All Forum Posts by: Nicholas TenBrink

So far I've seen plenty of posts on Toilet Rough in and too much room, but what about too little room?
I've recently replaced the floor and the drywall in the bathroom and don't want to have to rip it up if i don't have to.

So I bought a 12" rough in toilet not knowing the different(noob). Went to install it and the toilet lower half went in fine but the tank hit the wall and wouldn't seat properly in the lower half.

Measured the rough in distance and it came in at 9" , the old toilet had already went into the dumpster and off to the landfill, so there is no turning back.

So now i'm curious, how much space does a 10" rough in toilet typically have behind the tank?
Would it be worth the shot of buying a 10" attempting the install and seeing where we end up?

OR will I need to suck it up, cut back into the floor, install a toilet flange with a kickback and just get it done?

@Ben , Thank you, that is what I have been looking for and for what ever reason could not find it. Oddly enough I have that same tile in the bathroom too!

@Everyone , Thank you very much for your input! I think for this round i'm going to go with the glue up option, but I completely understand that going with a direct to stud solution would be much more preferable and or go with tiling the walls. It would of made this whole ordeal much simpler and much fast to get resolved in the first place.

Hello,

Well I'm stumped, and am a bit dumbfounded I'm not finding a clear solution to a cheap/affordable solution for a tub/shower surround in my current investment property.

When demo'ing the bathroom, we pulled out an acrylic (5 or 6 piece) tub/shower surround, pulled out the old drywall, installed new Den Shield, and then planned to buy another acrylic type tub/shower liner/surround. Well I can't seem to find really anything that fits the bill.

I don't want to shell out $250 for a 3 piece fiberglass surround that is intended for 'to stud' installation. I have limited space , 58" tub length. I'm not clearly seeing obvious options.

Does no one make a solution that I can cut to fit, and or is adaptable and affordable?  

Any good leads that you can give me would be greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!

-Nick

@Keith Linne , excellent! Thank you for the tip!

Hello!

I'm just about to pull the trigger and make an offer on a property here in the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St.Paul) region of Minnesota, I'm just about done with my analysis of what will be needed to get the house up and on the market but I am a bit stumped at this one point, and that is it has a currently un-used water well in the basement (3" pipe with pump).

The house had be switched over to the city water grid years ago, the well it self is registered with the state, and registered as 'Not In use'. Per MN state law, if the well is not in use it needs to be sealed, this requirement will kick in during the property transfer. Further info: http://www.health.state.mn.us/divs/eh/wells/sealin...

With all that info being said/thrown at you; Have you ever dealt with having a well sealed? What costs did you incur? How much of a royal pain is this to deal with?

From what I'm seeing, and this may just be anecdotal, but if everything is fine with the well a sealing will cost around $1000 and the contractors doing the work will pull out all the related pumps etc associated with the well.

Thanks! I look forward to hear back from you all!

-Nick

My suggestion might not be your cup of tea, but i've yet to see anyone else suggest it yet, so bear with me.

If you will be doing any maintenance/repairs/flips etc to your properties, buy a Ford Econoline full size van. They can be acquired very cheaply and in good condition. The Econoline has been the 'go-to' van for service vehicles for years, and typically large companies that have fleets of service vehicles cycle them out at relatively low millage. You can find gas/diesel/cng versions.

For example: I was able to purchase a '98 Ford E250 (Econline) with 54,000miles in great shape for $1,400. I've been driving it now for 2yrs, have only needed to pay for consumables, oil, gas, and 2 new tires.

Another great thing about the Econoline Vans, they are built on the Ford truck chassis, so that means a reliable chassis, drivetrain, and parts are readily available all over North America.

Since you are from Indy you have all 4 seasons of weather, with a van you can load up your stack of drywall, plywood, lumber, etc and not worry about it getting rained on/snowed on/ etc while in transport.

And if you don't need to be hauling things on a daily basis, then just pick up a cheap 'burner'/disposable Honda. Thats what I had as my daily driver (along with the van) until it was stollen this past winter.

Thank you all for the warm greetings!

I've been a bit of the lurker here on the site for a few months now, reading the blogs and listening to the podcasts, so far i think i have about 37 of the podcasts listened to, and knock another one or two off the list everyday! Very helpful.

Here is a good article that I came across before when delving into scraping Craigslist:
http://ghostproxies.com/blog/2015/09/the-ultimate-...

In the article they do talk about a few different options for you to use.

Suffice to say, your choices are either to pay someone for their software/service or you need to dig in and get dirty with some of the free code available.

Hello,

I'm Nick, I am new to the Twin Cities real estate investment scene.

I purchased my first property (primary residence) last year and have been renting out bedrooms ever since. After I started renting rooms I got very serious about investing in other pieces of real estate because i saw what an impact that cash flow can make on my life.. 

My goal is to achieve financial freedom in 5yrs via property cash flow. After I meet that goal who knows what endeavor I might take on next!

Greetings!

I'm new in the game of real estate investment and have been working on my strategy around single family homes and would like to pick the brains of a few of you.

Out side of the normal analysis of if a deal is a good deal or not, how many bedrooms do you feel are the max amount that you would want in a single family rental home?

I'm in the Minneapolis & St.Paul , MN market; from what I see typically is that if a family can afford to rent a 3 bedroom 1-2 bath house, they can buy one. 

That has left me thinking that 1-2 bedroom homes are where i should be targeting for single family homes.

What are your thoughts around the number of rooms in single family homes? Experiences? etc.

Thanks!

-Nick