Rehabbing - Posted by Marcos

Posted by ecb on September 11, 2004 at 22:32:29:

Marcos:

Sounds like an OK idea to me. While you are trying to carve up a niche for yourself (rehab for investors), I would suspect that you’ll actually become a contractor for all types of repairs.

However, if you can think of a way to market yourself solely to investors, you may have an idea. For me, timing is critical on a rehab – the taxes, insurance, and, if applicable, loan payments need to be made and I have an asset (the house) that is not rentable. Therefore, to control my costs and improve my profit (assuming I intend to sell), I need the contractors in and out.

Good luck to you.

ecb

Rehabbing - Posted by Marcos

Posted by Marcos on September 11, 2004 at 17:06:29:

I am trying to start a small company that does rehabbing for investors. A small crew so to speak, with a creative way of being paid. My question is: does this sound like a good idea? I mean does anyone think they would use a company like this or do most investors prefer to do it themselves?

Re: Rehabbing - Posted by jasonrei

Posted by jasonrei on September 12, 2004 at 21:08:34:

I don’t do the work on my rehabs, but I sub most of it out. I cut checks (actually, my rehab manager does) to about 5-8 different trades depending on the job.
Foundation, AC, plumbing, electrical, roofer, framers, sheetrock/texture/painters, flooring, etc. Man, maybe it’s more than 10!

Anyway, I’ve never used a GC, but am not opposed to it, it’s just it seems I can get much cheaper work going the sub route.

Your business idea is a potentially good one, IMO.

Re: Rehabbing - Posted by Than

Posted by Than on September 12, 2004 at 19:43:37:

There are positives and negatives to this…one is that you can crank out jobs if you get hooked up with an investor who wants the same thing out of his rehabs every time so it is predictable and quick. The negative is that investors are very cheap (most of the time) so you can charge them retail prices like you can if you do jobs for retail homeowners.

Re: Rehabbing - Posted by Steve (Austin, TX)

Posted by Steve (Austin, TX) on September 11, 2004 at 23:11:11:

I use contractors, lets me focus on finding the next deal. Others do the work themselves.

However, depending where you are, you need to look into your states licensing requirements (I’m in Texas, there is no general contractors license here, but certain skills like electricions have to be licensed). You may also want to look at General Liability insurance and/or being bonded, as well as builders risk, depending on what you have planned.

Of course, that all depends on what services you are offering - full service rehabbing, or the above is probably overkill if all you are doing is clean, paint and carpets…