All Forum Posts by: Mike F.

You do a lot of what I do in my remodeling company in regard to making it easy for your go to subs on your team. As you know the value to a sub in doing some of the leg work for them is in the consistency not in the actual act. A sub has to have confidence in the consistency of what you are doing for them is saving them money on every job. Some subs get it some don't. Often the bad business operators just don't get it the, the good business operators see you as a valuable client. Most of our subs have been with us for 10 plus years, we 'trained' them on how we want things done and we like you make it easy for them. My plumbers and electricians bid my projects without ever seeing the job it's bid off my sub-contractor scope of work. It took time to get to this point but now they have confidence in what they read and of course over the years in order to gain their confidence I always made any mistakes in perceptions not cost them anything, any discrepancies in perception ended in their favor, this created confidence that there was nobody try to 'gotcha' them, and secondly I've always made it clear that if there was something extra not on the scope, hidden, something that couldn't be forseen to simply let me know, explain it and give me a change order. Over years this has provided for us a 'discounted' rate for our work because it's consistent, they have confidence in the scope and we make it easy for them to save money by eliminating some of their costs such as sight visits, especially to jobs they might never win. So it sounds like you and I do a lot of the same things, sounds like you might have a really good carpenter sub, but you might be so tainted over the years from all the BS ones you've dealt with that you might not be recognizing what a good one actually might cost? One thing for sure anybody who can do quality work quickly is rare in construction and the value of their efficiency may reduce your costs to use them.

If you find anyone who does a good job for $25.00 a door you've found an amazing thing, cause most talented guys I know wouldn't get out of bed for that. Just sayin... think you're looking at this the wrong way.

There are opportunity costs to habitually late tenants also. 

I've never met a tenant who was a perfect tenant except being habitually late on the rent. 

However, I've met plenty of tenants who were perfect tenants AND they always paid their rent on time.

My prediction - Greg S has very few problems with tenants and his rentals run like fine tuned machines and pay like slot machines.  

Yes, but it's what many flippers will do.

You already suspect what you're going to get along with his low price, tons of drama, tons of your time supervising, negotiating, ending in arguments, misunderstandings and your return here to post about the nightmare you're going through.

You want proof of insurance GL/WC, references and a price that you believe allows the contractor to make a profit and want to finish your job instead of walking out on you. 

Out of the hundreds of homeowners who have called me over the years searching for another contractor to take over their project because they parted company with their contractor or more frequently the contractor disappeared, the common denominator 99% of the time when I query them about the price they agree to is they had a low price, my price to come in after is typically double what they agreed to with the guy that walked away. This is the story over and over again. Find somebody who knows enough to charge you enough to do the job.

Only tell you what works in the past - tile over the stone, have tiled over a hundred stone/brick fireplaces, they look like a million bucks when done correctly. Absolutely not a fan of painted cabinetry because almost everybody cheaps out on it and doesn't hire a real pro. Out of 100 painters 2-3 of them will be able to deliver a truly professional HVLP paint job.

I'd see your point if there were no commercial car washes available to the tenant.

Anyone think it would be an issue doing a home swap with a home you aren't living in? Technically it wouldn't really be a 'home' swap, wonder if that would disqualify me. Has anybody done it before?

There is nothing wrong with the layout, the house is just rough, either spend the money to bring the level of finish up or reduce the price.  The tile floors are about a 2 out of a scale of 1 to 10, the kitchen finish is about a 6.

It's always the price. When the value doesn't match the price the house sits until you increase the value to match your price or you lower the price to match the value.

Anyone heard of using an investment property as a home share for international travel? Looking to take a year or two off and travel internationally extensively. Our personal home would not be a good candidate to use as a home trade where you trade a week at your house for a week at someone else's in another country. 

Was thinking about buying a town home in a local resort town like Breckenridge or someplace else in the mountains and just using that. At then end of the 2 years I could either keep it and use it as a rental or just sell it likely for a quick profit. Economically what I'd be looking at is 2 years of free places to stay around the world as we traveled frequently.

Anybody ever heard of someone doing this? I'm just looking into this home trading thing so don't know too much about it.