All Forum Posts by: Andy Luick

@Wayne Brooks - surprisingly to most...he's correct in all states I believe. If the tree is healthy and falls, it's still considered an act of God and the part on your property is yours to contend with. You can probably split the costs with your neighbor...if it were mine, I love working a chain saw and had 3 of them gassed & ready to go for our last spat of bad weather here in Atlanta.

The other part to remember, if you have a dead tree on your neighbor's property, put them on verbal & written notice, in a nice way, of the trees condition and, if it falls, they are on the hook because they have been put on notice of a dead tree and chose to do nothing about it. Happy Investing!

Which to put in really depends on the region or area of the country the property is in, what you are doing with the unit and how it will be rented. We rent almost all of ours as shared housing. In atlanta, on higher end units and flips, it will either be gas or high energy efficient electric. On basic single family rentals, tenants will prefer electric if they are paying the bills. Most single family renters want all electric so it's one bill AND if they owe for bills on gas, they can ignore it for now...plus, intown atlanta, it costs $50 a more of thereabouts just to have the gas meter hang on the wall! For a renter, if they've got bad credit or outstanding bills which a lot of the lower end tenants will have, one util means one deposit....having gas often means paying off an old bill and another deposit...plus that extra surcharge in our market.

With propane.....that's the most expensive one of the 3....so I'd switch it to high efficient electric and search online for a scratch and dent supplier. I get my high efficient ones for half price scratch and dent. I'm going through a rewire and changing all the appliance & hvac to electric right now for a flip we are doing in atlanta. We'll have about $45k in it when we're done and it will sell off for about $90k once it's fully rented and cashflowing at about $1k a month. Happy Investing!

All good points - we each have our own strategies - mine are a bit different than most as I'm a 4th generation contractor and have been doing this work my entire life. Even with that, I occasionally bite down on something that I wished I hadn't...but I have the manpower and crews to turn even most of my mistakes around. Sometimes, the real returns are to be had in turning around what others couldn't or chose not to. Our shared housing model allows us to turn most losers into winners, meaning we can pay more for the properties, including the repairs, because our net rents are double and triple most other investors.

You have to know your market, your strategy, threshold for pain and..in MHO have a great team boots on the ground to be successful. Thanks for sharing.

Hadn't even thought about it but I think you're right...most are 4" these days...check the dryer vents at HD or Lowes, I think those are still available in 3" and you might be able to swap them out. If not, try local AceHardware as they will often stock what the big boxes don't carry. You might have to the entire hood/flapper assembly. Ahhh the joys of landlording! Happy Investing!

Mold is one of those areas where states are still trying to grapple with how to address it...part of the issue is that there are literally 100,000s of types of molds and 99.999% of them have never been shown to harm humans. It's been with us and addressed since biblical times (Leviticus Chapter 14 Verses 37). However, depending on who you ask, of the 100,000s of types there are approximately 8 to 50 "toxic" molds that have been known to cause a variety of symptoms and, in some rare cases, even death. This is an evolving area of the law and one to be mindful of but you should check with your individual states to see if they have addressed mold in their disclosure laws. Our joint venture partners, who are usually on title, are never informed of the presence of mold in our properties...we don't even charge for the Microban treatments we do on every home we buy just as a precaution. We treat every house this way without determining one way or the other whether there is mold or not...so there never is a duty on the owners part or mine really to disclose it. I am unaware of any duty to disclose the presence of mold in GA but I know that CA, NJ & MN have addressed it. There have been some pretty large claims in this area....a $32 million dollar verdict in Texas I believe...that have caused most insurance companies to exclude coverage or severely limit cover and I believe some states...at the behest of insurance lobbyists - to restrict liability.

Mold is a tough issue to address legislatively as it can be lurking under floorboards and behind drywall in every house in almost every state. When we acquire a home that has obviously flooded....either from rain, water intrusion or, as is pretty common, frozen pipes that broke in a vacant home, we will cut drywall patches in suspect areas. We often forget that drywall has "4" paper surfaces for mold to grow on....front and back of most drywall and the inside faces of each that you cannot see. We will cut samples and peel the paper back looking for any mold. If we find it, we will cut the drywall in that area and treat it with Microban. We walk every house and address gutters, downspouts and drainage on all of them....also for the mold issues. Properly sized gutters (6" for most with 3"x4" downspouts) addresses 80% of our water issues on the houses that we buy.

On every bathroom, we repaint the ceilings with Zinser Mildew-Proof bath paint....usually available at your local Ace Hardware...sometime Home Depot or Lowes have it....but most times not. Most of our properties become long-term rentals for our back-end passive buyers so painting the bath ceilings safeguards us against the renters who forget to leave the exhaust fan on while taking a bath or shower. It's a great product and I've used it for many years now with good success.

