Catching Up

I’ve been slacking off on posting here but the work has been continuing. The roof on the house started last week. It of course poured the day they started. It kind of worried me but since there was nothing I could do I didn’t even go out to check on it until this morning because I had to go put a lock box on the door so my handyman could get in to start his work. The roof is going slower than expected but it looked to be about 80% done and I did talk to the roofer today and he thinks it will be wrapped up tomorrow. I’m not on a tight timeline so that is fine. Painters are scheduled to come in Monday at that house. I’ll just have to check with the handyman that all the drywall work will be completed. He thought it would only be a day or two. As long as its done by the weekend I’ll be fine. I heard from my lawyer today and I’ve got an eviction hearing set for Nov. 15 so that is progressing as well. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of work that house ends up needing after the eviction is completed. I’m almost positive it will need a new doorknob since I don’t even have a key to get in the house. Besides that in the other two houses the paint and carpets are all done. They both need a little bit of cleaning up – some interior doors and fixtures to replace. Scrub up the bathrooms and kitchens and they should be all set to rent. Time to find a management company to deal with that.

The Last Puzzle Pieces

I finally got ahold of my handyman today. He said he can start next Wednesday and it should only take a day or two to get all the work done. I’m meeting with painters tomorrow to do a walk through of the two houses they completed and I’m hoping to get them scheduled to do the last house starting the Monday after next. If they can wrap everything up in one day I might actually have all my repairs done by Nov 1.

Stoves

This morning before work I swung by the house that the roofers are starting on tomorrow to make sure all the breakers were off so they utilities company could turn the power on. The main breaker was off but everything else was on. I’m sure it would have been fine, but I turned everything off. Tonight I picked up a couple stoves I found on Craigslist. It turned into a bit of a fiasco when one fell over in the truck and shattered the front glass, but fortunately we bought it from some guys who are running a used appliance operation and they were able to get it fixed up. I might end up buying fridges from them too since I haven’t had much response to my Craigslist inquiries about those. If nothing else I’ve got them as a last resort if I can’t find anything cheaper between now and the carpets being completed at the end of the week.

Papa Needs a New Roof

And I’m going to get one.  I signed the proposal for the roofer today and we met at Home Depot to pick out shingle colors.  My new roof is going to be Slate (not real slate just the color)!  Power is scheduled to be turned on at the house tomorrow and he is supposed to start on Tuesday and says he’ll be done by the end of the week.  I called my handyman again to hopefully get him slotted in right behind the roofer or even at the same time if the weather is nice.  I just don’t want him to get new drywall up and then have it get leaked on again because it’s raining and the new roof isn’t quite done.  But since I haven’t even heard back from him yet I kind of doubt it’s going to move that fast.  No new appliances yet.  I couldn’t get organized with my buddy with the pickup early enough today.  I did finally get ahold of him so we’re planning for a Monday evening pick up but I need to coordinate that with the seller still and he  hasn’t replied to my email yet.

No More Estimates

I got an estimate for the roof emailed to me today.  It’s from a roofer recommended by some folks at my real estate group and he had the best price I’ve seen yet.  I offered him the job and he says he can start on Tuesday.  I think that should be the last of the estimates I need for these three houses.  Everything else should just be scheduling – the handyman after the roofers and then having the painters come in last.  I fear the handyman is going to be the weak link in that but I’m hopeful it could all be done by the end of the month.  If the handyman is booked out that far I may need to find an alternative for getting the drywall work done.  Besides upcoming contractor scheduling I need to buy my appliances.  I contacted all the craigslist sellers who replied back to me so far and have one tentative purchase lined up but I need to arrange a truck with my buddy before I can go get it.

Almost Done

The painter called me first thing in the morning on Friday to inform that they had no water at the second house they were starting on that morning.  I could have told them that in advance.  Even better I could have gotten it turned on if anyone had told me I needed to.  Oh well, the delay’s not my fault and I’m sure it’s a hassle for them but doesn’t seem to cause too major of a delay.  I got an email at the end of the day – they should be wrapping up by middle of the day on Saturday.  A little longer than they had planned but that’s not a problem for me.  I also got the quote from my carpet guy for the two houses.  It came in right about where I expected and he said he could start next Thursday, so he should be starting on Thursday.  I assume it’ll be one house per day, which hopefully means flooring will be all done by next Friday night.  Hopefully by the end of next weekend both houses will be totally ready to rent.  I started getting replies to my craigslist inquiries about stoves and fridges.  So if I can round up enough appliances during the week, I”ll stash them at my house and then do all the installations next weekend along with other little fixes I plan on doing myself.

