Quick Progress Report: Building an Apartment out of Living Rooms – Landlording TV – #21

Over the Thanksgiving Break, we TORE through construction on the second apartment all weekend long. This was our first night after spending all day shopping for deals. We saved over $200 on appliances thanks to the Black Friday deals, as well as crazy savings on strategically shopping for a bathroom vanity, faucets and other miscellaneous parts. We built out and plumbed our kitchen sink which will be separate How-To episodes coming out shortly!

Landlord Lessons:

• Set aside a full day for shopping for parts by comparing stores. The amount of savings you will receive is staggering.
• Take advantage of 18-24 month interest free payments; just be SURE to pay them off BEFORE the interest is accumulated and tacked on!
• Bribe family members and significant others for cheap and skilled labor! – Sell them on “working off” their holiday calories!

Watch a very typical day in preparing an apartment to get it ready for showings in one of Justin Palma’s apartments in Troy, NY, where the Tenant was freshly evicted!

• The Motto: Clean, Repair, Replace! Go Cheapest first always, replacing everything is a great way to lose money fast in Rentals.
• Carpet Cleaning – Always try Steam Cleaning carpets first, before replacing. A lot of the time, that is all that is necessary to make the rental shine.
• Painting – Justin appreciates expensive paints in his homes, but in Rentals, its always best to give it a quick cheap coat of a neutral color. ALWAYS use the same color throughout all your properties so you can buy in bulk! Buy a 5 gallon bucket of the cheapest paint you can find and store it for use later. Also later, if only 1 or 2 rooms needs a coat the paint will still match.
• Sometimes replacement is necessary. But that doesn’t mean you buy the best. In Rentals, it is always a matter of time before it will be replaced again. Keep it cheap but make it look as good as possible.
• People never go into a unit and get excited picturing all the cleaning they can do to make it move-in ready! The entire apartment must sparkle before you allow Tenants to view it! Otherwise you are wasting everyone’s time!