The article below makes for some interesting reading. Some listing agents will error on the side of full disclosure...but the reality is that most owners aren't even aware that they ever had a mold issue. Disclosing a slight mold clean-up may leave your home with a documented stigma without any real risk to any buyer. That's partially why the states are all over the board in addressing mold. When in doubt, thanks to our litigious society and plaintiffs lawyers, cover your bases and shield your assets. Obviously, when you have a legal question...do some research on your own first and then consult with appropriate counsel. Even though I think I graduated from law school.....whenever I have an issue, which is very rare....I pay the best professional I can for proper counsel. Happy Investing!

http://www.goldbergsegalla.com/sites/default/files/uploads/TFS-AJS-MRS-MDC_50StatesMoldMealeys_Jan2013.pdf

Nothing wrong with owner financing, we will sometimes partner in a JV with an owner stuck with an existing property....we do what we do, get it turned around and split the profits on the sale. Have your agents get the financials on the triplex for the past few years so you can understand the historical costs, get a thorough inspection to turn up hidden liabilities or repairs on the horizon. Do you own research...don't rely on the agent....you have access to a lot of the same info and you can get a real good feel for rents with a few hours of online surfing and walking the area you are thinking of buying in. I walk and drive the areas around each house that I buy or have under contract. I always try to talk to the neighbors to get a feel for the history of the houses. Most of the ones I buy are failed rentals where a previous owner could never get it to cashflow.

Here, you have to run the numbers on the deal and a red flag could be that you are young and don't have any credit that the owner is still willing to deal with you. How much are you putting down, how much reserve do you have? I'm not sure why PMI bothers you, I pay cash for everything but my understanding is that once you can get an appraisal showing 20% equity, you get the remaining PMI refunded to you. Others here can speak to that but I believe that to be the case...so what do you care about PMI. You're in the right place to get some good education. Happy Investing!

Unless you have someone on the team like Rick or myself...people who know houses and construction, you should get a very thorough home inspection by a very detailed home inspector...not someone just kicking out canned reports for a fee...but someone who goes into detail. I'm like Cal....mold for me is AWESOME...it's black gold and I buy those houses all the time. The real deal is that EVERY house in the south has latent mold in it....half the allergies in atlanta are the result of exposure to mold. It's all treatable. Most of what we are all buying have been vacant, often for an extended period of time. When the hvac goes off dormant mold gets humidity and a food source...paper or wood to get it going. Even if you can't SEE it, I promise you it's there! On every single house we buy, either on our own account of with JV partners, we treat every interior surface with Microban which is an instant kill for hidden and apparent mold spores. It's an extra cost and step that others would never take but it makes sense to me so we do it with every house.

Don't walk away from a deal if the numbers look good. Buy enough houses and you'll eventually get burned. Even I bought one that turned out to have an underground aquifer that couldn't be resolved....only house out of 1,000s that I couldn't turn around. On the house in this example, it would have made some sense to run it with your contractor and work up firm numbers for the repairs. Find a contractor who is willing to go firm with a bid and will only come back to you for major items that were not apparent from the initial walk-through. Some contractors will run the ticket and we always joke about the starter price. Align yourself with a contractor who may not be the cheapest but is honest and wants a continuing relationship....there's gold in that mold.....and there's better returns with having the right people on your team!

If you can...send me a picture of the area and I can give you a better idea. My contracting arm handles these all the time in atlanta...people get scared and call the "foundation" experts and that usually triples the price. We just did one where the homeowner got prices of $25k to $30k to remedy the situation, we handled it for $3,200....quite a difference. We've had heavy rains since and no more leak.

On yours, you may want to head to AceHardware if they have those near you and look for a product called Through the Roof. It's a clear elastromeric sealant designed for roofs but we use it on foundations above grade as well. It's an awesome product and comes in a tube & also a brush on from the can. Been using it for years....best thing in the world for sealing roof vents as well...it isn't paintable though so keep that in mind! Luck!

The better way to do this might be to joint venture (JV) with a "boots on the ground" partner in the city you are interested in and split the deals/profits. It would be very hard to do out-of-state deals by flying in, assembling a team, flying back out and hoping it runs well....sounds like some of my crockpot cooking...it might be edible but you never know how it will turn out.

There are also a lot of varieties out here in the "turn-key" model....many of us posting here at BP. The rates, returns and types/locations of properties and their respective price points are all over the board. What part of the country are you thinking of?

Being resourceful & creative will take you far in this business. Your pic didn't post unfortunately. Happy Investing!