All Forum Posts by: Scott P.

I've sold with and without a realtor.  I've bought with and without a realtor involved either on the Buyer or Seller's side. Some States may be different but in my State I would not have to have a realtor to sell to tenants. 

If you don't have one though, you'll want some sort of closing agent, maybe an attorney or a tile company agent, or maybe a bank loan officer, to make sure everything is done legally.

I've had units with a lease that didn't mention smoking and I'd had units with a lease that prohibits smoking inside.  

I don't smoke. Although I'd prefer non-smokers, I haven't had to do any special cleaning for smokers.  I think some of them must have smoked outside most or all of the time.

Having not had a bad experience, I don't really care if they smoke inside or not.  Frankly, other than trying to withhold the deposit based on "evidence" of smoking, I'm not sure how I'd enforce a no smoking policy anyway?  Maybe some other Posters can explain how they do that.

My rentals have either had hookups for the tenant to provide machines or I've provided normal residential washer/dryer machines.

I do have an associate who has had 2 rentals each with a laundry area and coin operated machines.  His advice is only to provide this service if you feel like you have to in order to be competitive in your market because it's a potential headache.  He used light duty commercial machines.  Remember that you have to visit to collect the coins or pay someone to do it.

You have to live somewhere.  I got started by "house hacking" which is a term used now-a-days for renting a portion of the place you live in, sort of like an AirBnB or maybe putting a down payment on a duplex and living in half and renting out the other half.  So I paid for a place to live in and then rented out part of that place.

If you don't have enough money to pay for your own place plus enough to repair the other portion you're renting, then the place to start would be to work in any job that is real estate related, such as a contractor's helper or repair guy.

If you us more about yourself we might be able to offer more ideas.

If a permit is required, I would get the permit.  In my opinion, it's not worth the risk of not pulling a permit.  Permits for repair or replacement hot water heaters are not required in every jurisdiction.  

I would always hire a licensed person for work like plumbing, electrical, etc.

Where I live, I can do this that sort of work in my own house but I can't do it for others if I'm not licensed.  I wouldn't have anybody who is unlicensed work in my rentals for any kind of work that requires a license.

I'm sorry to hear you're in this situation.  If this was happening to me, I would assume that I'm not going to ever get the full rent owed.  To recover it after a judgement I'd have to garnish and hope they didn't leave the State.  I probably would not go to that trouble.

I'd need more info to know exactly what I'd do.  For example, if they had rented from me with no problems for 5 years I'd probably advertise the place for rent asap and help these tenants by forgiving the rent owed if they "cleaned up very well" and moved out in 30 days, but I would have told them that the first week they were late.   In my State they'd likely get 2 months free by the time I could evict and the deposit would cover 1 of those 2.

Knowing only what I know so far, I would do what @Michael Noto posted.

Ask the town what information they require to price the permits.  Some jurisdictions price based on square footage of the work area, others price based on the estimated construction costs, etc.  They might require one overall permit or they might require separate permits for the different types of work.  Once they tell you how they calc the cost of the permit, then you'll be able to determine it.

I've pulled maybe 10 permits in the State of New Jersey.  Every local jurisdiction is different.  In my opinion it is not an easy State to permit in, as compared to most others.

In my area, I could probably add a bathroom to a one story SFR on a crawlspace for $3000.I could NOT add a bathroom to an upper floor that currently has no plumbing for that price. So the estimate you have been given may be correct. Adding plumbing and kitchens to an upper floor which only has bedrooms would introduce structural support questions that may need to be addressed by an Engineer or Architect in my area. It might not be structurally possible to add a bathroom or kitchen without a lot of other support system upgrades. Those types of additions would be very expensive.

I don't know about the property taxes in your area. My gut feeling is that the improvements will cause the taxes to be higher regardless of whether or not the improvements are for an SFR or for a Duplex.

The good news is that the property is already zoned for a duplex you say.  So, at least you won't spend time or money rezoning it.

I would ask to see the current leases and ask if the tenants are current and if they have deposits and how long have they been tenants and if they have/have had any violations.

I'd wait until the tenants move to do the renovations.

If the renovations are specifically for the existing tenants, then I'd talk w/them and whoever is doing the work and then do it while trying to manage everyone's expectations sort of like remodeling a property while I was living in the property.   That's something people do all the time.

Yes.  I've had one in the past.  I currently have a partially finished basement.

No. I wouldn't recommend it for a rental home in my area - unless that was a common feature in the market I was renting in.

In general, in my area, unless the house has a basement with a perimeter drain that drains to daylight or has a very low water table, it seems likely to me that the basement will "flood" at some point.  Mine has not flooded but I have 2 sump pits with 3 pumps, 2 of which are backed up by a natural gas powered generator with an automatic transfer switch and one pump which is a battery only.  (I also have sump lines exiting the house.)  I have some other exterior features plus an interior dehumidifier all of which keep the basement dry.  These features are a lot of cost and upkeep to finish a basement in a rental.  So I would avoid it in my area.

For b) I'd say that you'll need to work with them in a small way.  For example, hire them to do something small on your own house.  You'll be able to see how reliable they are and they will learn if you are reasonable or impossible to please and if you pay on time.

For 1) I'd say that if you haven't built or flipped or remodel or hired contractors before it would be hard to get them to engage before you have a deposit on the property, or a property in escrow, or a property purchased.  If you're in that situation, I believe you'll need to offer to pay them to bid.  Paying for a proposal is not common in my area but I believe here that would be a price of entry if a person had zero network to draw on to get pricing.

If I was completely new with no experience and had no contacts with anyone who knew any contractors, I'd get 3 prices from 3 general contractors, with outstanding online reputations or reputations from my home insurance company.  I would offer to pay each of them.  To rehab in my area I would guess that $500-$1000 would be the cost for each.  They may or may not take me up on that offer.  To be safe, I would do this before buying by taking the contractors on 3 separate walk throughs with a "buyer's" real estate agent.  To do that though, you also need to convince the real estate agent that it is worth their time for 3 showings.

Getting a good, quality, accurate price should be your goal or you could get into a large financial bind by buying a property that is more expensive to rehab that you thought it would be.  Also, keep in mind that contractors do not have x-ray vision and can't price for surprises they are not aware of.