How to Renovate a House From Long Distance || Long Distance Investing
How to Renovate a House From Long Distance / Long Distance Investing
Hey guys. Welcome to Chapman Tru. Today we're gonna talk to you about renovating a property out of state. And we actually just did this a few months ago, maybe a year ago. I don't know how long ago it was , but we did it and we renovated a cabin in the Pigeon Forge area of Tennessee. So we're going to talk to you about some of the things that went great about it and give you some tips on how to do it yourself
when you're doing a long distance renovation, take it away. So the first thing when you're renovating out-of-state is finding a contractor, somebody to do the work because we're definitely not going there to do the work. I could, I could with these guns, but you know, could not, that's not gonna get you anywhere.
You have to know how to do the work anyways. Yeah. Your fake guns aren't getting us anywhere. Yeah. Well, Either way. So first things first is finding a contractor. Where do we find our contractors? We found them a couple different ways. One, we spoke to our agent who sold us the place. She had recommended a couple contractors, and we actually had them come out, walk the property with us when we were there doing a viewing of the property.
So that's one way that that can work. You can also go onto Angie's or Thumbtack. That is your favorite, right? Your favorite, yeah. I use Angie's a lot. Yeah. You like that? And then Google, you googled a lot on that project. Yeah. So at the very beginning of this project, I basically just buckled in and sat on the computer and just started getting contacts and
one of the good things that I did which, you know, I, I do good things every now and again, you know, and I'm like, wow, that was a good idea. And Googling. Yeah, you invented it. Well, no, no. I'm not talking about, I'm past Googling. We're past Googling. We're talking about when I made a contact list on Google Docs.
Because I love everything Google. I don't, I just use Google. You wait, you made that list? Yes ma'am. I sure did. We need to go back and fact check that document because I feel as if that was not something that you maybe did. Yeah, I mean I, I can check because it says like where it originated, so Yeah. We'll have to, we'll fact check that after.
Yeah. But the point is I made a document and I had a good idea about making this document that had a list of all the contractors and then I color coded it with the highlights based on what happened in the scenario. So basically I would just get on Angie's and I got on Google and she got on Facebook and we just got all these contacts and started reaching out to them.
So local Facebook groups. That was important too, going into, this was a big short-term rental market, so going into short-term rentals. Because a lot of owners are doing the same thing. They're looking for contractors. They need people to work on their properties. So going in and searching in the groups, asking questions in the groups for contractors.
We actually found quite a few really good contractors that way. Yeah. Yeah. So she went on Facebook. I don't really mess with Facebook too much. That's her area of expertise. But Google, Angie's, I'm right there for you. So either way, we ended up getting a whole list of contractors. And this was right in the middle of just like this, the real estate and short term rental, just gold rush or whatever you wanna call it.
So a lot of these contractors were really busy. But what we did was we had well let's action, let's back up and talk about how from far away we're calling these contractors. I mean, I know I have long distance, but we're calling these contractors and how are they getting into the property even. So first things first.
We actually physically went to the property. We saw the property come up, you can check out, we have a video on it of our walkthrough thing, like with the coming up with the ideas of what we were gonna do with the property first. So first you have to know what you're gonna do with it, right? What needs renovating, what you're gonna do, how far you're gonna go with the renovations.
So that comes with the scope of work. So we created a very detailed scope of work where it was very clear what we wanted. We wanted this and this done so we could have something to send to the contractors and say, okay, this is our scope of work. This is what we want done on the property. Correct. So, Since we have this very detailed scope of work that she most likely did most of the details on, because details are not my thing, but you create Google Docs.
I do create Google Docs, and those are really, and come up with really good ideas. Yeah. So since we had this very detailed scope of work from there, we just needed it. A lockbox and cameras, so that way we could have eyes on the property without actually being near a lockbox. We actually, it wasn't even a lockbox.
We had a lockbox and a digital lock on the door so that way people could come and go, but we could keep an eye on what was going on. So we had the scope of work, which explained in detail exactly what we wanted done with the property. Then we gave away for the contractors to go in, so we didn't have to be there to let them in or have somebody there to let them in.
And then we had eyes on the property with cameras. Just to make sure as people were coming and going, they were who they said they were and they were not deciding to take up camp in the house or whatever. But that also leads to choosing your contractors right, and making sure that you are picking and validating people.
