All Forum Posts by: Supada L.

@Supada L. A few of my driveways are like that. And I leave them

That tenant is bucking to be let out if the lease. I'd send the tenant a; you are free to leave in 60 days. Not mention the drive.

Next lease must have a clause: I accept the property as it currently exists.

Those cracks aren't the risk in my view as others are saying.

What's not said is your folly of buying a huge investment without seeing with your own eyeballs!

I bet if yiu do a postmodern on this deal you'd be better off putting your cash into the stock market Etf Spy. You might do this investigation?

I had a similar problem. Mine was caused by tree roots. I thought the prices for replacement and partial replacement were outrageous. It looks like you don't have any tree roots to worry about. I hired a hardscape/landscape guy. He pulled out the driveway pieces that wobbled a lot when driven over and put crusher run gravel in voids. I think I had him put landscape fabric down before he put in the gravel to stop weeds from growing up thru the gravel. The crusher run gravel is a mix of powder and gravel and compacts well when you drive over it to help keep water out. He may have also put some #57 gravel in there too but I don't remember. The guy you hire should know what will work best. Have the hardscape guy drive over it while he is putting it down so it will compress and he can add more if necessary. I put river gravel over the top for cosmetics but that gets caught in tire tread so you probably don't want to do that.

On the really big pieces where there was a raised edge(similar to the break closer to your carport), I took an angle grinder with a diamond blade and smoothed out the edge. This eliminated the trip hazard and made it smoother for car to drive over. You could probably hire a handyman to do this.

Lessons learned: I would have probably left some of the bigger pieces that were removed even if they wobbled a little when driven over.

The hardscape guy had never done anything like this so we did not know if it would work. We were pleased with the results when I test drove over it and there have not been any complaints about it from the new tenants. You may have to explain to your hardscape guy what you want done, but they have all the necessary equipment and don't charge as much as "driveway experts".

The crusher run gravel will probably have to be replenished every couple of years.

My quotes were $5K minimum for driveway repair also and the hardscape guy charged me $650.00 and that included some dirt and grading work around the house.

Hope this helps. -bart

Was bad when you bought it 

no way tenant is tearing up their car unless they are racing over it 

There are worse public streets than this can’t see liability lawsuit being successful 

Have the concrete put in a dump truck. Sell it to a concrete recycling plant.   (google it) While the dump truck is there have them get 10 tons of recycle concrete  

total cost maybe $1000

No way $5500 will pay for a quality concrete or black top driveway which will weather the freeZe and thaw in Mississippi 

I wish I could upvote this 20 times, and make this thread required reading for every single person who considers this approach to investing.  It's educational. 

That's the right call I think. Make sure to get at least two bids on it too

What is the address of this property ?

$5,500 is probably two years of your cash flow. i will second and third the gravel recommendations. had a 10 ton gravel dump truck show up for $500 before, so unless that's against the city code, i'd go that route instead.  

Just curious, after you purchased the property from Roofstock, did they set you up with a PM or did you go out and find your own?  Did you have a home inspection performed and the driveway wasn't mentioned??  Best of luck to you with this investment!

@Supada L.

Are they good tenants?

This sounds like less of a driveway problem (it certainly needs replacement) and more of a tenant relationship opportunity. Being a good landlord means maintaining the professional relationship with the tenant.

If they're good tenants, do the repair now. Time lost to vacancy to find another equally good tenant might not be worth rolling the dice. Be thankful that they care to notify you of items needing repair so you can keep up your investment. Bad tenants might have let the driveway, and other items you don't know about, continue to degrade and you'll get shocked with even greater costs on any number of undisclosed problems when you finally find out. If these are potentially long term renters, maintain the relationship as if you want them to stay for a long time. You might find that this gesture is the beginning of a long (and profitable!) agreement.

If they aren't documented as excellent tenants (late payments, petty maintenance requests, etc), don't replace the driveway yet. Do listen to their complaints and maybe grind down the high spots for $500 and ride it out till they leave, while budgeting for the repair. Then, while looking for better tenants, replace the driveway and see if you can push rent to cover the costs.

Or, if their lease is up soon and you want them to stay, replace the driveway now and push rent to cover when they renew.

That's unacceptable by any reasonable standards of inspection diligence, whatever they protest. There's no plausible deniability here, given the condition of the driveway. The only possible scenario under which the driveway could have gone from acceptable to beaten-up like that in just one year even in PA's climate was if the tenant drove home every night and up the driveway in a tracked tank.

In line with other comments, I would definitely would start giving Roofstock hell as well as any certified home inspector I could track down through the reports. The sellers and their people can't have any grounds for legitimacy to just give you a smile and a thumbs-up here.