All Forum Posts by: Malcolm Boston

Walk. You're a real estate investor not a marriage counselor. Which is to say that there is unseen mess behind the scenes.

Prefab shower enclosure. Cheap shower curtain Ikea vanity and sink Sheet vinyl on floor All this is cheap, easy to clean, and inexpensive to replace.

I have a similar conundrum right now. I'm a big heavy guy 6'4" and my wife is 6'1' former college basketball player. My daughter is 10 and is already 5'4. So we need legroom. Between my day job and my rental (currently renovating) I drive 60 miles a day minimum. I currently drive a Mazda CX-5 with manual transmission which gets very good gas mileage. I also tow a 5x8 aluminum trailer when I need to haul something. Great trade in terms of cost per mile and avoiding a gas guzzler. $$$$ All that said I will NEVER do another remodel without a pickup truck. So a used Chevrolet Avalanche is in our future. Powerful enough to tow heavy rental equipment and roomy enough for a family of tall people for weekend driving. The Mazda will remain my daily driver once the renovation is complete in a few weeks and the truck will be my weekend and service vehicle when we all ride together. The cost per mile is even better with a Ford Flex as a single vehicle (most rear legroom of any vehicle on the planet) but i still won't have solved the pickup truck issue. And the Mazda is paid off. So in five years my daughter will get it with 200k miles or so and I'll hope for a used Bolt EV at that time in addition to keeping the Avalanche.

Refrigerators and most appliances aren't cost effective to even diagnose anymore. A new one can be had scratch and dent for $400. Purchase a new one or swap in a known good unit. Tenant has no need to know where the replacement unit came from as long as it is functional. She sounds high maintenance or heading that way. I would not renew her lease.

BS Mechanical Engineering MS. Biomedical Engineering Wouldn't have my day job without them. Wouldn't have my utter fearlessness WRT troubleshooting and fixing all manner of problems in distressed property without my Day job. Wouldn't have the money to recover from a bad marriage and get into real estate investing without my day job. All in all I'd do it all over again. Wish I were less conservative sometimes. I get into analysis paralysis a lot.

Don't feed the trolls. Fool me once... She has a pattern of paying late. You've established a pattern of accepting it. You are officially in the homeless shelter business - which is a nonprofit. I would terminate her lease at the earliest opportunity. Late money is better than no money but late money will always turn into no money.

You're a businessman not a philanthropist. Don't wait for trouble to develop if you've already been informed that her income stream is unstable. Requalify her on her own income and if she does not qualify then give notice that you are nonrenewing their lease (helps that you are already month to month). If you had a longer term lease I would offer to let them out of the lease with no fees as long as they leave within x amount of time and turn over the property on a schedule you define. If you want to be a nonprofit, make a charitable donation to one. You can be firmly but fairly empathetic.

More people are making plans to "age in place" and therefore the downstairs master suite is becoming more popular. They don't want to have to sell the two story house when arthritis shows up.

Your choice on a second coat. Your tenant will see it every day, not you. I would put the second coat on. Next time invest your money (time) in a premium primer and one coat paint. To me, the time suck on a paint job is the masking and taping now that the one coat paints have arrived. One coat means less time on the ladder and a shorter turnaround time.

This is an opportunity to learn a useful and valuable skill. Laying out HVAC and electrical is fairly straightforward and you have the opportunity to save a bunch of $$$ while being safe and legal. My recommendation is that you do NOT plan to make the final connections for your HVAC. Also do NOT plan on running wire between your electric meter and your service panel. Leave those to the licensed professionals BUT, watch them do it! Step 1: Go to your big box store and purchase a book on "Advanced Wiring". Go on the internet and purchase HVAC Manuals J, S, T, and D. Read them all cover to cover. Step 2: Perform your HVAC layout and equipment selection per the manuals. Having a system designed per these manuals means you have a state of the art system and the engineers at ACCHA have done all the hard work for you. Your system will be quiet, effective, and energy efficient. Don't forget to consider reflective barrier and upgraded insulation. Compare your layout to the equipment that you are replacing. You may be pleasantly surprised to find that your JSTD system requires a smaller (i.e. cheaper) air handler and condenser than what was there before. Step 3: Write up your permit application with emphasis on the fact that a professional will make final connections and do all refrigerant handling. You can check your work the first time by googling your local construction engineer and hiring them to perform a JSTD design for your structure. See how close your design is to theirs. Ask copious questions! Engineers love to talk, especially when people seem genuinely interested in their craft. Secure your permit and hire your HVAC technician to evacuate your old system. Try your local community college or vocational school to see if they want to do a learning experience. Ask them if they want to practice installing new stuff too - you might get lucky. Buy your new equipment for $3000 and install it into its position. Run your ductwork per your design. Seal your ducts. Fire up your air handler to test for leaks. Bring in your refrigerant tech to brace your copper, pump your line set down, and release your Puron. Electrical Get your wiring plan permitted per the book. Hire your electrical contractor to upgrade you between meter, outside disconnect, and service panel. Pass inspection. Begin running your branch circuits per the approved wiring plan. This will be a lot of work but you now have a valuable and lucrative skill that will serve you well on future projects. And you will not have violated any laws. FYI you can get refrigerant certified fairly easily and cheaply but you may decide it's diminishing returns to invest in the specialized equipment to perform the work. Being able to buy your own equipment is probably savings enough. Your choice. Same thing with the electrical. Once you understand how service entry cable is selected you will likely realize that meeting Code downstream of the meter is good enough for rehab work. Just do a load calculation for the structure and either replicate what was there with modern wire or upgrade to 200 amp service. Either way, your can rely on the final inspection. Once you learn the lingo and how to inspect you will likely find out that you can hire the right talent off Craigslist and then check their work to make sure it's right. Good luck!