In the short-term rental riches will discuss investing in real estate with a specific focus on short term rentals quick actionable items to wire. Scale your portfolio I’m your host Tim Hubbard.

Welcome back to the short-term rental riches podcast where we talk about real estate but usually with a focus on short term rentals today is more just about real estate in general and something that you are going to have to deal with one way or another at some point in your real estate career almost everyone will have to either improve their property or deal with maintenance it’s just part of the game and along with that we have to deal with contractors are the people doing the work and I’ve dealt with a lot of contractors in my day I mean I had to guess at like 100 or 150 or something you know I don’t even know I. N. in multiple cities across the U. S. and outside of the U. S. down in Columbia where where I’ve been living so I’ve learned a lot and I want to give you guys just some tips today some things to consider and some things just to make the process easier and to know that you’re not getting ripped off which happens far too often unfortunately I was just talking with a buddy recently and he was telling me about his grandmother getting the new H. fax system new AC and it was like $21000 or something like that this is for a residential home and not to mention anything like that you know pretty normal home and he said you paid what gramma $21000 so they stopped they stopped that deal right there already they ended up getting a different company to finish the job for like 78 her box or something like that which is about the right price for that job the old company was so embarrassed or worried for their reputation which should be. Bad anyways that they just laugh they just left the equipment there but this stuff happens all the time and I’ll give you an example of one that I just came across myself about first I just wanna give you some tips for getting good estimates and the biggest thing in getting a good estimate of the contractor. Is it we just have to know what type of work they’re doing that’s when most people get taken advantage of when they have no clue what’s entailed in the job so the more you asked your contractors or maintenance people or whoever’s helping you the more you gonna learn and we have the benefit today to I mean we can figure out what ever we want to know in a pretty quick amount of time it doesn’t take a long time we can jump on you tube and you know what it what does it take to change a water heater for example you can watch a 5 minute video and you can get an idea that way we can learn whatever we want and the the second piece to getting those good estimates is just getting multiple bids multiple last month and in that process you’re going to learn more about the work that you’re doing if you’re not already familiar with it so that’s another way it’s just gonna happen naturally and I highly highly recommend getting multiple bids but also leading the the people that are giving you the bids know that you are getting more than one that way they know that you’re savvy and you’re comparing and you want to get the best deal which doesn’t always mean the least amount of money by the way the quality of the work and the price of the work is not directly related a third thing. They can help you is just to break out the labor and materials on the bid this is gonna be different for different types of jobs some jobs are just labor base for example like pressure washing the building or something like that but if you’re doing in addition or your doing a big plumbing job or bathroom remodel this gonna have lots of materials so if your contractor whoever you’re working with can break those out for you that’ll give you a little better idea so really the goal behind getting a good asked man is just. You got to know a little bit about the job you’re doing and do a little bit of research and that will help you get a good estimate now once we have a good **** man and we decide we want to work with I’ve got some tips on working with the contractors to because depending on how big the job is I mean especially if it’s a big remodel or something I mean you’re gonna be talking to these people as a company it often you need a good relationship with them and you want to maintain a good one so that’s really really important but the first piece after you decide to go someone is just get that job in writing even if it’s a small job just send them a text message that says you’re gonna start at this time are on this date this is the amount these are the items were covering ideally you have you know an invoice or something like that that really has it spelled out but if it’s something small at least get it in a tax message and that way if the job takes longer than expected or it’s a long job to begin with you don’t get to the end and you guys both forgot what you agreed on so that’s the easiest thing and it makes it super clear for both sides so that there’s no confusion going forward. Where intermission thank you so much for listen in the podcast it’s been fun for me and I look forward to getting up so it’s out if you have a specific topic that you’d like us to talk about send us a comment and let us know you can send it to contact at rest methods.com and if you haven’t already subscribed and given us a review that would be greatly appreciated too and lastly if you know someone that you think would find benefit in this as well send it on over to help us keep growing and help us to get amazing content back to you without further ado let’s jump back in. I don’t pay too much up front so if the job cost $10000 in your contractors asking you for 75 percent up front. That that’s too much that doesn’t you know right now course every jobs different again if this is like a labor only type of job are primarily labor then you don’t need to give us much money up front if it’s a roof job for example which requires a lot of materials then giving 50 percent up front or something