All Forum Posts by: Carolyn L.

@Andrew S.   We ran into this issue during our own personal remodel / new construction  project.  Fortunately for us, and the subs, we were notified by certified mail by the GC's major supplier that he hadn't paid, and therefore the second supply order was delayed.  He gave us every excuse in the book for the delay until we had this proof.  We had no idea our GC (who was recommended by and worked with our mortgage broker) didn't pay them with the first draw until we received the notice  Lesson #1:  recommendations mean nothing without a solid performance track record. Lesson #2: Never assume your draws are being directed to your subs.  Some contractors borrow from Peter to pay Paul when they get into trouble with low-ball estimates on multiple projects and hope they can catch up later.   And, as @Karen Margrave states - always  control the payout of money, especially if direct to the GC. We were lucky and had our title company making payments and enforcing inspections, so there was an extra layer of protection before the final draw was made.

In the end, we had to pay our attorney about $6k to step in, fire our GC for breach of contract, and take over final payments totaling $50k to all the subs via our title company and collect lien waivers. Fortunately, our atty was also on the board of the local builders association and knew the laws (a great resource). We needed to hire a new contractor to finish, as our GC attempted to bully us into signing off on the final draw without completing work, which would constitute contractor theft.   This was the start of subsequent judgments against this contractor as he couldn't pay his subs.  Very unfortunate for all involved. 

Close attention to detail is key.  Question everything that's not on track. The sad thing is, most people would never know these things can happen - we were naive as well, and trusted this person until we were burned. Huge lessons learned!  I could write a book!  (oh, wait - I think I just did). Sorry for the novel!  Hope it helps you, though. 

Also - a great website/app for design inspiration is Houzz.com. Another yellow house sample in the link.  Enjoy!

http://houzz.com/photos/193122

I agree with @Karen Margrave.  painting the window trim white would really freshen the look. 

Here's another look - although the shutters appear to be a grey/blue, the article indicates Charleston Green. Either way - classic!  And the white trim makes it pop. 

@James Sinclair I'd love to be included in the next meetings, too!  I just found this thread today and missed the earlier meetings with @Lynn Currie - so I know I missed a lot of great info. 

@Cyndy Trueblood - welcome to BP and Austin! Be sure to check out the weekly meetup at Big Daddy's Burgers.  Thursdays from 11:30-1:00

Here's a link:

http://www.meetup.com/REALESTATEinvestormasterminds/

Wow - nice job @Patrick H. !  So good to see this kind of improvement going on in the Holy City!  I am watching the Charleston market as well.  My husband and I are frequent visitors and hope to do some investing there in the future.  Will have to look this up on our next visit!

Well done.

This is going to be so fun to watch!  All the best to you and Carol and the kids!  Thanksgiving will be awesome this year!

Hi Josh,

I've been looking into RingCentral and eVoice - cloud based hosting. Both get high ratings from various services. They don't require a landline, and have flexible add-on features.

Looks like Ooma has a wireless adapter, but not for their business service product (according to their website).

Good luck!

@Anthony Conway welcome to BP and congrats on your move to Charleston! My husband and I love Charleston and plan to relocate and semi-retire there. I have also recently joined the Charleston area REIA referenced by @Russ Scheider via Meetup in order to network with other local investors and get a head start on our future plans to buy property. Since we're in Texas, I can only participate in the weekly Sunday online calls, or use the Meetup discussion board to communicate with other members. But it is one of the largest groups in the area from what I've found. Next time we're in town, I hope to actually attend a meeting in person!

All the best!

Ps: sorry about the loss of your iPhone!

Welcome to Austin and BiggerPockets @Chelsea Lewis ! You will find an amazing group of people in this network. I'm at about the same stage that you describe, planning my first property, but leaning towards the Round Rock area. The MeetUp that @Bryan Hancock mentions is a fantastic group, and I have recently joined a few others as well that I hope to attend soon. Here are the links if you haven't found them already:

Perhaps we will meet in person!

Best of luck with your business!