December 9, 2024 • 41 mins
This episode is all about How We Did It, when we renovated 2 out of state units in Idaho, traveling to the units twice, for 4 days each.
We are discussing the condition of the units (one was in bad shape and one not so bad) and the work performed by ourselves and those we hired. As we did not have a team in Idaho, we also talked about how we quickly were able to put one together.
For the first time, we painted kitchen cabinets, using Beyond Paint Products. So, listen to the process we followed and how they turned out. In addition to the kitchen cabinets, we or those we hired painted these units, installed new lighting, replaced old and dirty plugs and switches with decora style ones, replaced the old yucky carpet with LVP, and replaced Formica kitchen countertops with Quartz counters we purchased for a steal.
Communication, organization, and time management were all key elements to pulling this renovation off and we are here to share how it all worked out!
LINKS
👉Porc-A-Fix: Fix Chipped Porcelain Sinks and Tubs
👉UV Flashlight Black Light for Finding Pet Urine During Inspections, 2 Pack
👉 Stainless Steel Kitchen Drop In Sink, 16 gauge, 33X22
👉 Brushed Nickel Pull Down Kitchen Faucet with Sprayer
👉 Black Semi Flush Mount Ceiling Light Drum Shade
👉 Cabinet Bumpers, Pyramid Painting Stands, TouchUp Cups
👉 Master Lock Portable Key Lock Box Ideal for Landlords
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Stacie (00:00):
So, for this How We Did It episode, we're going to be
(00:03):
talking about our out of staterentals back in Idaho.
And for those of you who may notknow, we own a fourplex just
outside of Boise, Idaho.
And last month, we had two unitsgo vacant at the same time.
So, we wanted to come on hereand discuss each of the vacant
(00:23):
units and what condition theywere in, our travel plans from
California to Idaho, whatrenovations that we did to each
unit, uh, how we addedcontractors and suppliers to our
Idaho based team to get it alldone.
And, what we bought, what wespent, and would we do it again?
(00:48):
Welcome to your landlordresource podcast many moons ago.
When I started as a landlord, Iwas as green as it gets.
I may have had my real estatelicense, but I lack confidence
in the hands on experienceneeded when it came to dealing
with tenants, leases,maintenance, and bookkeeping.
After many failed attempts, fastforward to today.
Kevin and I have doubled ourdoors and created an organized,
(01:10):
professionally operated rentalproperty business.
Want to go from overwhelmed toconfident?
If you're an ambitious landlordor maybe one in the making, join
us as we provide strategies andteach actionable steps to help
you reach your goals and thelifestyle you desire.
All while building a streamlinedand profitable rental property
business.
(01:30):
This is Your Landlord Resourcepodcast.
Hello there, landlords.
Thanks so much for listening tothe Your Landlord Resource
Podcast.
I'm your host, Stacie Casellaand I'm here with my co host,
who's also my husband, and mybusiness partner, Kevin Kilroy.
Kevin (01:51):
Hey, I like that introduction.
Hey there everybody, weappreciate you all tuning in
today.
So for most of our episodes, wegenerally have a script.
I mean, might be a loose onethat we kind of follow because
much of what we discuss iseducational and there are
details we do not want to misstelling you about.
(02:13):
Today we are doing more of a howwe did it episode and the format
will be somewhat more freeform.
So, please excuse the extra umsand ahs that we might insert as
we formulate what we want tosay.
Stacie (02:26):
Yeah.
This should be fun.
So, for this How We Did Itepisode, we're going to be
talking about our out of staterentals back in Idaho.
And for those of you who may notknow, we own a fourplex just
outside of Boise, Idaho.
And last month, we had two unitsgo vacant at the same time.
So, we wanted to come on hereand discuss each of the vacant
(02:52):
units and what condition theywere in, our travel plans from
California to Idaho, whatrenovations that we did to each
unit, uh, how we addedcontractors and suppliers to our
Idaho based team to get it alldone.
And, what we bought, what wespent, and would we do it again?
Kevin (03:13):
Okay, so stay tuned for that.
All right, so let's start withthe leases ending October 31st.
We had two separate leases endat the same time, which is
actually very poor planning onour part.
That put us into a positionwhere any updates would have had
to be completed in November, andwith any luck, placed back on
(03:35):
the market around Thanksgiving.
And there's a couple problemswith that.
One, we do our best to not haveleases end after September
because it's known that fewerpeople move during the winter
months, and even more so, lesspeople move during the holiday
season.
Now the second issue is thatIdaho has four seasons.
(03:58):
November is kind of the lastmonth before cold icy weather
moves in and contractors areextremely busy finishing up
outdoor jobs, and again forresidential jobs, people want
their work done before theholidays hit so there's a rush
of work to be completed.
Now, in hindsight when thosetenants renewed their last
lease, we should have asked theproperty manager to extend those
(04:22):
leases without increases untilFebruary or March of 2025.
Then we would have gottennotices of non renewal just
before springtime and would havebeen able to do our renovations
and lease them much easier.
I think at this point we will belisting one of the units in mid
December.
(04:42):
And the other one, probably nottill January.
Stacie (04:45):
Yeah, which for us is a big no no.
Uh, we always say, if you canswing it, rent your units any
time March through September.
And, if you have a lease end,like a month to month one that
ends during October throughFebruary, when you sign your new
lease with the new tenant, a lotof times what we do is we'll
(05:06):
offer to extend that lease withno rent increases, you know,
like out an additional three tofive months.
This saves you from having todeal with a vacancy over the
holidays or the winter monthswhen people tend to move less
often.
And the issue with that is one,your applicant pool is lower and
(05:26):
you have fewer high qualityapplicants to choose from.
Another reason is that becauseit takes longer to rent, the
market rents can be lower.
Now, all of this depends onwhere your units are located.
And here in most parts ofCalifornia, the weather is less
of an issue.
But we absolutely see lowerrental rates during those winter
(05:47):
months.
Okay, so that was the reasonbehind us turning units in
November.
Kev, why don't you go over thefirst trip that we took out and
we planned to go out for.
Kevin (05:58):
All right.
Okay, so the timing.
The first trip was November 18thto the 21st.
So we wanted to give time forinspections and a painter to
complete work before we went in.
And this trip was actually morerelaxed and was not a hardcore
work week.
We had dinners planned, uh, meetthe girlfriend's parents, and we
(06:22):
had a property that we werelooking at and they would only
allow us to walk through with anaccepted offer in place.
So the timing on that was veryimportant.
It was still available, so wemade an offer on it about a week
before we flew out.
Now the best part about thisproperty was its location.
It was a sixplex that was onlytwo blocks from the Idaho State
(06:45):
Capitol and one block from themain hospital in Boise.
And also right, the capital isright downtown, a lot of nice
restaurants, uh, bars, activity,great location.
Very similar to our property inSacramento.
They called it a sixplex, but itwas a Victorian that had been
(07:06):
made into Uh, let's see, wellbasically a duplex with a very
small, like 150 square footstudio that had a hot plate, not
even a full kitchen.
I mean the other two units werereally nice size.
Now in the back over thegarages, there were three more
units.
The place needed a lot of workand honestly we were having
(07:29):
trouble getting the lender tolend on it.
We even went the route ofprivate lending but there were
some issues with the zoningclassification versus what was
really there.
So, we spent a couple of hoursover two days evaluating it and
in the end decided it was bestjust to move on.
Alright, now to our own units.
(07:51):
Both needed to be painted.
Which we were able to startabout a week after the tenants
moved out.
Now the person we used for ourpainter was one of our old
tenants from Chico.
It was a friend of kid numbertwo who we know and love he was
out of work right now, and heused to paint for summer jobs,
so we offered him the work.
Now the property manager had apainter but their cost was about
(08:15):
40 percent more than what wewere able to negotiate with our
guy.
I mean right there it saved usabout$2000 bucks.
We used to use Kelly Moore paintand we love their color called
hush gray, which is a very lightgray color that almost looks
white but just has enough colorin it not to be too bright.
(08:37):
Now, Kelly Moore closed down,what, a couple months ago.
But Sherwin Williams had theformula and was able to match
the color, so we were good to gothere.
Now, our Sacramento painter hasan account with Sherwin
Williams, so we were able toorder under his name and get his
discount, which, once again,helped quite a bit.
For the trim in the doors, weused the standard Swiss coffee,
(09:00):
which looks really nice next tothe light gray walls.
Stacie (09:04):
Hey, now let me tell you that the color of choice for the
complex where our fourplex islocated is Navajo white.
Now I'm not sure if it's justthe property manager or they
just match the original paintcolor from before, but the color
has a lot of yellow in it andit's kind of a bit dark.