The Real Work Has Begun

The painters got started today. It wasn’t without its problems unfortunately. The house they started in needs some wallpaper removed and it turns out they need water for that. The estimator never told me that and never inquired about water availability, and since these have been vacant houses the water is of course shut off. So they’re a little behind the eight ball now. But apparently the whole house is painted except for that one bathroom where the wallpaper is. They say they’ll have the other house and the remaining bathroom all completed tomorrow. Besides that I got a couple more quotes from roofers and scheduled a couple more roofing estimates. Hopefully someone will be hired for the job in the first half of next week. I also started the hunt for “new” appliances on Craigslist. In the two houses being painted right now, I could probably get by with the appliances that are there right now, but they’re going to look pretty ratty when all the paint and flooring is completed, so I’m looking to pick up some gently used more modern appliances in the next week or two to replace what’s there. Lots of emails have been sent inquiring about stoves and fridges. Let the Craigslist dance begin.

Quiet Day

Not much going on today. Stayed late at work playing catch up after my day off yesterday. I got the signed the proposal faxed back to the painters and confirmed they will be starting tomorrow. My carpet guy called and confirmed he was going out to do the estimates on the two houses. I’ve got a pile of phone calls I need to return so that’s high on the priority list for tomorrow. Hopefully the painting goes smoothly the next couple of days. Keeping my fingers crossed…

We Have a Painter!

What a crazy day! I was supposed to take the morning off to meet an HVAC repair guy at my personal house, then meet a painter to get another estimate, and finally go see my CPA to do my taxes before heading back to work. Well, I never made it to work today. HVAC guy was supposed to come at 8:30 but when I called at 9:00 his office manager informed me it was on the calendar for 9:30. So now 9:30 was double booked because that’s when I was supposed to meet the painter. So I called the painter and told him what was happening and he agreed to meet whenever I was free. At that point I knew the CPA was a lost cause so I called and rescheduled that to the last opening they had in the afternoon. After the AC was fixed I went to meet the painter. It was supposed to be a quick estimate but ended up lasting close to three hours. After estimating the first house and realizing that he was going to be extremely competitive on price (which from our phone conversation I really didn’t think was going to happen) we had to go do the other two houses and we kind of hit it off and ended up shooting the breeze talking about his franchise business and my real estate investing. Long story short he was just a few hundred dollars more expensive than the cheapest bid I had so far and he can get started this week. So I gave him the job right there. 2 houses are supposed to be painted by the end of Friday. The third house needs a new roof and some drywall work before it can be painted so that one will be dependent on the other contractors. So with the painter set, I scheduled the power to be turned on at those two houses tomorrow and I called up my carpet guy and he’ll be coming out to do an estimate on Wednesday as well. Since I can’t keep missing work days, I put lockboxes on those two houses and all the service people can come and go without me needing to be around, so hopefully that will require a bit less of my time that way. Definitely a good day. It looks like I should have the two houses being painted ready to turn over to a rental agency to find some tenants by the end of the month. If I had tenants in place by the middle of November I would be super excited.

Monday, Monday

I’m a smidge behind on the postings here so this one is for Monday. Monday morning I went to meet the guy who I hired on Sunday to mow the lawns at at three of the houses. We agreed to meet at the last house he was mowing that morning because he had mowed the wrong yard the night before. So before meeting him I went to inspect the work at the other two houses first and discovered that at one of them he had only mowed half of the backyard. The other house was fine. So I met him at third house where he was wrapping up the mowing job and that one was fine too. I told him about the botched backyard and that he needed to mow all the way back to the treeline which is the property line. He quickly offered to go back to the house and fix it. So I paid him for half the job there and we agreed to meet after work. After work was a series of no shows. One by a painter who was supposed to give an estimate – a no show was bound to happen and this was my day. The other one, I realized today, was by me. A roofer was coming out to look at the house and while I don’t need to be there for him to take measurements I realized belatedly that I had agreed to meet him there because he wanted to. I’ll have to figure out if he is going to quote the job anyways. After the no shows I met with lawn mower man and paid him for the rest of the job since he had cleaned up the half completed lawn. Not a bad day, and I’m glad that the two really overgrown yards have been taken care of.