All Forum Posts by: Nik Moushon

Its pretty obvious that you have the right to evict. No moratorium is going to save their butts on this one. But its probably not worth it though. What do you think they will do when they get the notice? What are the odds they stop paying rent all together and trash the place even more? It will take you at least two months to get them out, probably more, because covid has slowed the courts to a crawl. 

Pay the bill, so you keep your plumber happy, then back bill them. If they don't pay, you tac it on to next month rent. If they still dont then you keep on adding it to the rent, with interest, every month. If they dont pay by the time the lease is up you take it out of the deposit and dont renew. $200 is not worth going to eviction court over. You'll waste that in gas money just getting to the lawyer meetings and court hearings. 

I am finalizing the construction loan on a duplex I am building. I am looking to get a credit card to put purchases on for the build. We are trying to look at cards that give good rewards, we are leaning towards cards with airline miles (since most our family lives out of state) but arent necessarily set on that.

Anyone have any good first hand experience with any cards with good rewards? If it has good miles, how is the exchange rate? 

Why would you not take them to small claims court? You get to collect the lost rent, the interest on that rent, any damage to you or your business, and legal fees. And since they both are working you can also request that the payments be taken out of their checks to insure payment of dues owed. Since they obviously have proven that they are both a risk of non-payments. 

@Gabriel Rascon

As you can see from what @Rylan Lacey just said, there are a LOT of details that go into doing a 4-plex because you have now crossed into commercial buildings. The code and requirements change, versus residential, is huge. So skip going to a GC first, definitely forget doing any of the work yourself, and go straight to finding an architect. The city will require you have have one anyways so don't waste time finding any other professional at this point. For a 4-plex, if you keep it simple, are usually take 2-3 months to draw plans. With todays economic climate its more like they are probably, at least, 6 months out before they even start on your project. So get them on board ASAP. They can do all the coordinating of the other licensed professionals that you would need for permit. Once you have plans finalized THEN you can go have GC's bid on it. No GC is going to talk to you with out plans. Banks wont either. 

@Amir Haq

1 - I'm surprised a jurisdiction allowed spiral stairs in a multi-family as a means of egress but nice job on your architect for getting that. (make sure you have that in writing or an email though)

2 - I dont see how wood stairs would be cheaper though. Thats a lot of man hours to pay for, especially if its custom made. Have you looked into a refab metal stair that meets the dimension requirements? I would think this would be easier and cheaper. You will have a hell of a time trying to find a contractor to come to a job just to do one set of stairs. 

Derrek, you only mentioned "good contractor" once at the beginning and it came across very generalized. The rest of your post, and the way you worded everything, made your entire post come across as you were describing contractors as a whole. But that aside, I did mention that I know not all contractors take advantage of people or the situation. There are the "good and "bad" in every profession. I acknowledged that very clearly. 

I do understand your post and where you are coming from VERY clearly. I'm an architect. I deal with contractors and clients on a daily basis. I deal with the same ****** client that tried to squeeze money out of you...and guess what, they tried to do it to me too. The ones that refuse to pay their last invoice to you...yep they did it to me too. All the reference requests and bids AFTER I spent a day at their property site measuring and going over designs with them...ya that happens to me A LOT. So ya...I do get where you are coming from VERY CLEARLY. 

I am also well aware of the very small details and specific wording of contracts and how picking a single word can mean your contract is iron clad or just wet tissue paper in court. Picking a very specific word to describe what you need in a contract is extremely important. And what you didn't get at in my post was I was doing exactly that. Telling a client that you, as the professional, that you dont work for them will NEVER improve the relationship. EVER. If you got requests for bids on 10 jobs and at the bottom of your bid you typed "If you hire me just remeber, I dont work for you." how many of the bids do you think you'd get? I'd wager none (assuming they actually read the whole thing). Its all about the word you choose, even with a detailed explanation of your intent, those words will do you more harm than good 100% of the time. 

If you really view your clients and jobs as "partners" then start by talking to them with the respect a partner deserves. Telling a partner "I dont work for you", even though true, would never set the tone for success in that partnership.  All that does is bring animosity to the relationship from the start by portray that you think you are better than the client because you are the one doing the work and if you stop, they dont get what they want. 

You also have a very different view of "partnership" than most people I know. Even outside REI. There is a level of professionalism that is expected out of everyone. We all have the shared goal of seeing the project to completion in the smoothest, most cost effect and respectful way possible. But at the end of that project... I dont get to use it, I dont share in the profits or losses and I dont have any control (or even opinion) has to how it run or what happens to it. Then how does that classify me as a partner? Just because we all have the same end goal and want to make everyone as happy as possible at the end, does not make us partners. Tenants don't share in the profits or losses of the landlord. Just because they are in a mutual beneficial relationship does not mean they share the same responsibilities or level of risk. They are in no definition of the word, partners. They are in the same relationship as an employer and employee. Do you call your employees partners just because they all what to see the company succeed so they can keep their job and pay check? No you dont. And for the very same reason you dont call clients partners. Thats on top of all the legal ramifications of calling someone a partner when they arent really a partner. As an architect I want to give my clients the best possible building they could ever dream of. Just because I am not a partner in the project does not mean I am going to not give it the best of my abilities or treat them with a different level of professionalism but I'm also not offended that they nor anyone else doesnt see our professional relationship as a partnership because its not. They hired me to help them achieve their end goal. WE ARE A TEAM. We all want the same end goal of making a winning project. But we are not partners.