like that you know that’s pretty standard and you will learn this as you’re talking with a different contractors to it’s one of the things you want to ask him if it’s a big job how much do I need to pay up front and so on and so on so don’t tell him that you know they always ask when you want to get the job done and if you tell him. You don’t really have a deadline arm you know like you’re not in a hurry. It’s probably never going to get done a lot of contractors you know they do they prioritize their work and if you don’t have a set deadline or anything like that then they may leave your job and go work on someone else’s job that’s maybe paying more or that’s more number a hurry and so you’re gonna get away behind any of that that’s just such a big thing about renovations and construction. They always take longer than we expect them to unless you’re you know flip in 500 houses a year and you have an excellent team that you work with you have a pretty darn good idea how long it’s gonna take but if you’re doing a few projects here in a few projects there you know for the first time home development or something like that the stuff always takes longer there’s always unknown so set a date something that you’re kind of firm on just make sure that that’s something they’d work with Saddam Tom you’re not in a hurry or you know I’m a deadline. I can remember is this this relationship so if it’s a bigger job. Then. Treat each other fairly you want to you know it’s a big piece of the job changes make sure you guys work something out reasonably in especially if you’re in this for the long run like I am and like I hope you are or will be if you’re not invest in real estate already you’re in this for the long run and you want to have a good relationship with good contractors that you trust so you can use them in the future so just remember it is a relationship it doesn’t just come down to the terms of the deal you know there’s that there’s another piece to it. There is an example for me I’m I am renovating a commercial property right now which is new to me I you guys know I you know short term rentals is a big focus of mine because we can make crazy crazy returns but I’ve got long term rentals and I’ve got a commercial property that I’m working on now and I’ve never done a commercial property it’s got 5 it’s a real small retail strip center plan to put a laundromat to the units and the other ones I don’t know what I’m gonna do with yet but it’s a different type of roof I’ve never worked with these roofs before and so I learned a ton and I got a lot of bits because it’s a big job I alternately settled with with someone I’m adds 31000 Bucks to change this roof now most all these people are using the same materials but I can tell you I think I got 4 bids maybe 5. This job fluctuated like tens of thousands of dollars for the same job same materials that I have been writing so make sure you get multiple bids and I got this specific river from referral who’s done a lot of research with themselves that’s that’s a big key not just taking the lowest price but going with someone that you trust that you hopefully have references from especially if it’s a big job in regards to finding these contractors referrals I mean I think referrals is one of the best ways because you’re hearing from someone that you trust and they had a good experience with them you can also find contractors on like home adviser now which all have reviews which are essentially like a referral you know that’s a good thing that we have now but if you’re looking for someone just to help out with lots of things all the time you know go to your home depot go to your lotus got go like on a Friday evening or something you know and if you can you can just just wait there in the parking lot that that’s for contractors coming away in like the contracting pro area where people have their reserved parking spots and stuff like that and just talk to some of the people going in and most the time they’re professional they’re gonna have advertisements on the trucker their van so that’s a good way to do it referrals are just driving around the area where your property is asked. That can be a good way to do it too and then at least you know that they already work in the area so those are just a few things you know just make sure you know what your job especially if it’s a big job get it in writing and get multiple bids because they range big time and when you’re working with your contractors just remember it you want to have a good relationship hopefully you’re in this for the long run you can use them going forward in the future and they if they are good contractors they can also refer you to friends of theirs that maybe specialize in another trade Sir member that you work well with them they give you referrals to people that they’ve worked with and trust as well and that can be a great source to sell you’re doing a project just remember these things the cool thing about doing a lot of this construction is once we do it it’s done you know it’s done for a while but if you don’t do this right now you don’t consider some of these things this is the biggest stress point and real estate it has been for me it’s where people go over budget it takes way longer than expected and it’s just our man A. K. A. it can be stressful if you’re not working with the right people so remember prices not always correlated with quality sometimes people that a charge good prices still do just as good quality as the other ones hopefully that helps you know hopefully you’re not getting stressed out with any contractors are working with right now until next time have wonderful day. Want to get on the fast track to financial freedom through short term rentals what all searching the properties you. You want to make sure that you acquire the right properties I want to give you my. Yes that there is no charge to you for being one of our subscribers just go to rest methods.com R. E. S. T.. methods.com.

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