The hush gray that we use ismore modern and it really
(09:26):
brightens up the space.
So that's why we changed thecolor in the entire unit.
And I will say that when theproperty manager has their
painter go in to paint theunits, they paint everything the
same color.
So the walls are the same coloras the doors, as the trim, as
the baseboard.
Everything is Navajo white.
And we kind of like to have alittle distinction.
(09:48):
So we did our walls hush grayand we did the baseboards, the
trim and the doors, Swisscoffee.
Okay.
So unit three, which is a twobedroom, two bath unit was
slated to be completed with thepainting upon our arrival.
And one thing that we like to doto our units during turnovers is
(10:10):
do some updates where it'sneeded.
And in this unit, the previousowners had already installed
luxury vinyl plank floors.
Uh, they'd already painted thecabinets in the kitchen and in
the bathrooms and installed newcounters also in the kitchen and
bathrooms.
They had replaced the old whiteappliances with stainless steel
(10:31):
ones.
So this, this unit was alreadyin great shape.
But we decided we wanted tochange out the light fixtures
from those old, single lightbulb 60 watt light booby flush
mounts, to more modern ones thathad like a nice matte black
finish and they were LED.
What's nice about that is eachof these fixtures had a switch
(10:53):
to select the light color andyou could choose warm white,
cool white, or daylight.
So it was kind of nice in thehallways, we selected a warmer
white and then we did more of acool white in the bedrooms or
vice versa.
I can't remember what we did,but we were able to change it
around.
We found these light fixtures atHome Depot.
Um, they're about 20 bucks each,which we thought was a great
(11:13):
buy.
And we put them in the bedrooms,and in the hallway, and the
entranceway.
And then we found a larger sizedone for the main kitchen part.
Uh, we took out the old bathbars that just had those round
light bulbs in it.
Uh, you know, you used to beable to get them for like five
bucks.
And we put in nicer brushednickel finish ones that had
glass shades.
(11:35):
We also did a hanging one in thedining area as well.
So, nine fixtures cost us around$250.
Much brighter lights, updated toa more modern style, and I have
experience in electrical, and Iwas able to hang all the lights
myself, so there was no cost forthat.
And this change makes a hugedifference.
(11:58):
Now, one thing that we did thatwas not really necessary, but
it's one thing that we reallylike to do, was to replace all
of those round plugs and thetoggle switches with decora
style ones.
And those are the rocker, moresquared off or rectangular style
switches and plugs.
The old ones were ivory and theywere very dirty.
(12:19):
So we replaced them with whiteto go with the new Swiss coffee
white colored trim and doors.
And oh my gosh, what adifference.
I mean, adding those was another$250 and you don't really think
about it, but it really does addup fast.
Now, we lucked out because inthis unit, the previous tenant
had a dog.
(12:39):
It was an ESA.
That dog was kenneled when shewas not at home.
And during inspections, noevidence of urine was found in
the unit.
And we'll tell you how we knowthat in a little bit.
The carpets were in great shape,so we had them stretched and
professionally cleaned.
And the cleaner included anenzyme treatment and they do
(13:00):
that with all their cleaningsjust in case a pet had been in
there.
Not only for urine, but also forpet dander.
Now the bathrooms both havefiberglass inserts for the
shower and then for thebathtubs.
The shower was fine, but thebathtub had several small holes
in it.
And we think it was from thetenant washing her dog in there.
(13:22):
It was a big dog.
And we think maybe the claws hadbroke off that non skid bumps on
the floor of the tub.
Anyway, the property manager hadMiracle Method come out and give
a bid.
Now, let me say this, that atfirst we were skeptical about
having them bid to do the work.
Their bid was something like$785to refinish the entire tub,
(13:45):
which to us was a lot but not asmuch as we would have expected.
And I don't know if we'vementioned this before but we in
Sacramento had called MiracleMethod out once to fix a chip in
a ceramic sink and they wantedabout the same amount which was
insane.
For about$20 bucks we boughtthis stuff called Porc-A-Fix and
(14:06):
we fixed the hole ourselves.
Now I'll link it in the shownotes and you can check it out.
That stuff's awesome.
I think we even did a video onit on the process and how easy
it was.
But anyway, when the propertymanager said that they call
Miracle Method, I kind ofcringed because I thought maybe
it might be outrageous.
And you know what?
They came in and on their own,refinished the old beige or off
(14:30):
white colored tub and all thesurrounding walls in white.
And oh my gosh you guys it looksamazing with all our new paint.
Kevin (14:39):
You know, that was one thing.
I was really really pleased withtoo.
I mean it made a hugedifference.
Stacie (14:45):
It did
Kevin (14:47):
So we were out there about four days working, but
really only two full days inthat unit.
We also had to do some planningfor the other vacant unit that
pretty much had to be completelyredone.
Not completely, but we were ableto get in there and meet subs to
get ideas on what we could do inthe timeline we had.
(15:09):
Now, as I said, we were in Idahothis time for four days.
And we actually did not haveplans to return, but after
seeing the downstair unit inperson and figuring out what we
wanted to do for renovations, webooked another trip to go back
there the week afterThanksgiving to work on that
unit.
And if you're a landlord that ismore hands on and want to try to
(15:33):
save money by doing some workyourself, always plan for more
time than you think you'll need.
I mean, we planned for four dayson the first trip and could have
easily used five.
And as luck would have it, ourreturn flight home was severely
delayed and we ended up flyinghome like 12 hours later than
planned.
(15:53):
We really needed that extratime.
The second trip out, we plannedfour days again and had to
extend it to five, but we goteverything done.
So I want to take a minute nowto talk about developing our new
team out in Idaho.
And as you know, we have acomplete team here in
California.
But out there, we haven't reallyhad to do much more than simple
(16:17):
repairs that the PM usuallyhandles, so we had to work a
little to find people who wecould depend on.
And we got those people from ourRealtor and even from our
property manager.
Our Realtor is a generalcontractor and flips houses,
which actually is what heprimarily does now over real
(16:37):
estate.
We just happened to get luckybecause his sources do great
work and because of the volumeof work he has, he gets them at
a lower price and we were luckybecause for the most part, they
extended their prices to us.
So that was really nice.
Stacie (16:53):
Yeah, I'm going to jump in here and say that our
property manager has all thecontacts that we needed to, but
they were at a much higherprice.
Because we're more hands on andwe were able to get in there and
meet the subs and get our ownbids to evaluate which ones had
the better cost andavailability.
It really worked to ouradvantage.
Kevin (17:13):
Yeah, that made a huge difference.
But our flooring guy, who in thedownstairs unit is installing
the LVP floors in the kitchen,living room, laundry area, hall
closets, and baths, he's alsoinstalling all the carpets in
the bedrooms and bed closets.
He came from our Realtor, as didour electrician.
(17:35):
Now the plumber was from ourproperty manager.
And our son and his friend havea side business installing
countertops.
Now appliances, we ended upusing the property manager
contact because they willinstall the appliances for us,
so that's a huge plus.
And their prices were just a tadlower than R.
C.
(17:55):
Willey who we generally like touse.
Now materials we purchased andhandled on our own.
Our floor guy sent us out to hissupplier, and that turned out to
be a huge help because not onlydo they do floors, they also had
countertops as well.
So when we did our walkthroughon the previous trip, we had not
(18:16):
planned to do as manyrenovations to this unit.
Just new paint new floors newlighting new plug switches and
plates.
But when we got in there, wenoticed that the Formica kitchen
counters were raised all aroundnext raised all around and where
the stove sits.
Likely from the heat, but itlooked awful.
(18:37):
I mean, could we have had themrepaired?
You know, probably.
But we figured if we werespending a small fortune on new
floors and new appliances, wedecided if we could paint the
cabinets that were actually inreally good shape, we could
stomach replacing thecountertops too.
We decided to go with a whitequartz that had little specks of
(18:58):
gray and a very light kind ofbrownish colors in it.
I think it's called iced whiteand here's where we scored big
time.
So we're looking at the quartzthat they had and they brought
us over to these giant slabs andthey told us the price and we
kind of looked at them like forthe entire thing.
And then he told us the story.
(19:20):
I guess this developer wanted400 slabs.
So the company said, okay,they'd order a hundred at a
time.
So the developer came, took 40the first time, so the company
ordered the next a hundred.
After that, the developer onlytook 20, and then a week later
it was down to 10, and then thatwas the last he saw of them.
(19:43):
So when we were there, theystill had I don't know about 110
of these slabs left that theyreally wanted to get rid of and
they were selling them justabove cost.
I mean the jumbo slab cost us$647 out the door.
And a jumbo slab so that meantwe were able to get the
backsplash out of it, too.
