All Forum Posts by: Tim Bradley

1. Roof is complete. No more leaks! Wow, how low is my bar that I am excited my roof doesn’t leak.
2. The outside door is closed up and my fancy new slider is in. And by fancy I mean lowest cost option of course. But it looks great! Oh and the ceiling is no longer sagging. Support column was installed. Right where I suggested. What do you know, it wasn’t just drywall coming loose. Go figure. Maybe the engineer knew what he was talking about.  Actually I think a 4th grader could have figured that one out.  Oh and one more thing, they cut power to the entire garage when they put in the slider.  Psh, who needs power anyway.  Whats that?  How is the garage power connected to the dining room area.  Ha!  Logic has no place in the wiring of this house people.  
3. Electrician ended his job. Notice I used the word ended there instead of finished. As in I don’t have power in one of my rooms. As a general rule I like to have power in all rooms of the house. That’s a real delighter for tenants. Fingers crossed that he hasn’t returned my calls bc it was the weekend and today is Veterans Day. Yeah. That’s it I’m sure. I went through home advisor though so I might give them a call to see if they can help out. UPDATE (yeah I know I didn’t actually post this yet so its not an update rather than the first time your reading this, just bear with me as I wrote it, then this happened, then I updated, then I posted. Moving on). So I texted the electrician one last time (this is after 1 voicemail and 2 other texts trying to get him to come back out) reminding him that I hired him through home advisor and will just work with them to resolve the issue. The phone literally rang 2 min after the text went though. Magically the issue will be fixed. He just pretended like he wasn’t dodging my calls/texts and we are BFF’s.
4. I finished drywall! Oh my god that was awful. Some lessons learned. If your framing isn’t perfect it’s ok, there’s drywall. If your drywall install isn’t a work if art don’t worry there is mud, tape and joint compound. If your mudding and taping isn’t up to par don’t worry, I have good news, there is sanding. But also bad news, there is sanding. Lots and lots and lots of sanding. And just when you think you’re done there is more. I probably did more than I needed to since texturing seems to cover a lot but it was still a lot of work. Like a lot. I’m not doing that again.
5. Texturing. Oh how I wish this was on film. The sprayer had a bad seal to the hopper so the mix was leaking out a little. Then it was leaking a lot. Then it moved on to ridiculous. I was literally running through the house to apply the texture before it leaked out everywhere. Such a mess. It was on the gun, the floor, the applicator (as in me) it was everywhere. About 30 min into this comedy show I stopped and said to myself “self! This is not how this tool was designed to work. You are clearly not doing this right. Stop and reset you damn moron.” So I did. I cleaned up and started again. And what do you know I didn’t attach the hopper correctly the first time. Comedy show over, no more leaks, slow and smoot texture application. I was making some amazing progress though during the first go round.
6. I started cleaning. Cleaning!! Woo hoo! Why am I so excited about cleaning? BC after cleaning comes paint and flooring and major visual progress. Maybe the end isn’t in sight yet but the idea of the end is starting to form.
7. Gutters go in today. I am putting in super sexy black gutters. Plan on doing a grey and black paint scheme when done. Maybe some white in there too. Should really pop! I know I know, Florida and black? Shhhhhhhh. Just don’t think about it. Fashion is painful ok. Work with me here people!

Sanding. Joy. Good times for the while fam.

Fancy new slider!  Also you can see the door closed up here

@Andre Taylor even if you pay cash traditional lenders require you to own the property for 6 months before a cash out refi on the property. However if you have the cash you can do delayed financing which is the purchase price plus rehab all paid at close. It’s a lot more complicated than that but that’s what BP is for.

@John Cornelius I recently purchased a brand new home in Summerfield which is literally across the street from the villages. It was $175k and is rented out for $1500. Nothing fancy here though. 20% down, no repairs or forced equity. But it's cash flow positive after capex, vacancy and PM fees. Also no HOA where I bought. There seem to be a mix of old and new homes in that area I bought so you could probably find something to BRRRR or at least force some equity in.

Oct 30th Update

1. 1. Shower is done! I mean done enough to say done. Stop nit picking here guys. Just have to install the fixtures. I had the awesome good old boy doing the tile. He liked my country music I played while I worked. You could here him sing along.
2. The year is 2389. I'm still drywalling. Never again, never, ever, never again. Not ever (will I eat green eggs and drywall). I am not patient and this is REALLY trying my patience. Taping and mudding takes fffoooooorrreeeevvvveeerrrrrrr. So many steps, and they are basically just the same thing over and over until you either make it look nice or lose your ish. I am pretty close to the later. Just to make my life more interesting the walls are ¼” drywall and then like ½’ plaster. So you either double up the drywall or slather on the spackle. Ill just leave it up to the imagination what I am doing. Anyway, I'm in the “make it look perfect (haha perfect, yeah right) or good enough” stage. I figure 2 more days of sanding and coating. Then texture and paint!
3. 2. Kitchen demo started. Really opens up the place and looks awesome. However they removed a load bearing wall and didn't support the ceiling. There was a 4” sag when I got there at the end of the day. Was pretty nerve wracking. I immediately put up some support columns. I called the contractor and gave them a WTF and they tried to convince me it was just drywall sagging. Um, no. I mean how do you even leave the house with a huge sag in the ceiling and think to yourself “yeah, that looks fine, its miller time.” There was some back and forth for a while but we got it straightened out (or leveled out, Bahahaha I'm hilarious) and they are going to have things well supported once they are finished.
4. 3. Its time for Tim BRRRR to take a TimBRRRReak! I have been going 7 days a week on this for 5-6 weeks now. And I also have a full time job. I'm pretty burnt out and drywall finesse is not calming me. I have the next 1.5ish weeks off from this due to work travel and a bachelor party. Oh man, I have to take a break b/c of a bachelor party, damn. Hopefully the ceiling doesn't fall down while I'm gone!

