All Forum Posts by: Mike S.

Looks like it's on concrete.   Put a 6 mil vapor barrier over top, seal the edges, add a silencer pad,  and put a nice bamboo floor over top.

Also, don't forget the ceiling.

Paint won't do it without a shellac based primer coat first. Zinseer is what you need.

If your substructure is still in good shape and you're only talking about top board rot, then I suggest you get a tool called a "deck wrecker". It's amazingly fast and you can pull and replace boards in a day. 

What I learn the most from this site is there are all kind of boogeymen landlords create.  A refrigerator is just another piece of furniture.  Store the old one in the garage (if it has one) and let them use their own.  Real issues deserve your concern, this one isn't one.

Originally posted by @Jason Graves:

@Mike S.

What company offers the best price for umbrella ?

 Umbrella is relatively inexpensive, but I'm not necessarily chasing price for my insurance.  The main factor is better reputation for paying out when a claim is made.  Are you really insured if you have to fight cheap insurance companies for your compensation?

Originally posted by @Dennis M.:

@Jake Svirsky

Look for 2% rule

Rents equal 2% of the sale price

Good advice for some, horrible advice for most.

Most 2% rule properties need to meet the 2% because of turnover, crap tenants, damages, and more management costs. 

All my properties are 1% or less, but are great neighborhoods, class B could be class A with a remodel.  Low turnover, easy to screen for great tenants and low headache.  $85,000 in rent, $24,000 in cash flow, $18,000 in debt pay down annually. 2% says these are all bad properties.  At this rate I can passively add 1-2 properties a year, or aggressively go for 3-4 by dipping into reserves.

, sure, 2% rule can be a metric, but it's hardly the only one to follow. I typically look for 70-80% ARV, but will buy at market price if cash on cash is 16-20%( this is my key metric). Self manage if you can. Long term, those 1% properties bought at the right price will become 2% or more over time anyway.

Instead of upping the liability on each property, an umbrella policy can do the same thing on all properties and is scalable as you grow. $1million starting out, 2,3,4 million as you acquire properties.

IMO, any discussion here about why don't you do this, I do this, checks are good, checks are bad, etc misses the point. You have the right to expect tenants to conform to the payment you desire. Yes, you can deny a tenant for not using Cozy. Screening continues until the lease is signed and there is no obligation to offer the lease to someone whose application is accepted that will not conform to your requirements.

Originally posted by @Bill B.:

These are the only locks I buy. Rekey yourself in 20 seconds. The only reason you would ever drill them out is you have zero keys and you’re locked out of your own property. In which case it doesn’t matter who made the lock. Unless he’s saying they were made so well he couldn’t pick it and you should buy worse locks?

They sell the keys near the SmartKey locks. If you have an SFR, your getting 3-4 locks per rental anyway with an automatic stockpile of keys if you have multiple properties.