(20:03):
Then of course we still had topay to fabricate it and our son
and his friend installed it all.
So we got really lucky with thatone.
So for anyone looking for agreat deal on quartz jumbo
slabs, go see Rick at Cost LessFloors in Boise, Idaho.
They'll really treat you right.
So all the floors, carpet andcounters were picked out and
(20:27):
paid for before we left to goback home.
So it was nice to have it allset.
Stacie (20:32):
All right.
So let's talk about thedownstairs unit, unit two, which
I use the word trashed a lot,but not really in the sense of
like holes in the walls oranything like that.
The man had lived in this unitfor like nine years.
Uh, he had a little dog whoapparently never was let out to
go potty.
And even though they have apatio that has open grass right
(20:56):
behind their unit.
I have no idea what happened.
I mentioned before that bothunits were inspected by a
professional company and theyuse a black light to test for
urine.
And upstairs they had a dog too.
Not one spot of urine.
Downstairs though, urineeverywhere.
All the carpets had horriblestains.
(21:18):
The baseboards in the hallwayhad to be tossed because the dog
had peed so much on them thatthey were all swollen.
The floor guy came over andpulled out all the flooring and
the baseboard before we had theguy start painting.
And the floors under the carpet,the subfloor was particle board
and was a mess with huge spotsof urine all over bedrooms,
hallway, living room,everywhere.
(21:40):
Now I will say, we have a blacklight that we use for our
inspections.
We picked up a two pack, realcheap ones on Amazon, and we'll
link them in the show notes.
We wanted to test those wallsand all the stuff around, and
you guys, it was nasty.
We had to pay the hardwood floorguy to roll a special lacquer
over all the floors to seal themoff.
(22:02):
And where it's not foolproof, itwill reduce the chance of
another dog coming in there andtrying to mark their spot over
this other dog's spot.
Kevin (22:10):
So we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope it works.
Stacie (22:13):
Yeah.
Kevin (22:14):
So once that was done, the guy got in there to paint
while we were back home gettingready to host Thanksgiving at
our house.
The Monday after Thanksgiving,we were back on a plane and
ready to jump into Unit 2.
Stacie (22:29):
Yeah, but the weekend before we left, I went online to
Home Depot, Lowe's, and Amazonand ordered everything that we
needed to complete that unit.
I had already purchased theplugs, the switches, and plates
when I bought those for Unit 3upstairs, so I was all set
there.
And we Amazon'd a new stainlesssteel sink with a killer deal on
(22:51):
that one.
Uh, the kitchen faucet that weuse in all our units, another
great deal.
I think it's like$39 for abrushed nickel one that has a
removable head with a sprayer.
And it sits up real tall andit's just, it looks really
fancy.
It looks like one of thoseexpensive ones from Kohler,
which by the way, Costco has forlike$179 bucks.
(23:13):
We also ordered a light fixturethat we needed for the dining
room area.
Home Depot and Lowe's wereeither out of stock or too
expensive on that one.
We ordered replacement cabinetbumpers because we had to remove
the old ones to paint thosecabinets.
And touch up cups to leave extrapaint in the units for the new
tenants in case they marked upthe walls when they moved in.
(23:35):
And we'll link all of this stuffin the show notes if you want to
check it out.
At Home Depot, we pre orderedall the flush mount light
fixtures and some paint suppliesthat we needed that the price
was better than it was atLowe's.
And at Lowe's, we ordered thepaint for the cabinets and some
supplies that we needed forthat.
Kev, why don't you quickly tellthem all about the cabinet
(23:57):
paint.
Kevin (23:58):
Okay.
It's called Beyond Paint andit's claim to fame is that it's
an all in one paint.
There's no need to sand or primebefore applying.
You just clean the cabinets withSimple Green, let dry and roll
it on.
And I'll talk more about theapplication process in a minute.
(24:18):
First, we removed the doors fromthe bases and put them on these
painting triangles we also foundon Amazon.
And these were awesome and theyworked great.
They're these little trianglesthat you place, you know, four
or five down and then lay thecabinet door on top and they
keep the doors securely elevatedso you can use the roller on the
(24:38):
sides.
We had our son's six footfolding table and his saw horses
with plywood on top that we usedto place the doors on to paint.
Stacie (24:48):
And i'll link those painting triangles in the show
notes, too I forgot about those.
And those helped when youpainted the baseboards, too.
Kevin (24:55):
Oh, yeah 100 percent.
I mean, those little plastictriangles were a lifesaver I
never knew I needed.
So, we watched a bunch of videoson YouTube of people using this
BEYOND PAINT, and it seemedsimple enough to do.
Overall, it was pretty easy.
Whether or not it's durableenough for tenants, we won't
know for a while.
(25:16):
So, Monday when we arrivedmidday, we ran around to all the
places and picked up oursupplies and got to the unit I
don't know around two or threeo'clock.
We wanted to do all the prepthat day so we could get there
early on Tuesday and get acouple of coats on before the
guys showed up to install thenew countertops.
And to be honest, the place wasa mess.
(25:39):
I mean there were tools andsupplies stacks of baseboards,
uh, appliances all in an area weneeded to work in.
So in true Stacie fashion we hadto clean the unit up before we
could even prep to paint.
Stacie (25:54):
Hey, man I mean, it's like when you're cooking and you
know, there's a french term andit's called mas en place, which
is where you have all theingredients and your supplies
that you need in front of youbefore you prep.
Then as you prep you clean andyou put away what you don't need
so that the space is always neatand tidy.
And you know, I cannot work in amess.
So we moved the appliances tothe back patio.
(26:17):
Kevin took the doors off thefridge so the kids in the
complex wouldn't try to play inthere.
We stacked all the baseboardsneatly against an outside wall.
We cleaned up all the piles ofpaint cans and garbage bags that
were strewn all over the place.
And I swept up to get as much ofthe dust and screws and crap, so
that when we walked around thosenice freshly painted cabinets,
(26:39):
we wouldn't kick up dust onthem.
Kevin (26:41):
Right.
So after all of that, I take allthe doors off and tape the hinge
screws to the inside of eachcabinet bases so we don't lose
them.
I labeled the doors too so weknow which door goes back on
which base.
We clean the bases and the doorswith Simple Green and tape off
the walls and inside the basesto protect those areas from any
(27:04):
paint that we might accidentallyhit with brushes or rollers.
Now, you may not think thistakes long, but prep work takes
longer than we had planned for.
I mean, that's always the case.
We worked about three hours, andthen stopped to run over to our
son's house to have Stacie'sturkey soup for dinner with him
and his girlfriend.
We stayed for a couple hours tovisit, and then we headed back
(27:27):
to the unit to finish up.
Which, that time only took acouple hours.
We were all set to come back andjump right into painting the
next day.
Okay, now I will talk aboutBeyond Paint and how it works.
Alright, first you guys, thisstuff is pretty expensive.
Uh, one quart, I believe, costsaround$45 at Lowe's.
(27:49):
And you can buy it onlinedirectly from the manufacturer
and where they had an amazingblack Friday sale going on, we
didn't discover the product intime to allow for shipping.
So we had to buy it at thestore, which I believe in the
Boise area was only sold atLowe's.
Now this paint comes in setcolors, so you can't have the
(28:09):
paint store or the paintdepartment add colors to a base,
you know, like you would with atraditional paint.
So we chose bright white for theupper cabinets and pewter for
the lower ones.
They had those in stock and wewere fine with it because it's
the same color combo theprevious owners painted the
remodeled unit upstairs.
(28:29):
We started with the uppercabinets for two reasons.
One, we had to use the ladderright up against the lowers and
we were afraid we were going toding them.
So we worked from the top down.
We also had countertopsinstalled later that day and
with guys and tools, we weresure we were going to ding the
lower ones.
So we waited until they weredone to tackle those bases.
(28:53):
Now it says that one quart ofbeyond paint will cover 200
square feet of surface for twocoats.
So we only bought one bottle ofeach color.
It actually worked out fine.
Though it got close.
So let's get to the applicationprocess.
Beyond Paint, and we are notsponsored by these folks, so
this is true and honest review.
(29:15):
Beyond Paint is a self levelingpaint, which means if you brush
it on, it goes on too thin andyou will see those brush
strokes.
You must use a small three,eight inch nap roller.
You can use a two and a halfinch angled brush to get the
corners.
But again, you can't brush it.
It must be applied in a stippledmethod, which basically means
(29:39):
you have to dab or tap it onrepeatedly.
They say to do this so it getsthick enough to coat to self
level itself.
And it looks awful when youfirst do it.
And you think, Oh my God, whatdid I do?
but it does level itself out.
So for all those corners, westippled the cut ins and then
(30:00):
use the roller to do all theflat surfaces and sides.
