All Forum Posts by: Seth Borman

Has anyone ever set up the wiring for solar to be installed down the road and marketed it as "solar ready?" Would seem to be a cheaper way to get the same buyer.

Property owners should always check for rebates. I converted one of our properties (office space) to LED lighting with a payback of around 8 months. Now that it's been a year we are making money on the deal. That would be a bit like a cap rate over 100%.

When I was in school I sat down to talk to a guy that was buying a shopping mall and converting it to office. His business consisted of him, his daughter, and an accountant. If you'd like to hire a CFO and pay them $100,000 a year to put together spreadsheets... that's a strategy. Similarly I was in a meeting with a guy that ran a development/GC outfit. He told the rest of us that he regretted not studying accounting because he wanted a deeper understanding of what the numbers really meant. He did his pro formas with pen and paper, by the way, and he's been in business for 50 years.

Ratio utility billing. Basically you split the bills up according to unit size and number of people on the lease and the tenants pay.

You should give consideration to civil engineering, finance, construction management or real estate.

You'll get a lot of different advice... but if you go out and look at what people want in a developer you won't see a lot of "must have five years experience as a slum lord" in a hiring ad.

Whatever you study, work or do internships to build a network and get experience to get that next job. You need both education and experience.

How do you plan to make your money? Flip it? Rent the house? Rent the ADU? Rent both?

We've begun adding a utility surcharge of $50/month. It barely covers the cost of water and sewer but it is in line with the local market. If I went straight to RUBS the monthly cost would be $150-$200 more per month and that would cause more problems than it is worth. That's how much we've been paying for utilities.

We added minisplits to a building. Ideally you can submeter them and pass the actual costs on to the tenants. They run about $3000 a zone.

While you are replacing siding you can add insulation to make the existing heating system perform much better.

Asbestos has only been an issue for us when we pull a demolition permit.