All Forum Posts by: Paul Vail

Um, for a town road, that kind of crown is great for water runoff.  For a garage, they are feeding you BS.  So if you take a long level (6') and crawl around on the floor in the garage, is their 'drainage pitch' evident all over?  Or roll large marbles or tennis balls in different directions.  Or buy a laser level (https://www.lowes.com/pd/Bosch...) and use a length of white trim with some centimeter or inch marks on it -- set the level in one corner by the door, then walk around to random points in the garage and hold the test stick upright.  Is it all level or did they muck up the pour? 

Also, most newer garage pours in my area leave a ~3cm drop just inside or outside the door threshold so the driveway isn't flush with the garage floor. Hopefully you have that.  If not, what would stop wind-driven rain from coming in under the door if the drive is otherwise flat or worse: pitched toward the door?  Hard to say from the picts how big a gap that is.

What's your recourse if the builder blows you off?  A door seal will last quite a while (like, years), but this will be unsightly from both inside and out.   How do you explain that to a potential buyer?  They  need to grind that down.  Afterward, you can always epoxy-seal the whole garage as an upgrade feature to hide the grind and make things right.

Sophia Bahena  -- thanks for the link.

Sorry folks, I made a mistake.   There was a 'new investors' meetup for NCREIA at Lynnwood a month or two ago, but looking at the calendar, the location and date seems to move around a bit.   I'll try to remember to post more when the January calendar is updated.    If you want to join the NCREIA directly, you are welcome to come to the Main meeting as my guest or sign up for a guest pass via their website.  December is a quiet month for the group -- nothing starts up until after the new year.  Main meetings are third tuesday of every month.   www.ncreia.com/

Thanks folks.   I've been in touch with county officials: does the fire department want to have some test burns -- so I can reduce the amount of debris to scrape?  Nope.  is there a department of natural resources concern re house?  Nope.   And the county is moving slow on their tax auctions -- just had their second monthly one since the onset of Covid this week.  The lots and homes are going for high dollar.  Such a saturated market, sellers (and now auctioneers) can ask anything and get it.

My only way to pursue this is to approach the owner directly, if they can be found, and make a simple low cash offer to make their headache go away.   Will have to hire inspectors out to see if the well/septic can be salvaged and what the cost would be to scrape the lot.  It is zoned SFH.

Hi Kayla, welcome to the Triangle. Our local REIA (NCREIA) has monthly meetups at a restaurant called Lynnwood Grill -- over by Lowes on Grove Barton Rd. I'll have to look up the recurring evening. They also have meetings monthly over in Cary. I think group F2F would be terrific for folks to share ideas, good reads, heck -- even brainstorm how to work within a high valuation area.

Originally posted by @Lavaud Charlemagne:

Originally posted by @Grayson Wester:

I suggest the MacBook Pro as well. I have had my pro for 2+ years and have had no problems with it. They are expensive but well worth the money.

 Thank you for your suggestion Brianne. You are one of many to recommend the MacBook Pro.

Lavaud -- three years later, what did you choose and how did it work out for you?

So I'm going to pursue this adventure (as my first deal) a bit further.   I've asked a more seasoned investor from my local NCREIA group to see if they want to partner up on this opportunity.  They are interested in doing a bit more homework (we haven't entered into any sort of written partnership agreement yet, but they have asked for the street addy to review the idea).  Would this forum be appropriate to document my experience?  I see a number of starting points:

The current owner hasn't been seen for at least 5 years -- the over-grown lot reflects this.

He's almost two years behind in his property tax payments, so the county will be taking some action in the near future.   I know the owner (not friendly), so my preference would be to await the tax auction.

I've reached out to the county to determine if there are issues with scraping a home with its history (hazmat?) or if I can let the local FD use it as a training/test burn to reduce the amount of debris that would need to be hauled off to the landfill.   I've also asked about making use of the existing well/septic, although I anticipate on simply replacing same with the new construction.

Our counties aren't very modern -- while tax info is available online, I still have to go to the courthouse to research any other liens/judgements against the current owner to see if there are hidden claims to the property.   It does not have a mortgage -- satisfied some years ago.   The property is in a mature subdivision of 1 acre lots.  Comps for similar homes range from 290k to >400k.

With building materials costs stabilizing again, I'm hoping to get some numbers run on realistic building costs.  I'll need to find or develop a decent spreadsheet for cost estimates now.  Or find a reasonable construction cost estimator app.  

Is this kind of 'as it goes' tale frowned upon here on BP -- or not a good idea for other reasons?  Thank you from a newbie.

Originally posted by @Colleen F.:

@Paul Vail  the only caution I will give you is that if you need to bulldoze make sure it is a buildable lot by current code.  If it isn't  you usually  need to retain part of the original structure to have building rights usually to the original footprint.  

Thanks Colleen.  I'll have a conversation with the county authorities to try to get ducks in a row.   It's on well/septic, but within a watershed for city reservoir.

I don't have anything but empathy for you and a tenant that's clearly heading to the curb.

Maybe adjust your future leases -- Is there a regulation/law in Chicago that would preclude 'refunding excess rent'?   My half-baked idea: charge a bit more every month as an 'ongoing maintenance escrow' or some similar language.   Maybe $50 more than you'd otherwise charge, but with the stipulation that any excess 'escrow' at the end of their tenancy would be reimbursed.  Then basically the tenant is building your 'security deposit' over time, without using that language?  Naturally, longer-term tenants would create a substantial reimbursement, so maybe discontinue additional collections after 5 yrs, or a rent-reduction for 'long-term' residents.   I've just started listening to the podcasts (I'm on 97 now) -- so I've heard you have an encyclopedic rulebook up there for landlords.   Maybe there's a loophole to use as a future carrot.   Wouldn't matter with this guy, but could solve solutions moving ahead?

OK -- so I got your attention with a cheap lead.   But I have a sincere question.   There's a property in my area (the Triangle, NC) with a burned house on it.  Rumor is it was a meth lab that went to flames.  Nothing really salvageable even if it wasn't a cook shop.   In IT, when we completely wipe a system and rebuilt it, we call it a nuke&pave.   I suppose there is a similar phrase here.  It may be an opportunity to completely bulldoze/haul the remainder of the house and build better.    I've just started running numbers on brown-ground build costs for a 2-3k sq ft in the area.   Does anyone have a feel for the demo/haul costs?   Or for those who have tackled meth houses in the past, are there other DHHS/EPA rules about clearing the old structure/lot?    Thank you!