One thing to note is that thisstuff is thick.
I mean, it's maybe theconsistency of Greek yogurt.
And when you pour it into yourtray, it comes out kind of in
globs.
So the first door I did, I thinkI put it on a little too thick
and was really worried with allthe bumps, it would look like a
(30:23):
kind of a textured finish.
But eventually it did level outand it was fine.
For the rest of the doors, wedecided to go with lighter coats
and do more coats so it wouldnot dry textured.
Now, because we were tight ontime, we only did two coats to
the uppers thinking they wouldget less wear and tear than the
lowers where we did three coats.
(30:46):
And that was a mistake.
The lowers done in a medium graypewter color came out
beautifully with three coats.
And I'm not sure if I mentionedthis, but the cabinets were
medium oak cabinets and they didhave a wood grain to it.
The uppers done in bright whiteand only two coats did not look
(31:06):
as finished as the gray lowersdid.
Maybe because it was a lightcolor on a darker wood.
Maybe because white just needsmore coats.
But in hindsight, we should havedone three coats on all the
surfaces.
We also had enough paint in onequart to cover the base with two
coats and the doors with threecoats.
Stacie (31:27):
And one thing you guys that I kind of want to say also
is that this paint goes on amatte finish.
It doesn't have any sheen to itat all, which is one thing that
we kind of would haveappreciated, I believe that they
do have some sort of a coatingthat you can purchase and do
after the fact.
But, you know, obviously we wereshort on time.
We did not do that.
(31:48):
We probably, if we did thisagain, would do that.
Another thing that we wouldprobably change is we would
probably go through the processof sanding the doors down and
applying a colored primer or awhite primer for white and or
tinting a primer to the graycolors so that if for some
(32:09):
reason this paint chips off, theprimer is still going to be
there and it won't be asnoticeable.
It's not going to chip all theway down to the bare wood.
And, also you guys, this job isnot for the faint of heart.
We sat down like once or twice aday when we had to run errands,
otherwise we were on our feetfor 14 or 16 hours and sometimes
(32:30):
longer.
And one thing I want to say isthat Lowe's has these beige
paint roller pans that are madefor those four inch thin rollers
that we used.
It costs like a buck fifty ninea piece.
If you can't find something likethat, one thing that Kevin uses
all the time to paint for touchups is plastic trays that come
(32:51):
with prepared food.
So, like at Costco, maybe youbuy pre cooked meals like the
Kevin's brand or something likethat.
The black plastic trays thatthey say you can empty your pre
cooked meal into and warm in themicrowave, we don't like to warm
foods in plastic trays, so weuse our ceramic dishes or we'll
warm them in a pot on the stove.
(33:13):
And we always have those traysleft over, which is fine to
recycle, but Kev found that theywork really perfectly for
painting.
Anyway, so we brought a coupleof those back with us to use and
for me, they were great when Iwas painting those bases.
Kevin (33:29):
Alright, so we're about to wrap things up for this
episode, but I wanted to closewith some pointers.
First off, communication withyour team is of utmost
importance.
I know we say it all the time.
But especially with yourproperty manager, so they know
what's going on, who isauthorized to be at the
property, and to understand atimeline of when the units will
(33:52):
be ready to list.
Next is your contractors andyour subs.
Hopefully they text, which mostdo, because then you can take
photos of what you want toreplace or questions you might
have, and they can let you knowwithout having to schedule an in
person meeting to answer yourquestions.
But make sure you are gettingaccurate timelines for each to
(34:14):
do their job so you can planaccordingly.
The last thing you want is substrying to work around each other
and getting in each other's way.
We use a lockbox to have a unitkey on site at all times so that
anyone who needs to go in for aquick measurement or drop off
materials like the floor guy didwith the baseboards, so that we
(34:37):
could paint them in advance ofinstallation.
We will link the one we use inthe show notes, which has light
up numbers and works really wellwhen you have to access or
return the keys in the dark.
And finally when it comes topayment, some subs like to use
Venmo, some will send aQuickbooks invoice that you can
pay online.
(34:58):
Very few prefer a check or willinvoice you and wait two weeks
for payment unless you have anestablished account with them.
Stacie (35:06):
Yeah, that texting was a godsend for us.
And when the painter was there Iused an old photo that I had to
mark it up on my phone where wewanted the open concept kitchen
and living room to have semigloss or flat paint to show him
where to change it over.
Same with the floor guy.
When we were all done I sent hima photo of the baseboards saying
(35:27):
hey these are all ready for you.
And with a few other subs whowill go in later, like our
property manager's handyman,who's going to install the knobs
and the pulls on the paintedcabinets, I have a photo ready
to send them where those knobsand pulls are located in the
closet.
You see, when you'recoordinating all this stuff from
out of state, texting and photosare so helpful to save time.
(35:51):
And I just saw that you cancreate a text in advance and
send it later.
So like, when I'm on a plane orit's late at night, I can get it
done and then, I think it's oniPhones, you can click that
little plus sign next to themessage and tap send later and
choose your date and time.
And of course, email works too,but many younger subs are not
(36:12):
checking those as often and youmight need to wait for a
response.
So, the one thing that I want totalk about is, would we do this
again, or would we just hirepeople to go in and do all this
work?
Was it worth it for us to takeessentially two full work weeks
out of our schedule to fly toIdaho and do all this work?
(36:36):
Kev, what do you think?
Was it worth it for you?
Kevin (36:39):
I, I think it was for all the work we did.
I mean, it was tough, but wesaved some money.
Stacie (36:46):
We absolutely saved money.
We busted our butts, you guys.
I mean, we were sore.
We were tired.
We were crabby.
Kevin (36:53):
I also think though, that we've learned what we can farm
out and what we can doourselves.
And maybe there might be anadjustment that way a little
bit.
Stacie (37:01):
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
So that's.
Kevin (37:04):
Oh, one more thing that I learned.
We should uh, let the complexknow when we're working there
late at night.
Stacie (37:11):
Oh my god.
Kevin (37:12):
Because Um, I think the latest we left and it was like
midnight or so.
Yeah, we walk out.
We had a boot on our car andluckily the people that put the
boot on answered the phone wasout there in 20 minutes.
We told them we were the ownersand they couldn't have been
(37:33):
nicer.
They removed the boot from thewheel.
Stacie (37:35):
And they didn't charge us the$150 fee.
Kevin (37:37):
No, they, they were very nice people.
And we got back to the hotel byI think one o'clock.
Stacie (37:44):
1 a.
m.
Yeah.
But the one thing that was niceabout that too, was.
Hey, we know that the securitypeople are doing their jobs at
night watching all the cars inthe unit.
So that was good Um, do we wantto discuss how much this cost
us?
Kevin (38:00):
Not right now.
I'm still getting over it.
Stacie (38:04):
Let's just say it was probably at least double what we
had had planned but, here's thepoint, you guys.
We went in there and we didthese renovations because we
don't know how long we're goingto hold on to this complex, this
fourplex.
And when we go to sell it, ourthought process is not
necessarily that we're hoping toget a ton more rent because we
(38:27):
know that's not necessarilygoing to happen.
Right.
We're kind of competing with ourown self.
There's 25 four plexes in thiswhole complex of apartments that
individual owners like us have.
And it's tough to get a wholelot more rent out of it.
However, when we go to sellthese units in the future, we're
(38:48):
hoping that they will sellquickly because they're already
renovated and up to date andready to go for whoever is ready
to step in.
Kevin (38:56):
Yeah, 100%.
And another reason why it went alittle bit up, we just thought
we were going to do new flooringand and doing the LVP was really
a no brainer, but then when welooked at the countertops, how
bad a shape they were in, and wewere doing that, it just made
sense to add a few more thingslike the appliances on top of
(39:19):
it.
So bottom line now, two of thefour units are renovated and
look great.
Stacie (39:25):
Yeah, they do.
I mean, we didn't do thebathrooms.
Those we still have left to do,but those would be super easy
fixes.
Now, the floors are getting donein the bathrooms, but all we
have to do now would just bevanities or paint the vanities.
We could do that and then putnew countertops.
All right, you guys, that's ourshow for today.
We hope you enjoyed this how wedid it episode, about renovating
(39:48):
an out of state unit by puttingin our own time and leveraging
it by using subs and contractorsas best we could.
Would you do us a favor andleave us a kind review of the
podcast so that other landlordscan understand the benefits of
listening to it?
If you want to hear more, followor subscribe to the podcast so
each week the episodes aredownloaded right to your
(40:09):
favorite podcast platform.
And we'd love to stay in contactwith you.
If you have a question or youwant to suggest a subject for
our podcast, you can text us at650 489 4447, or you can email
us at Stacie@YourLandlordResource.