@Derreck Wells

I understand your intentions here. Contractors deserve respect as much as anyone else. Automatically assuming they are price gouging is wrong. They need to make money just as much as everyone else. But I think two of your issues here are actually perpetrating the typical greedy contractor stereo type you are trying to dispel here and are actually casting yourself in even more bad light....though unintentionally. 

First is this notion you keep perpetrating that "Contractors don't work for you!". I think I understand what you are trying to get at...that contractors are professionals just like any investor and should be treated as such...but you are saying it in a way that keep the stereotype that contractors are "know it alls that only do what they want and what makes them more money" just keep going. And to put it bluntly....its flat out wrong. As soon as the contractor signs a contract with me, they are indeed, working for me. Just because they are not on my tax forms as full time emplyees doesnt mean they dont work for me. Its just a contractual agreement to work for money for a very specific job. Take that contract to a judge and see what he has to say. And yes in fact I would be paying the contractors taxes, I would be paying their pay roll, I would be paying their workers comp, insurance and bonds. Because if the contractor didnt charge me for those things they would never make money. A lot of this falls under "Overhead" and its charged back to the client/owner. This is how literally EVERY profession work. Your phrase "Contractors don't work for you!", and what I think you are trying to get across, is combining two different issues that are kind of tied together but are also worlds apart. One being what the Owners expectations are and the other being that the contractor has a business to maintain and people to employ. Yes the Owner has a right to have their expectations meet when they agree to pay you for certain services. But they don't get to control the pricing and timing of everything. They dont see how many other jobs the contractor has and has to coordinate together. The contractor cant have a business without being hired (working for) by someone. 

Secondly, you can't assume that every contractor is going to act to the way you would act. Telling us that we should just accept the price because "We are already giving you an honest bid..." is the reason contractors have a bad rep in the first place. There are too many contractors that take advantage of this thinking and do rip a lot of people off. There are also a lot of contractors that don't do that and give a completely 100% honest price. Unfortunately the contractor profession is a profession that has a lot of bad people in it. As an architect I've seen plenty of both ends of the spectrum. On my duplex build, the first bid I got was for $750k. If I went by your thinking I should've just taken that first bid because it was "an honest bid" but if I had I would've been $250k over what duplex's go for in my area. I never would've been able to get a loan at that amount. I barely was able to get one for the $500k because the comps where horrible in my area and banks dont think logically. Now I knew what build costs in my area were, because of my profession, so I knew that that first bid had way too many padded numbers. Be that on labor/materials or they upped their price because they were just too busy and if I was desperate then they would take my project on but with a HUGE profit margin. But most people dont know what build costs should be. What people need to do is do their own research and get multiple bids. This is where they will get a since on what numbers are more realistic and be better able to judge what prices are more in line with the reality of costs. Now if they do agree to a price with a contractor THEN try the negotiate down, then thats a just a bad thing to do, to any professional. 

 I wasn't trying to say you should get bids to show investors. But you have to have something more firm than rule of thumb type numbers. There is too much flex in those numbers to give most investors the security they need to know what something is going to cost...in a range of course. They know its all starting numbers. 

When you call engineers your not asking for a contract to sign or for them to do any work. You are asking what price ranges they have seen this year for projects. You could also call some GCs. You dont need a planned out design to talk to them. You just need to know if you are target a small 4 lot subdivision or a 20 lot or a 100 lot. Because you (and they) have to take into consideration the economy of scale. If a per lot price of a 4 lot subdivision is 40k then a 20 lot will probably be closer to 30k and a 100 about 20k. Thats the kind of information you need. Even you need to figure out what scale of development you are looking for. 

You cant go to investors and pitch a plan that has somewhere between 4 and 100 lots and tell them it all depends on how much they invest...because thats not how it works. You need something more narrowed down. Say like...a 10-20 lot subdivision on 3-5 ac and I'm looking to be in these two Zoning Districts that allow me to build to the density to meet that 10-20 lot goal. And even that could not be enough for investors....hell its not even enough for a bank to even say they would loan you the money or not. Most investors are wanting to see what they are investing in. Not just hypothetical numbers. Some will your projections/numbers look great. I'd like to invest in a project that makes those returns. But come back to me with plans and the lot under contract and then I'll sign up. Unless you have family money to borrow or a long business relation with an investor who trusts you, you will very rarely get money tided up for you have at least schematic designs to resent.  

