All Forum Posts by: Mike Reynolds

I was able to secure a piece of property in a desirable area from someone I know that is approved and zoned for an RV park. My initial plan is to immediately clear the land and create RV spots to rent out. Septic permit is pending, but county official believes 10-20 spots could be had. The spots alone are going for $30-$40 a night in nearby RV parks and everything is at capacity. I would like to purchase Park Model RV's and rent these out via AIRBNB with estimates being $100-$150 a night with 80% occupancy. I have an 800 credit score with low DTI ratios and 200k in W-2 income. What are my options for starting this up and obtaining financing? I could comfortably set up 3 park models with my own money and having it ready. The long long term is to eventually fill these all out with Park Model RV's when revenue starts to come in. If I am unable to secure financing I will probably still clear the land and live in a park model for the time being until I can eventually raise more capital. Can I get an SBA 7A loan for this as a startup?

Taylor, I'm convinced that digital camera systems have the capacity to redraw C/D-class property maps and pick a property out of C- territory and drop it into C-class. Cameras change the game, pure and simple, especially cameras with digital recording, night vision, web upload capabilities, motion detection spotlights. People with criminal intentions absolutely hate them, people who have no such intentions are indifferent to them. Street crime disappears in and near properties that have cameras. The police appreciate landlords who put these systems in and spare a few cameras to watch up and down streets from private property, as long as the landlords make the recordings available to them when asked.

For a duplex, $400 will buy you an 8-camera wired system that will make criminals hate and fear even coming up an down your street. It's really a beautiful thing.

Now, for a single-family that you're renting out, you don't have a common space to install the recorder or take electricity from. You also don't have access to an internet connection you're paying for. That makes it difficult to set up and maintain a system. Floodlights are great, sure, but they're not in the same league as cameras.

 JK.....but that's what I have hanging around...

Don't hire anyone that doesn't own at least 4 table saws..... ;-)

So I'm just gonna ask it what do you define as a real handyman??

reason I ask is because my state doesn't have a "handyman" license. We have a home improvement contractors registration. Which spoiler alert still is not a professional license! It's a half baked concoction that really only means you have a million dollars worth of commercial general liability insurance, have passed a background check and paid the application fee. It doesn't necessarily prove that you know anything at all about construction. There's no test, which is why its not a license its a registration. 

That said there are a ton of 1 man truck type guys who identify as handyman/women that do awesome work and know what they're doing. The same with other trades. 

Here's the thing though good tradesman/women don't have to chase work. The work chases them. In construction you make more profit when you pick and choose your customers. Thats why referrals are the way to go. 

if you're gonna look on Facebook join a local group where people refer locals.

So let’s say you place a gig offering on     Facebook, or some other site looking for someone to do a make ready on a rental. Before the day is over you’re going to be overwhelmed with people saying they can do the job and they have tons of experience. How have some of you sorted through the posers to find the gem?

@James Birdsall

The permits in my area and the associated inspections take a lot longer than I think they should.  Do you have any advice on how to get those turned over quicker?  Make friends with the staff or something, or would that violate ethics guidelines?

I was getting so very high electric bills, the Technician didn’t find anything wrong with the AC, the electrician didn’t find anything wrong either. They both suggested that the air could be escaping through different cracks by the doors or windows. Who would you call to come check and seal the cracks between the door frame and the wall? Or any other suggestions? I’m located in Houston Texas. Thanks a lot

 I can't get NG in my own home, so I went geothermal when I had to redo the AC, which beats oil and propane hands down for costs.  I'm down from $5-6k per year in total utilities (high local electric rates and also oil in an older house that's about 3300 sqft with vaulted ceilings everywhere, and I work from home) down to less than $3k.

My geothermal's oversized enough that I took out the baseboard hydronic as back up heat after the house stayed super toasty during the last deep, deep freeze, so now I want the indirect tank gone.  My choices are electric and electric lol so I'm doing the heat pump electric--should be fine even on the geothermal.  Too bad I didn't have the indirect pack installed in the geothermal originally. I'm going to see if I can and then go to an inline instant WH as a booster, which would give me free hot water all summer long, but that may not be reasonable.  I've got a few more big projects in this house before I want to do that, including the heavy-up.  But that's the only use that I can think of where I'd actually want an instant today, except for like in a guest house.