(40:30):
com.
That's Stacie with an I E, orKevin@ YourLandlordResource.
com.
And all these links will be inthe show notes as well.
Also in the show notes, you willfind links to all the downloads
that we offer.
Ways to sign up for a freenewsletter.
And as we mentioned before, wehave a wait list for our
(40:51):
upcoming course on placing yourideal tenant.
There's also links to ourprivate Facebook group, that's
just for landlords and oursocial media accounts on
Instagram, Facebook, andYouTube, where we share
informative and detailed tipsand tricks for landlords.
So, go check those out.
I think that's about it.
Thanks again.
And until next time, you've gotthis landlords.
So, for this How We Did It episode, we're going to be
(00:03):
talking about our out of staterentals back in Idaho.
And for those of you who may notknow, we own a fourplex just
outside of Boise, Idaho.
And last month, we had two unitsgo vacant at the same time.
So, we wanted to come on hereand discuss each of the vacant
(00:23):
units and what condition theywere in, our travel plans from
California to Idaho, whatrenovations that we did to each
unit, uh, how we addedcontractors and suppliers to our
Idaho based team to get it alldone.
And, what we bought, what wespent, and would we do it again?
(00:48):
Welcome to your landlordresource podcast many moons ago.
When I started as a landlord, Iwas as green as it gets.
I may have had my real estatelicense, but I lack confidence
in the hands on experienceneeded when it came to dealing
with tenants, leases,maintenance, and bookkeeping.
After many failed attempts, fastforward to today.
Kevin and I have doubled ourdoors and created an organized,
(01:10):
professionally operated rentalproperty business.
Want to go from overwhelmed toconfident?
If you're an ambitious landlordor maybe one in the making, join
us as we provide strategies andteach actionable steps to help
you reach your goals and thelifestyle you desire.
All while building a streamlinedand profitable rental property
business.
(01:30):
This is Your Landlord Resourcepodcast.
Hello there, landlords.
Thanks so much for listening tothe Your Landlord Resource
Podcast.
I'm your host, Stacie Casellaand I'm here with my co host,
who's also my husband, and mybusiness partner, Kevin Kilroy.
Kevin (01:51):
Hey, I like that introduction.
Hey there everybody, weappreciate you all tuning in
today.
So for most of our episodes, wegenerally have a script.
I mean, might be a loose onethat we kind of follow because
much of what we discuss iseducational and there are
details we do not want to misstelling you about.
(02:13):
Today we are doing more of a howwe did it episode and the format
will be somewhat more freeform.
So, please excuse the extra umsand ahs that we might insert as
we formulate what we want tosay.
Stacie (02:26):
Yeah.
This should be fun.
So, for this How We Did Itepisode, we're going to be
talking about our out of staterentals back in Idaho.
And for those of you who may notknow, we own a fourplex just
outside of Boise, Idaho.
And last month, we had two unitsgo vacant at the same time.
So, we wanted to come on hereand discuss each of the vacant
(02:52):
units and what condition theywere in, our travel plans from
California to Idaho, whatrenovations that we did to each
unit, uh, how we addedcontractors and suppliers to our
Idaho based team to get it alldone.
And, what we bought, what wespent, and would we do it again?
Kevin (03:13):
Okay, so stay tuned for that.
All right, so let's start withthe leases ending October 31st.
We had two separate leases endat the same time, which is
actually very poor planning onour part.
That put us into a positionwhere any updates would have had
to be completed in November, andwith any luck, placed back on
(03:35):
the market around Thanksgiving.
And there's a couple problemswith that.
One, we do our best to not haveleases end after September
because it's known that fewerpeople move during the winter
months, and even more so, lesspeople move during the holiday
season.
Now the second issue is thatIdaho has four seasons.
(03:58):
November is kind of the lastmonth before cold icy weather
moves in and contractors areextremely busy finishing up
outdoor jobs, and again forresidential jobs, people want
their work done before theholidays hit so there's a rush
of work to be completed.
Now, in hindsight when thosetenants renewed their last
lease, we should have asked theproperty manager to extend those
(04:22):
leases without increases untilFebruary or March of 2025.
Then we would have gottennotices of non renewal just
before springtime and would havebeen able to do our renovations
and lease them much easier.
I think at this point we will belisting one of the units in mid
December.
(04:42):
And the other one, probably nottill January.
Stacie (04:45):
Yeah, which for us is a big no no.
Uh, we always say, if you canswing it, rent your units any
time March through September.
And, if you have a lease end,like a month to month one that
ends during October throughFebruary, when you sign your new
lease with the new tenant, a lotof times what we do is we'll
(05:06):
offer to extend that lease withno rent increases, you know,
like out an additional three tofive months.
This saves you from having todeal with a vacancy over the
holidays or the winter monthswhen people tend to move less
often.
And the issue with that is one,your applicant pool is lower and
(05:26):
you have fewer high qualityapplicants to choose from.
Another reason is that becauseit takes longer to rent, the
market rents can be lower.
Now, all of this depends onwhere your units are located.
And here in most parts ofCalifornia, the weather is less
of an issue.
But we absolutely see lowerrental rates during those winter
(05:47):
months.
Okay, so that was the reasonbehind us turning units in
November.
Kev, why don't you go over thefirst trip that we took out and
we planned to go out for.
Kevin (05:58):
All right.
Okay, so the timing.
The first trip was November 18thto the 21st.
So we wanted to give time forinspections and a painter to
complete work before we went in.
And this trip was actually morerelaxed and was not a hardcore
work week.
We had dinners planned, uh, meetthe girlfriend's parents, and we
(06:22):
had a property that we werelooking at and they would only
allow us to walk through with anaccepted offer in place.
So the timing on that was veryimportant.
It was still available, so wemade an offer on it about a week
before we flew out.
Now the best part about thisproperty was its location.
It was a sixplex that was onlytwo blocks from the Idaho State
(06:45):
Capitol and one block from themain hospital in Boise.
And also right, the capital isright downtown, a lot of nice
restaurants, uh, bars, activity,great location.
Very similar to our property inSacramento.
They called it a sixplex, but itwas a Victorian that had been
(07:06):
made into Uh, let's see, wellbasically a duplex with a very
small, like 150 square footstudio that had a hot plate, not
even a full kitchen.
I mean the other two units werereally nice size.
Now in the back over thegarages, there were three more
units.
The place needed a lot of workand honestly we were having
(07:29):
trouble getting the lender tolend on it.
We even went the route ofprivate lending but there were
some issues with the zoningclassification versus what was
really there.
So, we spent a couple of hoursover two days evaluating it and
in the end decided it was bestjust to move on.
Alright, now to our own units.
(07:51):
Both needed to be painted.
Which we were able to startabout a week after the tenants
moved out.
Now the person we used for ourpainter was one of our old
tenants from Chico.
It was a friend of kid numbertwo who we know and love he was
out of work right now, and heused to paint for summer jobs,
so we offered him the work.
Now the property manager had apainter but their cost was about
(08:15):
40 percent more than what wewere able to negotiate with our
guy.
I mean right there it saved usabout$2000 bucks.
We used to use Kelly Moore paintand we love their color called
hush gray, which is a very lightgray color that almost looks
white but just has enough colorin it not to be too bright.
(08:37):
Now, Kelly Moore closed down,what, a couple months ago.
But Sherwin Williams had theformula and was able to match
the color, so we were good to gothere.
Now, our Sacramento painter hasan account with Sherwin
Williams, so we were able toorder under his name and get his
discount, which, once again,helped quite a bit.
For the trim in the doors, weused the standard Swiss coffee,
(09:00):
which looks really nice next tothe light gray walls.
Stacie (09:04):
Hey, now let me tell you that the color of choice for the
complex where our fourplex islocated is Navajo white.
Now I'm not sure if it's justthe property manager or they
just match the original paintcolor from before, but the color
has a lot of yellow in it andit's kind of a bit dark.
The hush gray that we use ismore modern and it really
(09:26):
brightens up the space.
So that's why we changed thecolor in the entire unit.
And I will say that when theproperty manager has their
painter go in to paint theunits, they paint everything the
same color.
So the walls are the same coloras the doors, as the trim, as
the baseboard.
Everything is Navajo white.
And we kind of like to have alittle distinction.
(09:48):
So we did our walls hush grayand we did the baseboards, the
trim and the doors, Swisscoffee.
Okay.
So unit three, which is a twobedroom, two bath unit was
slated to be completed with thepainting upon our arrival.
And one thing that we like to doto our units during turnovers is
(10:10):
do some updates where it'sneeded.
And in this unit, the previousowners had already installed
luxury vinyl plank floors.
