Property Rehab: Fixer-Upper and Construction Talk

There are a great many articles out there for homeowners with instructions for renovations that pay for themselves and increase the ultimate resale value of a home. One of those articles recently published at NuWire.com discussed specific remodel items that provide the best return for the investment. All of this of course applies to the investor as well, as they will eventually be selling the property. However, there’s more to it, and it’s about appealing to renters and getting top dollar for monthly rent.

As you build your Power Team you may want to have several questions that you ask each potential member.

There is not an exact script to interview your Banker, but here are several questions you can consider asking your Banker:

1. What types of mortgage/loan products do you have for investors

2. Do you have a seasoning requirement? If so, how long is that requirement?

3. What percentage amount will you loan based on loan to value?

4. Will you base loans on the appraised after repaired value rather than the purchase price plus repairs?

5. What is the total loan aggregate amount you will loan to each investor?

6. How quickly can you above a mortgage, refinance, etc?

As you build your Power Team you may want to have several questions that you ask each potential member. There is not an exact script to interview your Real Estate Attorney, but here are several questions you can consider asking your Attorney:

1. How long have you practiced real estate law within the state?

2. How many real estate cases do you normally handle per year?

3. Can you briefly tell me about some recent real estate issues you handled?

4. Do you charge a flat fee for reviewing or preparing real estate purchase agreements? If so, what is that fee?

5. For other real estate needs what is your bill structure?

6. Who else in your office would I work with real estate issues and what is there hourly bill rate?

As you build your Power Team you may want to have several questions that you ask each potential member.

There is not an exact script to interview your Realtor, but here are several questions you can consider asking your Realtors:

1. Do you work with real estate investors?

2. Do you own investment property yourself?

3. Which markets in the local area are the most appealing to investors today?

4. What are the best areas for buy, fix and flips - BFFs?

5. What are the best areas for buy and hold rental type of properties?

As you build your Power Team you may want to have several questions that you ask each potential member.

There is not an exact script to interview your Property Manager, but here are several questions you can consider asking your Property Manager Candidates:

1. What local areas do you manage properties in?

2. What is the average length of time it takes you to fill a vacancy?

3. How many vacancies do you have right now?

4. How many total units do you manage?

5. How do you advertise your units to find qualified tenants?

6. How do you screen prospective tenants?

7. Do you ever offer incentives to rent units? If so please explain.

8. What percentage of your tenants pay the rent late? How do you handle this? Please explain late fees, etc?

As you build your Power Team you may want to have several questions that you ask each potential member.

This series that we are starting should help you get on track to ask some questions that are very important to you as each of you build your Power Teams. So, please feel free to add more questions to each of the upcoming discussion strings to share and help others along the way.

There is not an exact script to interview your CPA, Certified Public Accountant, but here are several questions you can consider asking your CPA:

1. Do they work with many real estate clients?

2. Can they give you an example of how they recently helped save money for a real estate investor?

3. Do they open all year round and not just tax time?

Hello

What are some great questions to ask a general contractor?

Thank you

I found a really awesome article that talked about the benefits of either fixing a roof, or just redoing the roof in general. I really think some good points are brought up in this article. I will actually post a few of them separately cause It makes for easier reading cause the article is pretty lengthy. Here is an interesting Highlight.

By Joe Provey - Yahoo Real Estate:
A new roof — cheaper in the long term?

As I was doing research on remodel projects that would give you the best bang for your dollar I found a good article that gave me some good ideas. A few of the ideas really help the curb appeal of a property, and a few of the ideas will give you a big upgrade in the house itself and will boost the value of the property at the same time. It was a short article and an easy read and I hope you like it like I did.
By Joanne Y. Cleaver

Sorry if this question is redundant but I haven't found the answer yet.

If I'm wholesaling a property to a rehabber and I have to calculate the repair costs in order to come up with an offer, how do I do that? Do I need to bring a contractor into the seller's house to give me an estimate before I make an offer, or do I guess what it will cost, make the offer, then bring in a contractor to get the actual amounts? Is there a formula based on square footage of a kitchen or bath to determine approximately what it will cost to update it, and do I need to price out materials to come up with this number?

I know there's alot of questions here so any insight on this subject is appreciated.