All Forum Posts by: Nicholas W.

Serious question: What happens if you don't pull out permits? How are those things caught? Let's just assume the work is done well and to code.

The thing is you're going to get answers all over the place.

What impacts the cost of a rehab, more so than geographic location, is the quality. You can buy really cheap stock cabinets, laminate counter tops, and 79 cent per square vinyl and do a smaller kitchen for a few thousand dollars. If you opt for quality cabinets, stone counters, tile backsplash, under cabinet lighting, and $5 per square tile floors where you'll spend $15k on the kitchen alone regardless of the area you're in.

Some how I've convinced people to pay me to make their grass long and then pay me more to make it short again.

Seriously though I own a lawn service business, primarily mowing and fertilizing, that has treated me pretty well and gives me 5 months off every winter. As I purchase more rentals I plan to cut back on the amount of time I spend on the lawn service.

You won't have a problem with the appraisal except for a most likely lower price because a carport vs a garage will almost certainly hurt your value. For the most part an appraiser could care less how a property got to the way it is, he's just there to tell you what it is worth as it sits now.

The tax assessor would be your issue and the building department in general. You'd have to talk to them to determine if you'd need a permit for it but the answer is likely yes. Would the average person get a permit for it....? Probably not.

You will need a permit although your contractor will handle getting that.

You should go talk to the planning department to make sure you can build a garage there.

A typical 2 car garage will probably run you between $12-20k.

I'm not sure if you have a case but I would definitely contact an attorney. I agree with you that the engineer should be held responsible and hopefully his suggestion to sell in the dry season is in writing because that's irresponsible on his part and would probably not sound good to a judge. In our area they have to do a perc test before installing a septic system and the results determine whether they can install a traditional septic (much cheaper) or a mound system. It sounds like your system is a traditional septic field but should probably have been a mound system.

 I honestly have little to add to this discussion because I'm not from Illinois but your assumption that they had head just because it is a gas furnace is incorrect. I don't know of a single furnace that doesn't require electricity to operate at least some portion of it. In the case of forced air the fan doesn't operate on gas just the burner, furthermore the valve won't open and the burner won't light without electricity. It is very unlikely and bordering on impossible that they had heat if the power was out for 3+ consecutive days.

I don't have any specific contact for you but you would probably be better off contacting a basement foundation company.

This is going to vary quite a bit you can buy a $10 bag of mortar or a $50 bag of mortar. You can mix the grout with water or grout enhancer. It's just like anything there are low cost and expensive options with the quality varying respectively. If you're installing on a slab as I would expect you would in Florida for a very rough estimate I'd figure on 50 cents to a dollar per square foot over and above the cost of tile.

Oh and yes the dry mortar is not only cheaper but better quality than premixed mortar.

 Who said anything about prior to close? I was referencing the renovation loan that his bank offered him that was contingent upon him using a contractor and not doing the work himself.