That should buff right out....

October24th update

1. 1. Roof install started. It’s a roof, not that exciting other than my Florida room wont leak anymore. Its also really expensive to put a new one in.  No pic of this one.
2. 2. Well repairs were completed (for the 3rd time). I drank the most delicious, most expensive water ever yesterday. My suggestion is if you are buying in Titusville FL steer clear of any house with a well. I didn’t. Oh well, you live and learn (see what I did there)
3. 3. Shower rebuild started. I hired this part out b/c Im not a machine and cant do a $70k rehab completely myself. And Im glad I did b/c after the cement board went in there was a leak the next day. I just smiled, took a pic and sent it to the contractor. He was out the next day to fix it. No damage to the house as it was a small leak and the floor is all concrete now anyway
4. 4.  I learned how to drywall and then completed the 4th room I added. Drywall sucks. Its not like putting up framing. For drywall once you’re done with one side there is a whole additional side waiting for you. Total BS man.  Oh and you have to drywall the inside of a closet.  Felt like a total waste of time.  I almost didnt do it but then the wife stepped in and let me know I would in fact be doing it.  Next up is taping it all. Im not great with finish work so this should be interesting. Not great meaning Im impatient and drywall finish work is like 5 steps and 5 days. The opposite of work I like to do.
5. 5.  Electrical panel went in. No pic, no excitement, not cheap, no bueno.
6. 6. We started painting. For the 3rd time. I still don’t like the color but I give up. That’s the final color of the house. 1 room down, 64 to go. Perhaps Im exaggerating here.
7. 7. Things are about to pick up. Shower is getting tiled this week, next week the kitchen remodel starts, painting, drywall finishing, roofing oh my!

Oct 13th update

Ladies and gentlemen I present to you the devil switch.  This switch is evil.  It serves no other purpose than to mess with a new homeowner.  This A-hole of a switch turns the power off to all the outlets as well as switches located in the garage.  The converted garage mind you which is more of a FL room.  Its FILLED with outlets and switches.  Why would this switch exist?  What is its purpose?  Why is it located 2 rooms away over the hot water heater?  These are all great questions that have no great answers.  After literally an hour of troubleshooting why there was no power going to the garage I finally traced the source back to the devil switch.  I have since labeled it so no one else has to go through the misery that I did today.  I also did a bunch of other stuff today but that switch is really all I can think about. 

Oct 12th update

1. Started framing in the 4th bedroom. Adding the 4th for ARV and rent increase. Since I have never done framing before this is really slow going. But no worries, its not like its Saturday and I'm burning my weekend on this. There are doors and electrical in the walls too. I know, doors. I'm really going all out with this rehab! I don't have a framing gun so I am using screws. I thought this was going to be a pain but it has actually wound up to be a real blessing. Because screws are better you ask??? Ha, no. Because screws can be backed out just as easily as they are put in. And around the 4th time I built and then tore down the wall I really started to appreciate those screws. Oh and guess what doing something for the first time means?? New Tools!!!! Woo Hoo! If you don't get excited about new tools then rehab is not for you my friend. Got a sweet new mitre saw. It's awesome. Anyway. I only got some of the wall up. I need to put down some self leveler tomorrow as there is an uneven mess that needs attention.

2. I went in the attic this morning, ya know when it was only 194 degrees in there since I live in FL.  Anyway I am seriously reconsidering any future electrical work up there.  There is only about 2 ft of clearance and after about 45 min up there I was questioning exactly what life choices had brought me to my current circumstance or who I pissed of in my former life.  But then I found a flashlight that someone left up there back in 1972 or so and it pretty much made it all worth it.  At least that's what I told myself so I would stop crying.  So long story long, the uncentered ceiling fan bothers me a whole lot less than it did before I low crawled the attic this morning.

3. Our master bath vanity was delivered.  It came in a crate that looked like a mummy was inside.  Meaning it was HUGE.  The delivery guys let me know it was too big and they weren't going to be able to get it in the house.  I countered with, cool story bro, it's coming inside and you are putting it there.  Oh and here on the contract it clearly states you will deliver inside the threshold of the house.  Magically it all of a sudden became possible to get it in the house.  Go figure.  

Update Oct 8, 2019

I took a night off. After 3 weeks of 7days in a row work on the house I actually took a night off.  The wife and I had a nice date night dinner.  And of course afterwards we went to lowes to look at tile.  Shes a total keeper.  Which is good since were married.  The lowes trip was a total jackpot too.  We found a backsplash for the kitchen marked 90% off!!  It was a great night.  

I did a cash out refi on my primary to pay for the purchase and a hard money loan for the rehab.