Thats the thing about developments, and why so few actually do them, is that there is a LOT of upfront soft costs (time and money) that are required. And a lot of times you have to pay thousands of dollars (sometimes it can be as little as a couple hundred) for professionals to do schematic designs to even figure out if the project is possible. Sometimes it turns out the project isnt feasable and you loss your money. Others it works out just as you thought and the money isnt wasted. Developers losing out on thousands of dollars because a project go bust before they even step on it happens more times then you think. If you arent prepared to pay a couple thousand dollars up front for design work, aside from the accepting the risk of you losing it, then development may not be what you want to get in to. When you are first starting out its risky for sure. But as you gain experience that risk becomes less and you become more knowledgeable on how to properly vet a project site to see if it will work or not. Even to the point that you dont need design professionals for plans. The only other way around this is teaming up with someone (as a partner not investor) that has that experience (and possibly cash) to help mitigate the risk to you. 

With great risk comes greater rewards. Thats why so many want to do development but so few actually end up doing it. Risk isnt always because you dont make money at the end...its putting up money at the beginning not knowing if the project will even start. 

Like @Greg Dickerson said, rule of thumbs on cost in development dont exist. If you go by those you will more than likely get yourself in a world of trouble. 

If you are going to be making a pitch to any investor, you dont want to go to them with rules of thumbs or even ball park numbers. Those kinds of numbers allow for to much unknowns and increase the risk drastically. As a new person, you'll never get investors that way, at least smart one. You wont be able to impress investors with napkin math until you have experience under your belt to prove they you know how to estimate accurately enough. Maybe you already have that, I dont know you, but from they way your post is written I have to assume you dont..at least land development wise. 

The best thing you can do is call up 2-3 civil engineering firms in your area and ask if they dont mind sharing what the average per lot it is to get all the land improvements in for a subdivision. But before you do you have to have a better idea of what you are targeting as a project size. Because the per lot prices change pretty dramatically from a small 4 lot subdivision to a 100 lot subdivision. For example, call and say you are looking for relatively flat land in the 3-5 ac range and are looking to put 10-20 houses. Whats the range of infrastructure costs you are seeing these day? (in my area its about $35-40k per lot for a 20 lot subdivision...and that is not including the price of the land, just the improvements) While you are at it also ask what their fees would be and what their time frame is. Professionals are very busy atm everywhere. Businesses in my area have been 4-6 months out before they even start on projects and thats been all year, even with covid. You will need to start compiling soft cost numbers to show investors too. Soft costs includes all professional fees, land cost and permit fees. A lot of times even infrastructure costs...though you can get loans on that. Just depends on the bank.

When doing subdivisions you want to break things down to a per lot numbers. Not per sf of anything. especially at this point in the project. The per sf cost come in later once you actually have a parcel picked and the subdivision designed. And fencing, btw, is part of the house costs...not land development. Land development is literally everything that makes the individual lots and makes them accessible and sell-able. Anything other than that gets built with the houses and is part of the house costs and are totally different numbers. 

@Adam L. I'm not a lawyer. I cant tell you if something is safe or not to try out. I can just give you my opinion. 

Before you do anything, have you tried just asking if you can hire someone to do it and then deduct the charges from your rent? 

What I would do is put together an email that shows the agreement you made when you first signed the lease. Attach, in PDF, the emails or texts that prove your claim that they would fix it before you moved in (i hope you have those claims in writing). Also include a copy of the state law. Show them that they have two legal obligations to fix it (a contractual agreement and a state law). Give them an ultimatum. Tell them they have a certain number of days to reply and to schedule a day for their team to come in a fix/replace the dishwasher. Tell them you will be accommodating to their schedule and that you'll be out while their workers are there. If they dont then by day X you will have no choice but to use the state law to fix it yourself (hire it out) and deduct the charges from your rent due (make sure to provide copies all receipts of charges with reduced rent). Show them this is a win-win for everyone. Their staff dont have to worry about getting sick and you get what they promised. Make it come off as a good alternative. Also, remember WA has a moratorium on evictions until October. They cant evict you for anything at the moment. They still can hold you accountable for the deduction in rent but they cant evict you. No one knows when that moratorium will be lifted. So thats a risk youll have to judge for yourself. Also, if they do try to evict you at some point you will have a court date to defend yourself. Its not like you just get kicked out. 

The other thing you can do is suck it up and just pay to get it done yourself. If you have to buy a hole new one, you get to take it with you when you leave. Not that that is ideal but you have that option. Just make sure you KEEP the old dishwasher. Its not yours to throw away. I would still write a letter like above stating what you are going to do. Give them a chance to fix it but if not then you will do it. Then at the end of your lease you can try to get it back. Either by deduction of the last rent or you'll have to take them to small claims court. 

Either way you do not want to come off threatening. That never works in my experience. Be professional and polite even if you want to throw a brick at them. Dont even mention taking them to court. At least in the first few letters. Those kind of claims/threats are 99% of the time idle threats and just makes them not want to work with you even more. My thinking is that if I plan on taking someone to court I dont want to give them a heads up. Plus if they threaten you with eviction first, vs you threatening to take them to court, it looks better on you in front of a judge. Not saying you need to go that way of course. Its always better to try to get things done before it has to go to court. And in WA if you do go to court the losing party has to pay all court and lawyer fees...so dont do this yourself. Go hire a lawyer or at least talk with one before you try. Because you could still loose, even if you are in the right, because they have lawyers on retainer (more than likely) if they are this large company. You dont want to pay their fees.