Uh, they'd already painted thecabinets in the kitchen and in
the bathrooms and installed newcounters also in the kitchen and
bathrooms.
They had replaced the old whiteappliances with stainless steel
(10:31):
ones.
So this, this unit was alreadyin great shape.
But we decided we wanted tochange out the light fixtures
from those old, single lightbulb 60 watt light booby flush
mounts, to more modern ones thathad like a nice matte black
finish and they were LED.
What's nice about that is eachof these fixtures had a switch
(10:53):
to select the light color andyou could choose warm white,
cool white, or daylight.
So it was kind of nice in thehallways, we selected a warmer
white and then we did more of acool white in the bedrooms or
vice versa.
I can't remember what we did,but we were able to change it
around.
We found these light fixtures atHome Depot.
Um, they're about 20 bucks each,which we thought was a great
(11:13):
buy.
And we put them in the bedrooms,and in the hallway, and the
entranceway.
And then we found a larger sizedone for the main kitchen part.
Uh, we took out the old bathbars that just had those round
light bulbs in it.
Uh, you know, you used to beable to get them for like five
bucks.
And we put in nicer brushednickel finish ones that had
glass shades.
(11:35):
We also did a hanging one in thedining area as well.
So, nine fixtures cost us around$250.
Much brighter lights, updated toa more modern style, and I have
experience in electrical, and Iwas able to hang all the lights
myself, so there was no cost forthat.
And this change makes a hugedifference.
(11:58):
Now, one thing that we did thatwas not really necessary, but
it's one thing that we reallylike to do, was to replace all
of those round plugs and thetoggle switches with decora
style ones.
And those are the rocker, moresquared off or rectangular style
switches and plugs.
The old ones were ivory and theywere very dirty.
(12:19):
So we replaced them with whiteto go with the new Swiss coffee
white colored trim and doors.
And oh my gosh, what adifference.
I mean, adding those was another$250 and you don't really think
about it, but it really does addup fast.
Now, we lucked out because inthis unit, the previous tenant
had a dog.
(12:39):
It was an ESA.
That dog was kenneled when shewas not at home.
And during inspections, noevidence of urine was found in
the unit.
And we'll tell you how we knowthat in a little bit.
The carpets were in great shape,so we had them stretched and
professionally cleaned.
And the cleaner included anenzyme treatment and they do
(13:00):
that with all their cleaningsjust in case a pet had been in
there.
Not only for urine, but also forpet dander.
Now the bathrooms both havefiberglass inserts for the
shower and then for thebathtubs.
The shower was fine, but thebathtub had several small holes
in it.
And we think it was from thetenant washing her dog in there.
(13:22):
It was a big dog.
And we think maybe the claws hadbroke off that non skid bumps on
the floor of the tub.
Anyway, the property manager hadMiracle Method come out and give
a bid.
Now, let me say this, that atfirst we were skeptical about
having them bid to do the work.
Their bid was something like$785to refinish the entire tub,
(13:45):
which to us was a lot but not asmuch as we would have expected.
And I don't know if we'vementioned this before but we in
Sacramento had called MiracleMethod out once to fix a chip in
a ceramic sink and they wantedabout the same amount which was
insane.
For about$20 bucks we boughtthis stuff called Porc-A-Fix and
(14:06):
we fixed the hole ourselves.
Now I'll link it in the shownotes and you can check it out.
That stuff's awesome.
I think we even did a video onit on the process and how easy
it was.
But anyway, when the propertymanager said that they call
Miracle Method, I kind ofcringed because I thought maybe
it might be outrageous.
And you know what?
They came in and on their own,refinished the old beige or off
(14:30):
white colored tub and all thesurrounding walls in white.
And oh my gosh you guys it looksamazing with all our new paint.
Kevin (14:39):
You know, that was one thing.
I was really really pleased withtoo.
I mean it made a hugedifference.
Stacie (14:45):
It did
Kevin (14:47):
So we were out there about four days working, but
really only two full days inthat unit.
We also had to do some planningfor the other vacant unit that
pretty much had to be completelyredone.
Not completely, but we were ableto get in there and meet subs to
get ideas on what we could do inthe timeline we had.
(15:09):
Now, as I said, we were in Idahothis time for four days.
And we actually did not haveplans to return, but after
seeing the downstair unit inperson and figuring out what we
wanted to do for renovations, webooked another trip to go back
there the week afterThanksgiving to work on that
unit.
And if you're a landlord that ismore hands on and want to try to
(15:33):
save money by doing some workyourself, always plan for more
time than you think you'll need.
I mean, we planned for four dayson the first trip and could have
easily used five.
And as luck would have it, ourreturn flight home was severely
delayed and we ended up flyinghome like 12 hours later than
planned.
(15:53):
We really needed that extratime.
The second trip out, we plannedfour days again and had to
extend it to five, but we goteverything done.
So I want to take a minute nowto talk about developing our new
team out in Idaho.
And as you know, we have acomplete team here in
California.
But out there, we haven't reallyhad to do much more than simple
(16:17):
repairs that the PM usuallyhandles, so we had to work a
little to find people who wecould depend on.
And we got those people from ourRealtor and even from our
property manager.
Our Realtor is a generalcontractor and flips houses,
which actually is what heprimarily does now over real
(16:37):
estate.
We just happened to get luckybecause his sources do great
work and because of the volumeof work he has, he gets them at
a lower price and we were luckybecause for the most part, they
extended their prices to us.
So that was really nice.
Stacie (16:53):
Yeah, I'm going to jump in here and say that our
property manager has all thecontacts that we needed to, but
they were at a much higherprice.
Because we're more hands on andwe were able to get in there and
meet the subs and get our ownbids to evaluate which ones had
the better cost andavailability.
It really worked to ouradvantage.
Kevin (17:13):
Yeah, that made a huge difference.
But our flooring guy, who in thedownstairs unit is installing
the LVP floors in the kitchen,living room, laundry area, hall
closets, and baths, he's alsoinstalling all the carpets in
the bedrooms and bed closets.
He came from our Realtor, as didour electrician.
(17:35):
Now the plumber was from ourproperty manager.
And our son and his friend havea side business installing
countertops.
Now appliances, we ended upusing the property manager
contact because they willinstall the appliances for us,
so that's a huge plus.
And their prices were just a tadlower than R.
C.
(17:55):
Willey who we generally like touse.
Now materials we purchased andhandled on our own.
Our floor guy sent us out to hissupplier, and that turned out to
be a huge help because not onlydo they do floors, they also had
countertops as well.
So when we did our walkthroughon the previous trip, we had not
(18:16):
planned to do as manyrenovations to this unit.
Just new paint new floors newlighting new plug switches and
plates.
But when we got in there, wenoticed that the Formica kitchen
counters were raised all aroundnext raised all around and where
the stove sits.
Likely from the heat, but itlooked awful.
(18:37):
I mean, could we have had themrepaired?
You know, probably.
But we figured if we werespending a small fortune on new
floors and new appliances, wedecided if we could paint the
cabinets that were actually inreally good shape, we could
stomach replacing thecountertops too.
We decided to go with a whitequartz that had little specks of
(18:58):
gray and a very light kind ofbrownish colors in it.
I think it's called iced whiteand here's where we scored big
time.
So we're looking at the quartzthat they had and they brought
us over to these giant slabs andthey told us the price and we
kind of looked at them like forthe entire thing.
And then he told us the story.
(19:20):
I guess this developer wanted400 slabs.
So the company said, okay,they'd order a hundred at a
time.
So the developer came, took 40the first time, so the company
ordered the next a hundred.
After that, the developer onlytook 20, and then a week later
it was down to 10, and then thatwas the last he saw of them.
(19:43):
So when we were there, theystill had I don't know about 110
of these slabs left that theyreally wanted to get rid of and
they were selling them justabove cost.
I mean the jumbo slab cost us$647 out the door.
And a jumbo slab so that meantwe were able to get the
backsplash out of it, too.
(20:03):
Then of course we still had topay to fabricate it and our son
and his friend installed it all.
So we got really lucky with thatone.
So for anyone looking for agreat deal on quartz jumbo
slabs, go see Rick at Cost LessFloors in Boise, Idaho.
They'll really treat you right.
So all the floors, carpet andcounters were picked out and
(20:27):
paid for before we left to goback home.
So it was nice to have it allset.
Stacie (20:32):
All right.
So let's talk about thedownstairs unit, unit two, which
I use the word trashed a lot,but not really in the sense of
like holes in the walls oranything like that.
The man had lived in this unitfor like nine years.
Uh, he had a little dog whoapparently never was let out to
go potty.
And even though they have apatio that has open grass right
(20:56):
behind their unit.
I have no idea what happened.
