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baltimorecalling t1_itc5cby wrote

Rehabbing these properties is not viable for most.

Even if someone finds a vacant with 'good bones', it's a lot of money, permitting, inspections, time to get one of these rehabbed.

On top of that, you have material costs, and labor costs. And even if a significant portion of the people buying these vacants have the skills to do the work, the permitting process requires licensed contractors for many of the jobs, so trying to save money by going DIY is not usually an option.

On top of all of that, you have issues with lead paint, asbestos, etc.

A lot of these vacants just need to be razed.

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Xanny t1_itcsl9z wrote

I looked into trying to do vacant rehabs for MD contractors licenses require 2 years of W-2 labor related to contracting. I've built houses with my dad and done my own work in PA, but even when I did part time at his construction co I wasn't getting pay stubs, I was being paid cash after the day, as a lot of handymen in the area are. That requirement for traceable employment history makes the ability to get a contractors license to pull permits in the city, I feel, almost impossible.

Requiring additional inspections of someone with less qualifications that they have to pay out of pocket, sure, go for it. But I can do the work, but I have no way to prove I can that meets these requirements. Previous coworkers can't just vouch for me.

Immigrants will not be able to rehab anything if they can't get contractors licensing and pull permits. I'd love to see MD law amended so there is some way to circumvent that 2 years of W-2 requirement.

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CookieMonster932 t1_itczf1l wrote

Thanks for sharing, I’ve wondered what roadblocks people faced in developing or rehabbing these properties. What percentage of people working in the business actually get W2?

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mtneer2010 t1_itdjjtg wrote

I'm confused, are you saying you're working off the books and not paying taxes?

Doing rehab/reno jobs should require licenses and permits. Way too many DIYers who "know what they're doing" botch these jobs and it makes the situation dangerous for people living there, because they cut corners to save a buck

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baltimorecalling t1_itdpkbj wrote

The house next to me is being rehabbed by people who don't know what they're doing. I had 2 gas shut-offs at my house because we thought we had a gas leak. Turns out: it was theirs.

I had to get a stop work order issued, because it was dangerous and expensive for me (First time, BGE shut OUR gas off, and didn't trace the problem to the obvious construction next door. We had to pay AJ Michaels a pretty penny to clear our gas tag that same day).

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pestercat t1_itefngq wrote

This. Fucking flippers plus a worthless (and astonishingly overpaid) inspector wrecked our lives. Had to go deep into debt to fix their mistakes enough to sell, then live with family for five awful years saving up and paying down debt before we could buy again.

Still remember our proper contractor when he and one of his men were working on our masonry. All I could hear over their music was "this is not to American building standards at all! This is ridiculous!" repeated over and over at ascending volumes.

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okdiluted t1_itc7jmx wrote

it'd be amazing if money for adequate public housing was ever allocated—all of these costs are better at scale, and starting a government program to rehab abandoned homes to be turned into housing for refugees and public housing that would start to make a dent in the shortage of section 8 properties would be amazing for the community--steady, skilled labor jobs would be brought into the city, local materials suppliers would have to be used (government has pretty stringent rules mandating that sometimes!), and vacant housing would have to be restored up to code and be consistent with each other instead of like twenty different contractors and DIYers all doing things their own way and hoping nobody'll notice if they get weird with it. like, there's a way to do this, it'll just never get done because allocating a relatively small amount of money to communities (small in terms of our government's spending anyways) is "wasteful" or "the money isn't there" or it's "unprofitable" but like, the defense department or wherever needs an ever-expanding blank check, so.

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gaytee t1_itcq4tq wrote

And the problem usually exists that fixing one isn’t really an option. You might get lucky and fix an end unit, or a unit surrounded by neighbors that have been fixed up, but for the majority of these actually vacant blocks, fixing one doesn’t make a different and you’d need to repair the whole block.

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ok_annie t1_itchhcd wrote

Is lead and asbestos abatement easier/cheaper when destroying a building than when renovating it? In my head it would be harder to contain if you’re tearing a building down, but I have no idea how these things work.

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Ocean2731 t1_itd5sm0 wrote

There’s also the issue of jobs. People moved away when Bethlehem Steel and Boeing left/scaled down and the port became more mechanized. Renovate those houses, but the person moving in needs a reason to be in the city.

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plain-rice t1_itcdh4d wrote

Another thing you forgot to mention about the DYI and permitting is that the buildings have to be accurate to the historical style. So that bathroom or that extra room that was built in the 50s with no permit has to be torn down.

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sllewgh t1_itcpqsf wrote

That's false. Only buildings with historic designation are subject to regulations like that.

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Shojo_Tombo t1_itcs35s wrote

Yep. My century house was sold as a HUD home to flippers. It was most definitely not restored to its historic period specs.i wish it was!

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