit score, then they likely manage their money well enough that it doesn't matter too much where their money comes from. I wouldn't worry too much about this.

Was the quote for the whole job, at a fixed price, or was it a quote that estimated $9,800, depending on the time it took him, the cost of materials, and the cost to get the permit? You may have misunderstood the estimate as to be variable when it was fixed. What does the contract say about how the final amount will be set? Does it just say the total is $9,800?

 Please know what to expect at Mr. Kyosaki's free seminars. He obviously won't be there, they just pay him to use his name. I recommend you leave your money at home. Their main purpose is to try to sell you on a three day weekend seminar ($199-$499). At the seminar, they try to sell you on their additional training ($5,000-$50,000). Expect everything at the seminar to be high level, so you won't learn any details of how anything works (and you won't learn at the 3 day seminar either). Just go and use the free seminar to get you excited about real estate, then save the money you would waste with them and keep it for real estate investing.

I would add that the Diatomaceous Earth is not made from chemicals, it is essentially made from crushed sea shells.

Using this will not be bad for your baby's health. The professionals who come in will usually spray, which can be effective when done correctly, but also may not be healthy for a baby. Do you have a dryer? I know many Europeans go without a dryer. One problem is that bed bugs can get into your closet, and stay in your clothes for a long time. A recommended solution to this is to dry your clothes on high heat for at least 30 minutes, then seal these freshly dried clothes in garbage bags with no holes. The heat kills bed bugs, and sealing the bags makes sure they do not get back in your clothes.

Ce n'est jamais facile, mais bonne chance @Bea B.

I agree with @Jim Adrian - insulate the attic. As he says, make sure you don't block the soffit vents as you need air flow in an attic or you can have more problems. And while you are at it, blow in more insulation than you need. If you're doing the job anyways, you might as well try to get closer to an R-50.

 Could you post a sample of your ad?

I would say it really depends on your goals and capital. I'm in a bit of a similar position as you. I am currently flipping in order to build up capital to continue flipping full time, and once I have a good pool of capital I will be looking for multi-family properties.

So if I were in your situation, I would flip that property, and use the proceeds to buy two flips or 1 flip and one rental. Of course, rentals in my market don't have numbers close to as good as that, so you also need to see if returns that good are possible elsewhere.

I would also look at the condition of the property. I once had a home in an Italian neighbourhood that was extremely well built, and I didn't love selling it as I knew it would be problem free for a long time.

Do you have the skills to take on a major renovation like the first one?

How much sweat equity will go into it? If you were to pay a contractor market rates to complete the project, how much would it be? You should analyze it as if you were paying a contractor to do the work, even if you plan on putting sweat equity in yourself. 

How much are you buying it for, how much will it take to get where you want it (including carrying costs while it is being worked on), and how much will it be worth once finished? ($135,000 to $150,000)

You also need to look at what you want. Are you very busy and making good money elsewhere, so that it makes more sense to buy property 2 and be a little more hands off, and spend more time on your primary job?

 Could be worse! I have a condo townhouse where the condo fees are about $720 a month, used to be $800 but they brought them down as they were able to complete some major capital projects.

I was looking at a condo in the east end of Toronto, 3 storey condo with about 2,500 sqft, and it was only $50,000. The only problem was that it was in a rough neighbourhood, and condo fees were over $2,000 per month.

There's a unit in a luxury building close to where I live listed at $4,500,000, and condo fees are $4,500/month! I'm pretty sure if you can afford $4.5 mil, $4,500 isn't a big deal.

Still, $265 isn't too bad in terms of carrying costs until you finish the renovations and sell, lots of room to carry it a little while if you don't sell right away.