I mentioned before that bothunits were inspected by a
professional company and theyuse a black light to test for
urine.
And upstairs they had a dog too.
Not one spot of urine.
Downstairs though, urineeverywhere.
All the carpets had horriblestains.
(21:18):
The baseboards in the hallwayhad to be tossed because the dog
had peed so much on them thatthey were all swollen.
The floor guy came over andpulled out all the flooring and
the baseboard before we had theguy start painting.
And the floors under the carpet,the subfloor was particle board
and was a mess with huge spotsof urine all over bedrooms,
hallway, living room,everywhere.
(21:40):
Now I will say, we have a blacklight that we use for our
inspections.
We picked up a two pack, realcheap ones on Amazon, and we'll
link them in the show notes.
We wanted to test those wallsand all the stuff around, and
you guys, it was nasty.
We had to pay the hardwood floorguy to roll a special lacquer
over all the floors to seal themoff.
(22:02):
And where it's not foolproof, itwill reduce the chance of
another dog coming in there andtrying to mark their spot over
this other dog's spot.
Kevin (22:10):
So we'll keep our fingers crossed and hope it works.
Stacie (22:13):
Yeah.
Kevin (22:14):
So once that was done, the guy got in there to paint
while we were back home gettingready to host Thanksgiving at
our house.
The Monday after Thanksgiving,we were back on a plane and
ready to jump into Unit 2.
Stacie (22:29):
Yeah, but the weekend before we left, I went online to
Home Depot, Lowe's, and Amazonand ordered everything that we
needed to complete that unit.
I had already purchased theplugs, the switches, and plates
when I bought those for Unit 3upstairs, so I was all set
there.
And we Amazon'd a new stainlesssteel sink with a killer deal on
(22:51):
that one.
Uh, the kitchen faucet that weuse in all our units, another
great deal.
I think it's like$39 for abrushed nickel one that has a
removable head with a sprayer.
And it sits up real tall andit's just, it looks really
fancy.
It looks like one of thoseexpensive ones from Kohler,
which by the way, Costco has forlike$179 bucks.
(23:13):
We also ordered a light fixturethat we needed for the dining
room area.
Home Depot and Lowe's wereeither out of stock or too
expensive on that one.
We ordered replacement cabinetbumpers because we had to remove
the old ones to paint thosecabinets.
And touch up cups to leave extrapaint in the units for the new
tenants in case they marked upthe walls when they moved in.
(23:35):
And we'll link all of this stuffin the show notes if you want to
check it out.
At Home Depot, we pre orderedall the flush mount light
fixtures and some paint suppliesthat we needed that the price
was better than it was atLowe's.
And at Lowe's, we ordered thepaint for the cabinets and some
supplies that we needed forthat.
Kev, why don't you quickly tellthem all about the cabinet
(23:57):
paint.
Kevin (23:58):
Okay.
It's called Beyond Paint andit's claim to fame is that it's
an all in one paint.
There's no need to sand or primebefore applying.
You just clean the cabinets withSimple Green, let dry and roll
it on.
And I'll talk more about theapplication process in a minute.
(24:18):
First, we removed the doors fromthe bases and put them on these
painting triangles we also foundon Amazon.
And these were awesome and theyworked great.
They're these little trianglesthat you place, you know, four
or five down and then lay thecabinet door on top and they
keep the doors securely elevatedso you can use the roller on the
(24:38):
sides.
We had our son's six footfolding table and his saw horses
with plywood on top that we usedto place the doors on to paint.
Stacie (24:48):
And i'll link those painting triangles in the show
notes, too I forgot about those.
And those helped when youpainted the baseboards, too.
Kevin (24:55):
Oh, yeah 100 percent.
I mean, those little plastictriangles were a lifesaver I
never knew I needed.
So, we watched a bunch of videoson YouTube of people using this
BEYOND PAINT, and it seemedsimple enough to do.
Overall, it was pretty easy.
Whether or not it's durableenough for tenants, we won't
know for a while.
(25:16):
So, Monday when we arrivedmidday, we ran around to all the
places and picked up oursupplies and got to the unit I
don't know around two or threeo'clock.
We wanted to do all the prepthat day so we could get there
early on Tuesday and get acouple of coats on before the
guys showed up to install thenew countertops.
And to be honest, the place wasa mess.
(25:39):
I mean there were tools andsupplies stacks of baseboards,
uh, appliances all in an area weneeded to work in.
So in true Stacie fashion we hadto clean the unit up before we
could even prep to paint.
Stacie (25:54):
Hey, man I mean, it's like when you're cooking and you
know, there's a french term andit's called mas en place, which
is where you have all theingredients and your supplies
that you need in front of youbefore you prep.
Then as you prep you clean andyou put away what you don't need
so that the space is always neatand tidy.
And you know, I cannot work in amess.
So we moved the appliances tothe back patio.
(26:17):
Kevin took the doors off thefridge so the kids in the
complex wouldn't try to play inthere.
We stacked all the baseboardsneatly against an outside wall.
We cleaned up all the piles ofpaint cans and garbage bags that
were strewn all over the place.
And I swept up to get as much ofthe dust and screws and crap, so
that when we walked around thosenice freshly painted cabinets,
(26:39):
we wouldn't kick up dust onthem.
Kevin (26:41):
Right.
So after all of that, I take allthe doors off and tape the hinge
screws to the inside of eachcabinet bases so we don't lose
them.
I labeled the doors too so weknow which door goes back on
which base.
We clean the bases and the doorswith Simple Green and tape off
the walls and inside the basesto protect those areas from any
(27:04):
paint that we might accidentallyhit with brushes or rollers.
Now, you may not think thistakes long, but prep work takes
longer than we had planned for.
I mean, that's always the case.
We worked about three hours, andthen stopped to run over to our
son's house to have Stacie'sturkey soup for dinner with him
and his girlfriend.
We stayed for a couple hours tovisit, and then we headed back
(27:27):
to the unit to finish up.
Which, that time only took acouple hours.
We were all set to come back andjump right into painting the
next day.
Okay, now I will talk aboutBeyond Paint and how it works.
Alright, first you guys, thisstuff is pretty expensive.
Uh, one quart, I believe, costsaround$45 at Lowe's.
(27:49):
And you can buy it onlinedirectly from the manufacturer
and where they had an amazingblack Friday sale going on, we
didn't discover the product intime to allow for shipping.
So we had to buy it at thestore, which I believe in the
Boise area was only sold atLowe's.
Now this paint comes in setcolors, so you can't have the
(28:09):
paint store or the paintdepartment add colors to a base,
you know, like you would with atraditional paint.
So we chose bright white for theupper cabinets and pewter for
the lower ones.
They had those in stock and wewere fine with it because it's
the same color combo theprevious owners painted the
remodeled unit upstairs.
(28:29):
We started with the uppercabinets for two reasons.
One, we had to use the ladderright up against the lowers and
we were afraid we were going toding them.
So we worked from the top down.
We also had countertopsinstalled later that day and
with guys and tools, we weresure we were going to ding the
lower ones.
So we waited until they weredone to tackle those bases.
(28:53):
Now it says that one quart ofbeyond paint will cover 200
square feet of surface for twocoats.
So we only bought one bottle ofeach color.
It actually worked out fine.
Though it got close.
So let's get to the applicationprocess.
Beyond Paint, and we are notsponsored by these folks, so
this is true and honest review.
(29:15):
Beyond Paint is a self levelingpaint, which means if you brush
it on, it goes on too thin andyou will see those brush
strokes.
You must use a small three,eight inch nap roller.
You can use a two and a halfinch angled brush to get the
corners.
But again, you can't brush it.
It must be applied in a stippledmethod, which basically means
(29:39):
you have to dab or tap it onrepeatedly.
They say to do this so it getsthick enough to coat to self
level itself.
And it looks awful when youfirst do it.
And you think, Oh my God, whatdid I do?
but it does level itself out.
So for all those corners, westippled the cut ins and then
(30:00):
use the roller to do all theflat surfaces and sides.
One thing to note is that thisstuff is thick.
I mean, it's maybe theconsistency of Greek yogurt.
And when you pour it into yourtray, it comes out kind of in
globs.
So the first door I did, I thinkI put it on a little too thick
and was really worried with allthe bumps, it would look like a
(30:23):
kind of a textured finish.
But eventually it did level outand it was fine.
For the rest of the doors, wedecided to go with lighter coats
and do more coats so it wouldnot dry textured.
Now, because we were tight ontime, we only did two coats to
the uppers thinking they wouldget less wear and tear than the
lowers where we did three coats.
(30:46):
And that was a mistake.
The lowers done in a medium graypewter color came out
beautifully with three coats.