I guess, is that the right word? You wanna pick? You wanna make sure that you're hiring a legitimate contractor. So recommendations, not somebody recommending themself, but recommendations for somebody who's worked with them, making sure that they're licensed, bonded, insured, so you're not just having some random Joe Schmo coming into your property.
Right. So that's why I do like Angie's because they have reviews and with Angie's they do have to be licensed and insured. To be there. So that kind of knocks that out for me. The other way is great also. It's just going through and asking them and asking them for proof of that. So what we did was we went in and we had these contractors just kind of come in one at a time.
And whenever they were available, obviously there's, there's certain ones that they're like, we're, we're too busy. We can't get out there for two or three months, you know? So I would notate that on the document that I had the really good idea. It was a really good idea. Yeah. Yeah, it was very helpful. Yeah, I, I didn't know I already said
It was really good idea. It's such a good idea. That was mine. So they went out and they would look at the property and they would go through the scope of work and say what they could or could not do, and send us back a price on it. And with the scope of work being detailed it enabled them to go line by line, which is one of our, our, what's the word I'm looking for?
Methods? No, no. It's one of our requirements. That's the word I was looking for. It's one of them . It's a difficult word. Requirements. So having them go through the scope of work and doing it in a very detailed line by line manner it's one of our requirements when it comes to hiring contractors because a lot of times they come in and they wanna kind of just lump everything together and it's very difficult to understand your cost when it comes to things like that.
So we would wait for responses from each one of them, and we would just go over their quotes. We would go over their quotes. And go from there and just decide which one had the, you know, the best prices, which one had the better ideas, which ones told us how they could, you know, save money.
Which ones had the best timeline? Because time is money as well. Timeline was a big thing on this project. Mm-hmm. . And we actually, you actually found our main contractor on this project. We brought in a couple different people who had skill sets. This contractor, for example, he didn't really feel comfortable handling the deck that needed to be replaced.
He didn't really handle electric work, I believe as well. So we brought in those people to handle those things. But he handled the inside of the entire interior renovation and he did a really good job. And Where'd you find him? Angie's probably right. So angi.com. So that is the basic way that we got the whole contractor list together and got this project rolling.
So after we got the project rolling, we had the timeline that they agreed to, and we would go through the timeline. And one of the main things that we do also is after they get finished with their work we pay them. Right? Yep. Yeah. That's usually how it works. That's usually how it works, but not always, because a lot of contractors ask for the payment upfront.
It's a thing that some contractors do. They say, I need this upfront , you know, half the, half the amount of money upfront and the other half, you know, a quarter of the way through or, or whatever their, whatever their thing is. But the way that we do things is we pay for work that is completed. We're happy to pay for materials ahead of time.
Mm-hmm. because they send us receipts and when they're finished with the work, they send us pictures and we get the payment out as fast as possible. And depending on how they need to be paid, depends on how fast we can get it to them if they have it set up where they can get transfers to their bank account,
wires or whatever, we can get the payment to them like the next day and everybody's happy. Mm-hmm. . Although I did have one contractor who wanted a check, I was like, are you sure you want a check? And I guess their mail system was backed up, so it took them weeks to get the check. But we had a few of those.
Actually, however they wanna be paid is how we pay them because we wanna work with them in a positive way. And if they want a fast wire or maybe they just want to check or whatever, the only thing we don't do is we're not gonna go hand 'em a bunch of cash. Right. Right. That's not really productive, yeah, for us, do everything above board.
Above. Above board. Yeah. So get those W-9's. Yeah. Yeah. This is the board. We do it up here. Yeah. So how do we make sure that the work is getting done? Like he said, we had them send us progress pictures and we were about six, seven hours away. So we did go up and check on the project, especially towards the end, to make sure that the work looked good, see that everything was being done, and so we were able to physically go there as well, in addition to pictures.
So we were paying some people based on pictures, things that were easy to see. Okay. Clearly the shower's done, we could very easily tell that it was our shower that was completed and so we didn't have to go up and see the work for that. I do recommend that you, if you can't physically be there, that you bring a third party in to check the work before you give a complete and final payment to anybody because you wanna make sure that sometimes pictures don't tell the full story.
Even if you wanna be extra safe is have an inspector come back through the property, inspect everything to make sure, especially if you're doing a major renovation where they're adding showers and doing electric work and everything, make sure that they've brought everything up to code and that everything is the way that it's supposed to be.
