All Forum Posts by: Matt Cecil

@George W. @joseph @Kevin Sobilo

Thank you guys. This sheds some light for me as I’m planning to buy my first property this spring.

Thanks again,

Matt

Hi all,

I was talking to a family member over the Holiday about DIY electrical for his property. He is planning on doing electrical himself but found out the State of Minnesota requires that to be contracted out for a rental property. If he was going to flip or live in the house, he could do the electrical himself.

Is this true? Even if you pull permits for the electrical, that isn’t good enough?

You hear a lot about house hack or do the remodeling yourself in the beginning, so I guess I’ve just assumed that some of those projects would’ve involved electrical work.

I also thought he may have said the state doesn’t allow you to do ANY work yourself for a rental property.

Thanks in advance,

Matt

@Colten Thiel Look at this guy trolling! Don’t make me take a screenshot and send it to my landlord!

As a renter I would not sign a lease knowing my neighbors might be trying to “catch” me doing something against policy/lease. Curious to see how potential renters view this during turnover.

@Kevin Christensen The initial compromise for us was a vacation every time we buy a property. She also enjoys the design part of the rehabs. As long as she understands the budget then let her design a bit. So far so good for us.

We decided to list our house FSBO and just closed today. Purchase Price: $212,000 Reno + purchase closing costs: $22,000 Sale closing costs: $14,300 Sale price: $265,000 Profit: $16,700 Project took 10 months to complete. We had no intentions on flipping this property initially and did 99% of the work ourselves. It was very stressful but we both learned a lot! Some of the things we would do differently would be vet out your FSBO flat fee list agent. Ours gave us almost zero help, difficult to get a hold of and listed our house wrong! Have a better accounting system for receipts. Take advantage of Credit card deals(interest free, airline miles, etc..) as it would help alleviate some financial stress if you run into problems. And of course YouTube university and the city for codes/permits. Overall we have a better idea of the market and what people are looking for. We also can estimate projects and feel comfortable with those numbers. We decided to step up our game and are on to our next flip. This is a non livable 100k possible project. You don’t know what you don’t know so why not put this equity into something bigger and better. Thanks for the advice!

@Thomas S. do you include taxes with the 1% rule? I plugged in my numbers on the BP rental calculator and it didn't appear to use my taxes. I guess I don't understand why you wouldn't include taxes, since thats apart of my mortgage.

Never thought of tenants doing that so I appreciate the insight @Steve Vaughan. thank you to everyone for the advice so far.

Sorry for the replies lumping into one. The app isnt working right on my phone apparently.

@Thomas S. if we rented the property we would plan to house hack another property so we wouldn't refinance the house. I may not be understanding how you are evaluating it. Wouldn't we go off current mortgage? rent 1900 mortgage 1267 cap ex *$100 maintenance/repairs *$100 vacancy *$100 what i see left over is $333. I can see that rent going $100 either way in my neighborhood. This is my estimate for 4bd but i do not have that 4th bed. I'm curious about a bonus room now that @Brendon Woirhaye mentioned it. I'll have to look into what value that would add to my 3bd.