And I'm not sure if I mentionedthis, but the cabinets were
medium oak cabinets and they didhave a wood grain to it.
The uppers done in bright whiteand only two coats did not look
(31:06):
as finished as the gray lowersdid.
Maybe because it was a lightcolor on a darker wood.
Maybe because white just needsmore coats.
But in hindsight, we should havedone three coats on all the
surfaces.
We also had enough paint in onequart to cover the base with two
coats and the doors with threecoats.
Stacie (31:27):
And one thing you guys that I kind of want to say also
is that this paint goes on amatte finish.
It doesn't have any sheen to itat all, which is one thing that
we kind of would haveappreciated, I believe that they
do have some sort of a coatingthat you can purchase and do
after the fact.
But, you know, obviously we wereshort on time.
We did not do that.
(31:48):
We probably, if we did thisagain, would do that.
Another thing that we wouldprobably change is we would
probably go through the processof sanding the doors down and
applying a colored primer or awhite primer for white and or
tinting a primer to the graycolors so that if for some
(32:09):
reason this paint chips off, theprimer is still going to be
there and it won't be asnoticeable.
It's not going to chip all theway down to the bare wood.
And, also you guys, this job isnot for the faint of heart.
We sat down like once or twice aday when we had to run errands,
otherwise we were on our feetfor 14 or 16 hours and sometimes
(32:30):
longer.
And one thing I want to say isthat Lowe's has these beige
paint roller pans that are madefor those four inch thin rollers
that we used.
It costs like a buck fifty ninea piece.
If you can't find something likethat, one thing that Kevin uses
all the time to paint for touchups is plastic trays that come
(32:51):
with prepared food.
So, like at Costco, maybe youbuy pre cooked meals like the
Kevin's brand or something likethat.
The black plastic trays thatthey say you can empty your pre
cooked meal into and warm in themicrowave, we don't like to warm
foods in plastic trays, so weuse our ceramic dishes or we'll
warm them in a pot on the stove.
(33:13):
And we always have those traysleft over, which is fine to
recycle, but Kev found that theywork really perfectly for
painting.
Anyway, so we brought a coupleof those back with us to use and
for me, they were great when Iwas painting those bases.
Kevin (33:29):
Alright, so we're about to wrap things up for this
episode, but I wanted to closewith some pointers.
First off, communication withyour team is of utmost
importance.
I know we say it all the time.
But especially with yourproperty manager, so they know
what's going on, who isauthorized to be at the
property, and to understand atimeline of when the units will
(33:52):
be ready to list.
Next is your contractors andyour subs.
Hopefully they text, which mostdo, because then you can take
photos of what you want toreplace or questions you might
have, and they can let you knowwithout having to schedule an in
person meeting to answer yourquestions.
But make sure you are gettingaccurate timelines for each to
(34:14):
do their job so you can planaccordingly.
The last thing you want is substrying to work around each other
and getting in each other's way.
We use a lockbox to have a unitkey on site at all times so that
anyone who needs to go in for aquick measurement or drop off
materials like the floor guy didwith the baseboards, so that we
(34:37):
could paint them in advance ofinstallation.
We will link the one we use inthe show notes, which has light
up numbers and works really wellwhen you have to access or
return the keys in the dark.
And finally when it comes topayment, some subs like to use
Venmo, some will send aQuickbooks invoice that you can
pay online.
(34:58):
Very few prefer a check or willinvoice you and wait two weeks
for payment unless you have anestablished account with them.
Stacie (35:06):
Yeah, that texting was a godsend for us.
And when the painter was there Iused an old photo that I had to
mark it up on my phone where wewanted the open concept kitchen
and living room to have semigloss or flat paint to show him
where to change it over.
Same with the floor guy.
When we were all done I sent hima photo of the baseboards saying
(35:27):
hey these are all ready for you.
And with a few other subs whowill go in later, like our
property manager's handyman,who's going to install the knobs
and the pulls on the paintedcabinets, I have a photo ready
to send them where those knobsand pulls are located in the
closet.
You see, when you'recoordinating all this stuff from
out of state, texting and photosare so helpful to save time.
(35:51):
And I just saw that you cancreate a text in advance and
send it later.
So like, when I'm on a plane orit's late at night, I can get it
done and then, I think it's oniPhones, you can click that
little plus sign next to themessage and tap send later and
choose your date and time.
And of course, email works too,but many younger subs are not
(36:12):
checking those as often and youmight need to wait for a
response.
So, the one thing that I want totalk about is, would we do this
again, or would we just hirepeople to go in and do all this
work?
Was it worth it for us to takeessentially two full work weeks
out of our schedule to fly toIdaho and do all this work?
(36:36):
Kev, what do you think?
Was it worth it for you?
Kevin (36:39):
I, I think it was for all the work we did.
I mean, it was tough, but wesaved some money.
Stacie (36:46):
We absolutely saved money.
We busted our butts, you guys.
I mean, we were sore.
We were tired.
We were crabby.
Kevin (36:53):
I also think though, that we've learned what we can farm
out and what we can doourselves.
And maybe there might be anadjustment that way a little
bit.
Stacie (37:01):
Yeah, I agree.
I agree.
So that's.
Kevin (37:04):
Oh, one more thing that I learned.
We should uh, let the complexknow when we're working there
late at night.
Stacie (37:11):
Oh my god.
Kevin (37:12):
Because Um, I think the latest we left and it was like
midnight or so.
Yeah, we walk out.
We had a boot on our car andluckily the people that put the
boot on answered the phone wasout there in 20 minutes.
We told them we were the ownersand they couldn't have been
(37:33):
nicer.
They removed the boot from thewheel.
Stacie (37:35):
And they didn't charge us the$150 fee.
Kevin (37:37):
No, they, they were very nice people.
And we got back to the hotel byI think one o'clock.
Stacie (37:44):
1 a.
m.
Yeah.
But the one thing that was niceabout that too, was.
Hey, we know that the securitypeople are doing their jobs at
night watching all the cars inthe unit.
So that was good Um, do we wantto discuss how much this cost
us?
Kevin (38:00):
Not right now.
I'm still getting over it.
Stacie (38:04):
Let's just say it was probably at least double what we
had had planned but, here's thepoint, you guys.
We went in there and we didthese renovations because we
don't know how long we're goingto hold on to this complex, this
fourplex.
And when we go to sell it, ourthought process is not
necessarily that we're hoping toget a ton more rent because we
(38:27):
know that's not necessarilygoing to happen.
Right.
We're kind of competing with ourown self.
There's 25 four plexes in thiswhole complex of apartments that
individual owners like us have.
And it's tough to get a wholelot more rent out of it.
However, when we go to sellthese units in the future, we're
(38:48):
hoping that they will sellquickly because they're already
renovated and up to date andready to go for whoever is ready
to step in.
Kevin (38:56):
Yeah, 100%.
And another reason why it went alittle bit up, we just thought
we were going to do new flooringand and doing the LVP was really
a no brainer, but then when welooked at the countertops, how
bad a shape they were in, and wewere doing that, it just made
sense to add a few more thingslike the appliances on top of
(39:19):
it.
So bottom line now, two of thefour units are renovated and
look great.
Stacie (39:25):
Yeah, they do.
I mean, we didn't do thebathrooms.
Those we still have left to do,but those would be super easy
fixes.
Now, the floors are getting donein the bathrooms, but all we
have to do now would just bevanities or paint the vanities.
We could do that and then putnew countertops.
All right, you guys, that's ourshow for today.
We hope you enjoyed this how wedid it episode, about renovating
(39:48):
an out of state unit by puttingin our own time and leveraging
it by using subs and contractorsas best we could.
Would you do us a favor andleave us a kind review of the
podcast so that other landlordscan understand the benefits of
listening to it?
If you want to hear more, followor subscribe to the podcast so
each week the episodes aredownloaded right to your
(40:09):
favorite podcast platform.
And we'd love to stay in contactwith you.
If you have a question or youwant to suggest a subject for
our podcast, you can text us at650 489 4447, or you can email
us at Stacie@YourLandlordResource.
(40:30):
com.
That's Stacie with an I E, orKevin@ YourLandlordResource.
com.
And all these links will be inthe show notes as well.
Also in the show notes, you willfind links to all the downloads
that we offer.
Ways to sign up for a freenewsletter.
And as we mentioned before, wehave a wait list for our
(40:51):
upcoming course on placing yourideal tenant.
There's also links to ourprivate Facebook group, that's
just for landlords and oursocial media accounts on
Instagram, Facebook, andYouTube, where we share
informative and detailed tipsand tricks for landlords.
So, go check those out.
I think that's about it.
Thanks again.
And until next time, you've gotthis landlords.
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