So you can hold a feedback from them and have that third party go in and, and view it. You can also have your realtor. If you've got a good relationship with them, go in and maybe you can send 'em a couple bucks to go check on the property. There's a lot of different ways that you can get eyes on the ground, but we definitely highly recommend that if you're not gonna go there yourself to have somebody that you trust that you can pay, that's a third party that's gonna go there and validate that the final work's done right.
And I mean as, basically as simple as that. So like she said, if you can't get there yourself, then send somebody out. One good thing is that we did have an inspection at the very beginning, so, Could go through at the very end and have an inspection as well and see if, make sure all the things that we needed to get taken care of were actually taken care of.
It was basically as simple as that. So even though we say it was simple, there was, you know, there's always headaches, there's always things, there's, you know, the timeline is never exactly the timeline. Never, it never goes perfect like that, but it completed and we were really happy with the work at the end of it.
So it was an adventure. Yeah. Of sorts. It wasn't, you know, a terrible adventure. It wasn't, it wasn't that bad. No. We're actually looking to do it again. Yeah, we're looking to do it again soon. So hopefully that answers some of your questions about what it's like to do a renovation from out of state far away or even in state, but on the other side of the state, whatever it may be.
And hopefully those tips were helpful to you. Thank you guys for hanging out with us again. We're gonna get into some of our other projects and some of our other things that we've come across throughout these, you know, these months and years of, of, of doing this. And hopefully find some stuff that is helpful to you in your journey.
Like Google spreadsheets, like yeah, like it wasn't a spreadsheet, it was a Google Doc, but it was a good idea was the main point. So if you guys wanna see more good ideas, make sure you like, subscribe, do all those things, hit the notification bell so you can hear my great ideas and her talk about some stuff that she knows about.
So, you know, yeah, that's what you signed up for. You're watching this channel. All right, well thank you guys very much again. We'll see you guys next time. Peace ciao for now.
Real estate investing is a great way to make money; if you follow the right steps, you can succeed. Make sure to subscribe to our channel to follow our journey as we explore the real estate investing and entrepreneurship world. Our realtor in the Charleston, SC area: Abasi Chapman - https://www.facebook.com/abasichapmanrealestate [email protected] Our Social: Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/charlestontruhomebuyers/ Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/CharlestonTRUHomebuyers Website - https://www.charlestontruhomebuyers.com/ Some of our past and present projects: Costa Rica Bar - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCim2laut5CoRAtROvdgF7kw Makai's World - http://www.youtube.com/c/MakaisWorld Fusion Profits - https://www.fusionprofits.com/ College Band - https://open.spotify.com/artist/3vrmPzWD2ilQFBFC40cZUF Real Estate Investing - https://www.charlestontruhomebuyers.com/ Here are some of the tools that we use to get things done: Design: Canva - https://www.canva.com/join/blimp-armlet-rocking Fiverr - http://www.fiverr.com/s2/394bb58b02 Promo Codes to save money: Rakuten - https://www.rakuten.com/r/KHALIL1936?eeid=28187 Honey - joinhoney.com/ref/qf57xti YouTube Tools: TubeBuddy - https://www.tubebuddy.com/MakaisWorld VidIQ - https://vidiq.com/#_l_3d1 Check out our gear used to make this and other videos: 1. Ring light Neewer RL-12 LED Ring Light 14" Ring Light - https://amzn.to/3i8TtQQ MountDog Ring Light: 14" 3 Color Lights - https://amzn.to/38a7Q2O O-Studio Ring Light with Stand and Phone Holder,10'' LED Selfie Ring Light: https://amzn.to/3t90uq0 2. Computer Apple iMac (27-inch, 8GB RAM, 1TB Storage) - https://amzn.to/2XHS37d 3. Camera GoPro Hero 9 Black: https://amzn.to/37FtqOh 4. Storage Plugable 1TB Thunderbolt 3 External SSD: https://amzn.to/3mA7iu8 Lacie Rugged Mini 4TB Hard Drive: https://amzn.to/37fMOOy 5. Tripod Lightweight Tripod: https://amzn.to/2MAnPha **Disclaimer: This is not a sponsored video, all opinions expressed are my own. The links provided are Amazon affiliate links and other affiliate links which means I earn a small commission if one were to purchase an item via the link.
