All Forum Posts by: Robert Swingle

I agree with the porcelain coated steel tub. They are easy to install and put some nice tile as the surround and you have a snazzy looking shower for honestly not that much cash if you can do your own work. Maintaining it is fairly simple also, after each tenant moves out scrape the caulk from around where the tub and tile meets and the corners and re caulk, make sure the caulk matches the color of the tile to blend. replace the caulking every turn to make help prevent the caulk from failing and letting moisture into the wall behind it, if it molds then eventually your tiles will start popping and you will have to tear it all out and replace wall and tiles again. if the tub gets worn down or even as i have saw in the past extremely dirty when no matter how much cleaning you do the grime wont come off just sand it with a fine grit paper and home depot sells a resurfacing spray kit for around 60$ and if you take your time will take about 1-2 hrs then 24 hrs to dry and will look like a brand new tub. Do those 2 things and that shower section will last you a very long time.

@Sandy Uhlmann maybe i missed something, but i think a big decision is whether it is going to be your own personal home or a flip or even a hold and will have a renter in it. I personally like the look or a stained deck over paint. Paint lasts a little longer and does look nice when freshly painted, but you can only touch up or even fully paint wood so many times before its going to need to be fully stripped and re painted. I am not sure how many times you can stain a deck, but if you don't seal it properly the wood will become dried out and splintery and after years will warp and even break and will need to be replaced. personally my choices for the 3 situations i put above would be stain for personal home or flip and paint for renter.

@Jason Cohen I understand your point now of thinking outside the box and yes dilapidated for this area is probably not the same as in a large city.

Welcome @Steve Worthy . I am also new and its great to see more and more people joining bigger pockets. I too am in the PA area and there are definitely alot of rentals in this state especially because of the oil boom bumping housing prices up. Again welcome

@jason  

@Jason Cohen undefined I see you suggest knocking on doors and looking for signs of distress. So do you just knock on a door of a distressed property and offer to buy their house? ive never heard that approach and if it actually works i need to start walking around my town and knock on 80% of the doors. lol I really am curious about this method.. has it worked for you in the past?

Thank you for replying and also the links Jason Shellaway . I will check out the links. Yea I figured i needed to save more money, but 25% downpayment even on a cheap priced place would take me around 1-2 years to save and everything i read on here was hinting at dont wait for tomorrow and act today so i figured i would ask :). Thank you again

Hello,

I have been a member of this site for a few months and have never posted anything. I have just been lurking. I would love to buy a rental (a duplex or more) for my first home as my family is accustom to living  in apartments. I have a background in construction and apartment maintenance and my wife in apartment management so I would fix/maintain my own property and my wife manage the tenants. I currently am a truck driver for the oil fields here in Pennsylvania and make on avg 4000 take home per month and my monthly expenses are 1300 for bills not including food and other expenses for children and personal. I have neglected my credit for many years and for the past year I have been working on fixing it/paying items off while trying to save. Should I attempt to pay off more of my debt before I attempt to purchase something? I only have 2k in my savings account because I dump my extra on credit card balances and paying extra principal on other loans and put a little into savings. I was looking at FHA loans, but they seem pretty strict on guidelines and the duplexes i have been looking at online are very low price and I'm worried they wont pass the home inspection to qualify. If i contact a selling agent and simply ask if it will pass a FHA inspection would they tell me?I really don't want to waste my time or there time looking at the home and trying to get approved with a loan on that property and paying for an inspection just for it to fail. There are many forums on here and ive used the search function, but am having issues finding the exact same questions i have so i decided to post instead. 

Sorry this is so long and if you do read or reply, thank you for your time.