All Forum Posts by: Christopher Boggs

Just bought a 2bd/1ba house I plan to rent out. I am probably going to split the 2nd floor loft so that there is 3 bedrooms.

I think there is value in adding a 2nd full bathroom in the finished basement.

I am wondering what it will cost to add a full bathroom in the finished basement. Nothing fancy just a shower stall, toilet, and single sink vanity. I know there is cost in tearing up the concrete in order to add the plumbing. Also FYI the room is already framed in for some reason. I am not sure what they were using it for.

What do you guys think it will cost to add this bathroom?

David Beard - I did another analysis including looking into what 3/1, 3/1.5, and 3/2 were renting for. I concluded that a 3/1 will rent for $1000 to $1050. So that should raise my rent between $100 and $150. If I also added a half of full bath I would probably get $1100 to $1200. Which would raise my rent $200 to $300.

Another interesting fact is of all the current available rentals on the market only 10% of them were 2/1 like my current property. The rest were 3/1, 3/1.5, or 3/2

What do you guys think?

P.S. - Closets are not an issue. After putting up these walls each bedroom would have a large closet and built in wall dresser.

Just closed on my first rental property today, and put new locks on it. I had to put a standard double-sided deadbolt on the backdoor since it has a window, but I put a Kwikset PowerBolt Electronic Deadbolt on the front door. It was $70 at home depot, and took about 10 minutes to install in place of an existing deadbolt.

I am benefiting from it already. I have a contractor coming in the morning, and I can't make it over to the property to let him in, so I just gave him the code. Its super convenient, and it takes 5 seconds to change the code so I don't have to worry about a bunch of contractors having a code to my house.

Also on top of all of that this kwikset model has a feature called Smartkey. Where you put this little key in the side of the lock and you can rekey it by just putting in the current key, and then sliding in the new key. So even though we bought a different quickset lock for the backdoor in minutes we had them keyed the same. Its a pretty great feature if you need to change the locks every time you get a new tenant.

Here is a link - http://www.homedepot.com/h_d1/N-5yc1v/R-202290201/h_d2/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10053&langId=-1&keyword=kwikset+powerbolt&storeId=10051&superSkuId=203322569

Rob K - My home inspector has assured me that the electrical was done correctly, and the B-Dry installers said that it will not need to be removed in order to install the waterproofing system.

Assuming the basement is finished correctly what is your objection to finishing the basement and adding square footage?

Chris Masons - As I stated in the initial post we are tearing out the current finished basement because it is a little wet, and dropping $4800 on a B-Dry waterproofing system. So the basement should be dry as a bone after that. The basement isn't even that wet, but has been seeping water slowly for many years without the problem being addressed.

So we will be basically starting with a blank canvas. Except there will be adequate electrical outlets.

My investment group just picked up our first rental property. It is 1200 sqft bungalow 2 bd, 1 ba single family on the east side of Cleveland, OH in a safe a decent neighborhood. The rental comp research we did determined we will get approximately $850 to $925 a month in rent.

The basement is currently finished poorly. We have to tear out the basement, and put in a B-Dry waterproofing system in this house, so we would be basically starting with a blank canvas. There is an abundance of electrical outlets, and the ceiling is plenty high enough. We are considering if there is adequate ROI to finish the basement and increase the square footage of the house. Also is it worth it to add another full bath in the basement

We plan to keep this as a long term rental property. Would finishing the basement and/or putting in a full bath have a good ROI? We are obviously looking to get higher rents, and make the property more appealing to tenants.

The 1st floor has a good sized living, dining room, kitchen, full bath, and bedroom. Originally part of the living room was a bedroom, but the wall was removed, and now it is just a large living room. Also I rounded up the house is actually 1136. Also by creating these 2 potential bedrooms I would be losing 70 to 80 sqft to a new hallway

My investment group just picked up our first rental property. It is 1200 sqft bungalow 2 bd, 1 ba single family on the east side of Cleveland, OH. The rental comp research we did determined we will get approximately $850 to $925 a month in rent.

The house currently has 2 bedrooms. The 1st floor has 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom. Currently the 2bd floor is an open floor plan. Which makes it only 1 bedroom, and there is no door to the stairs. With the way it is set up now it would be very easy to put up two 6' walls/doors and make the second floor 2 separate bedrooms. These potential bedrooms would be 8' x 10' and 10' x 12', and both would have adequate closet space.

We plan to keep this as a long term rental property. Would changing this to a 3 bedroom house vs a 2 bedroom house be a good long term move, or is having a 2 large bedrooms better? We are obviously looking to get higher rents, and make the property more appealing to tenants.

I am interested in using a PM. I just don't see the value/logic in paying a company a full months rent to sign a tenant. It creates no incentive for them to find a good long term tenant. In my opinion it does influence them to re-tenant the property every year, and never sign more than a 1 year lease. Maybe I am being paranoid.

Does anyone have experience with this? Am I underestimating the time/cost of tenanting a property?

Can you get property management, but place the tenants yourself. I am starting a small single-family rental portfolio. I am not worried about interviewing tenants, and placing them, but I do not want to manage the properties day-to-day (collecting rent, calling repair people, etc.) Also I don't want to give up one months rent for placing a tenant which seems to be what most companies do. I also don't think that paying them a months rent is conducive to them finding a long term tenant.

Any idea if there are companies that do this? Know of any in the Cleveland Area? Cost?