All Forum Posts by: Nicole Marshall

@Jordan Williamson Replying to an old thread, but I have a question on painting the window frames. 

I'm doing a live-in flip in central Florida. The house has 21 windows (ouch). All openings have accordion shutters already. All the windows are that dark bronze/black colored aluminum, but all the glass is intact. Some stick or don't stay open, but overall in good condition. I've gotten a quote from a few window repair companies that can fix them all for ~$50/window. So that's about ~$1000 if all the windows need repair (which I don't believe they do). 

Replacing each window with an non-impact would be close to $300/window (labor + window cost, and that's not even including repairing stucco/paint). So $6,300 for off the shelf vinyl windows from big box store. At a minimum.

What type of paint did you use? Did you paint the interior and exterior? Did you have any issues opening/closing the windows with paint on them? Any complaints/comments from potential buyers, anything dinged on inspection report (that you're aware of)? 

Sorry for the million questions... just leaning towards repairing and painting instead of replacing. If there were no shutters, I would definitely replace with impact, but the shutters came with the property...

Look into a product called "liming wax". I've seen plenty of bloggers on pinterest use this on old golden oak cabinets. Your cabinets are ever so slightly off, so I'm thinking with the lime, it'll make them look the same shade. With some dark hardware (doesn't need to be crazy, could just use the little knobs like the photo), it'll look great!. Plus it's super DIY friendly, so you could probably do it yourself instead of paying a painter.

Just for reference. Actually just painted... it used to be pink and green :|

The top two on the right are roll down shutters (with the crank through the interior wall), and the rest are accordions on tracks. Maybe it's not as bad as I seem to think...

Either way, new windows need to happen. I've seen on past discussions that people just painted the window frame white, but half of these don't work and/or are missing screens.

Melbourne, FL area.

I'm doing a live-in flip on the space coast of Florida. The house has existing accordion shutters on tracks. While they are older and the lock buttons stick trying to close them (I know this thanks to Irma), they all work fine and operate how they should. Two of the shutters are the old roll down type with the big round housing on top of the window. Of course these happen to be in the front of the house. 

Now, the windows are old and need to be replaced, so I'm flopping between just going big and doing all impact windows and removing shutters, or leaving shutters and putting in regular replacement windows. The reason for my indecision is aesthetics. This is a 350-450k area (completely rehabbed). I'm worried buyers will be turned off by the accordion shutters, but from an insurance point of view, the house is completely protected from wind and wind-borne debris. I could also just do impact windows on the front of the house (11/21 windows in the house) and regular for the rest.

If you were buying a house in Florida, would you turn away because the house had slightly-less-than aesthetically pleasing shutters? This is my opinion, which I know is clouding my judgment. *I* would like to have impact windows vs shutters, but I know that may not be the majority.

To touch on a point that Robert made... try to get 12 month leases from the college kids, but most college students aren't around in the summer. They may be okay with paying for those 3 months anyway, but if not, you might want to consider renting them furnished so you can AirBnB them in the summer.

And any way you can get your foot in the game is a good idea! Low risk helps get your feet wet and build up confidence.

It sounds like you won't be living in the property. If you won't be living in the house and renting out all of the rooms, it's hard to say. Damage in individual bedrooms is easy enough, but you won't know who left that huge hole in the wall in the living room. You might consider just taking the deposit and only applying it to damage in individual areas, not common areas, unless you can prove who damaged what. I'm really not sure about the legality of nanny cams in common areas, but that might be something you'd want to look into.

I have a 4 bedroom house, and I rent out 3 bedrooms. I have a separate lease agreement with each tenant. I usually do a minimum 3 month lease with option for month to month after. I generally don't do less than 3 months, because I've found that people will just stay there for a month or two and move on. I really look for people who are interested in staying there 6 months to a year or longer. It removes the hassle of constant turnover. 3 months also allows you to "evict" them shortly if it's just not working out.

Be detailed and up front about any issues. I am slowly remodeling the house, so that's a main point I bring up. Nothing too crazy, but I feel the tenants should know prior to a showing so you both don't waste your time. Some people are looking for a pristine place, others don't care as long as their room is fine.

Also be sure to note which rooms share a bathroom. You'd be surprised at how many people automatically assume they get their own bathroom, even in a room rental situation.

See this post for more responses: https://www.biggerpockets.com/forums/52/topics/620311-screening-tenant-roommates-for-first-house-hack

I'm actually doing this right now, but have no kids, just 2 dogs. I do, however, rent 3 of my bedrooms out. Things you should do before moving in, if you can: remove walls and/or wallpaper, drywall.

If you remove walls, plan on replacing the flooring unless you can find any exact match or figure out some way to cover it up. Drywall is super dusty, will get everywhere, so it's best to do that before all your personal belongings are in the house.

As someone else mentioned, if you only have one bathroom, do that FIRST before you move in.

If kitchen cabinets are in good condition, just paint boxes and reface them with new doors (several sites: barkerdoors, cabinetdoorsnow, etc). It'll save you a headache of a full remodel, and will be easier to live through.

Make sure you replace your air vent filter(s) monthly! Remodeling kicks up a lot of dust, even if you don't see it. So make sure these are replaced in a timely manner.

Another thing I've learned with a second story... if you plan on replacing carpet with hard flooring (wood, laminate, vinyl, etc)... spend plenty of time researching sound proofing underlayment. You WILL hear noises down below. I thought I bought a great underlayment (did my research) and I can still hear things, but not as bad as before I screwed down the subfloor. Squeaky floorboards are no joke in a 60 year old house.

@Keeya WangJones I rent 3 bedrooms in my house, but I also live there, so it's definitely different than a completely "hands-off" rental. However, the process to find roommates should be similar. I post on Craigslist, Nextdoor, my work classifieds section, my college alumni classifieds, and sometimes facebook marketplace (but I get more spam and weirdos through that). I've found roommates through all platforms. You can also post through Zillow, which will automatically post for you on Hotpads and Trulia, though Zillow itself will not actually post a "single room" ad. 

When you get responses from potential renters, via email, watch the grammar. This is usually a red-flag for me, if their grammar is poor. Trust your judgment when you meet them in person. If something seems off, but you're not sure what, it's your intuition. For example, I had a very pleasant guy come look at one of my rooms. He seemed super nice, well-groomed, educated, but something felt off to me and I didn't know what. So I googled his name and yep, he had 2 arrest records in 2018, one of which was "battery by strangulation". 

You will absolutely want to do a background and credit check, and even ask for a recent paystub. You may want to ask them to get renter's insurance too, and check with your current homeowner policy as well.

Seeing as it's around the holidays... it's likely you may not find a renter until the new year. I'm having issues finding tenants right now as well, where usually I can find one within a week.

Good luck, and feel free to message if you have any questions. :)

@Daniel Later I rent my bedrooms out to tenants, but I also live in the house. I've found that, for whatever reason, I get way more responses from men about rooms. And generally, men aren't as picky about outdated kitchens/bathrooms. Men will likely not have as many personality conflicts. But be sure to properly screen any prospective tenants, especially after you get your first tenant in there. Make sure you give the opportunity for current tenants to meet and provide input on prospective tenants, that way they don't leave because they don't like someone. It will also make them feel like you value their input/opinion/life.