All Forum Posts by: Aaron Z.
Aaron Z. has started 4 posts and replied 82 times.
Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Originally posted by @Jesse Jesttes:
Only take out what you need to perform the work stay away from footings and interior columns ,
Use a pump type bug sprayer to spray whatever your spraying
Hint copper green
You can dilute with mineral spirits
One to one
Don't forget to Wear protective clothing,throw away type tyvek suite and the proper respirator.
Also if you do have active termites forget what you read and hire a fumigator.
Do all repairs through the subfloor and interior walls drywall work is cheap .
Your welcome
Jesse, I've got a termite treatment warranty so I won't be doing that myself, I just want to get him full access to the crawl...honestly i want to know the full condition of the joists as well since there are active termites I'm trying to get rid of. I'll be sure to spell out the precautions you've spelled out so that he doesn't cause any structural problems by his digging. Thanks again.
Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Originally posted by @John Wanberg:
Aaron - what is the foundation made of, and do you know what type? Where is the water-table in the area? How is the condition of the foundation? All of these are pretty important questions... Most foundations (in my area at least) are called "strip footings." This is basically just a block of concrete poured directly into a trench, so that the weight of the house sits directly on "un-disturbed" soil. If this is the case with your house, then digging the crawl space down is not an issue... as long as you only do it in the center of the space, away from where the foundation is bearing on the un-disturbed soil. On the other hand, bigger buildings tend to be built on caissons with "grade beams" - so that the building itself sits directly on bedrock. As long as the bottom level is not a floating slab, you can dig to until the building is sitting on bare rock and not affect its stability.
In terms of water intrusion... this is related to the water table and grade of your yard (and soil type) more than the crawl space elevation. If you live in an area with a really high water table, so that digging down 6" causes a hole to fill with water, then maybe don't do it. On the other hand, if your yard drains back toward the house, you will get water intrusion from surface runoff. In most cases, water does not percolate very quickly through soil, so a normal rain-storm will inundate the top 6" of soil, and then the rest of the water will become surface runoff, going into rivers and eventually to the ocean. In soils with a high clay content, it can take months or even years for water to percolate even 1" (which is why clay is used to line landfills... keep that trash juice away from me!).
So I guess the answer is... it depends. Stay away from your foundation and any support columns, control water, and generally you will be fine.
Very detailed response. Thank you. The footer is poured concrete, not sure if it is original (~100 years old) or to what specs it was poured to, but the standard now is 8 inches deep and 16 inches wide, about 2 feet below grade. Then there is a course or maybe 2 courses of cinder block on top of that. The house was fully rehabbed about 12 years ago (down to the studs)...not sure why they didn't jack up the house and add another course of block...probably cutting costs.
The weight of the house sits on the footing which sits on undisturbed soil. I haven't been under there but I will definitely have the digging crew avoid getting too close to the footer/block foundation or near any piers that might be under there. The footprint of the house is pretty small - only 1400sf, 2 story and the house is about 22 feet wide.
Water table isn't close to the surface, though the house is only 15 feet above sea level and less than 1/2 mile from the water in the inlet to the ocean. The back yard really doesn't "drain in any direction...it fills up by a few inches when it rains and then just percolates into the ground in a matter of hours. My fear is that I might be encouraging water to run under the house, but I'm leaning toward believing that won't be an issue...
Thanks again for your feedback.
Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Post: Deepening a very shallow crawl space?
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Post: My 12 year old bought his first house
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Post: Is Bigger Pockets RUNING the ability to househack?
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Post: High School Senior trying to learn the Basics
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Post: Why are mortgages so expensive?
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Originally posted by @Jose Corbera:
Hi All,
I'm about to purchase my first home with the intent to rent it out in due time. The cost of the home is 225k with 3.5% down. My monthly principal and interest is 1054.72, but when including hoa fees and the other misc. fees it will come close to $1895 per month. My loan is locked in at a 4% interest rate over 30 years.
Are mortgages this expensive? Essentially, I will be paying almost $379700.99 for a home that costs 225k. So the true cost of the loan will be about 158k when all is said and done?! Is it just me or does anyone else find this ludicrous? Maybe because it's my first time buying and I feel that I am getting buyer's remorse I may be overreacting.
Lastly, would it be better to buy a cheaper place or is all just relative to what is being bought?
Any advice would be much obliged?
Thank you ,
Jose
Jose, that's awesome that you are about to jump in to RE, but I'd recommend looking at this as an investment that you will live in temporarily and therefore evaluate it as such initially. If the highest rent you can charge is 21-2200 after your improvement and your payment is $1900, you are going to have a thin cushion when expenses arise. Repairs, vacancy, capitol expenditures for things that will need to be replaced every 10,20,30 years, all need to be accounted for over a long period and then determine what you need to be setting aside each month to cover these. I think you'll find that you'll be losing money every month.
To your question, yes, in absolute dollar amounts, mortgages are expensive..i.e. 158k expensive in this case, but there are lots of ways that they allow you to get ahead if used properly so think of it as spending money to make money. As long as you can make more than you are spending then its a win for you.
Post: ROI vs Cash Flow Confusion on first purchase
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Post: ROI vs Cash Flow Confusion on first purchase
- Investor
- Virginia Beach, VA
- Posts 83
- Votes 34
Originally posted by @Brian H.:
Hey all! So I am analyzing multiple possible deals for my first buy-and-hold purchase. It is exciting but nerveracking. The main piece that is causing me to stop and question is ROI vs. Cash Flow.
Example:
So I have a home that will generate $102/month in cash flow and that gets me an ROI of 15%. So, the cash flow is not that high but the ROI is still 15%. That's good, right? Obviously this is a lower priced house, and I am taking EVERYTHING into account interms of expenses, initial costs, closing costs, etc.
Or, I have another home I am looking at that may generate about $150/month but that ROI is about 8%. So, higher cash flow but the ROI is almost half of the other. Little pricier house, so my initial downpayment is higher but it has higher cash flow...
My confusion lies in the decision making when it comes to these sorts of numbers. I have about four homes I am looking at...
Thanks!
Hey Brian. If I were looking at 100/mo cashflow I wouldn't want any money tied up in the property, i.e. I'd need to BRRR and pull everything out plus some...meaning I'd have a great ROI because I'd have nothing invested...
On the other hand, if a SFR yielded 1300/mo cashflow, I might be happy with as low as a 10% ROI because of the absolute dollar amount returned for my amount of effort.
Where you fall on this spectrum also depends largely on how much capitol you have to work with and where you are in life with respect to your goals. Are you in the early stages of building an empire where you want to save capitol? Or are you in the later stages where you want to minimize your hassle factor and put large amounts of capitol to work with a minimal amount of effort?
In your case it sounds like you'd be best served by keeping a close hold on your capitol and aiming for high ROI's. Best of luck!