Let’s say you want to make a closet in your garage and you want to create the frame using 2×4 lumber. It’s helpful to draw this in 3D to visualize the design. This post will show you how to do it using the free web version of SketchUp.
Set length units and precision
First, under Model Info, we set the length format and precision. Since a 2×4 piece of wood is actually 1.5″ x 3.5″, let’s set the length and precision to 1/2″.
Create 2×4 objects that represent stock lumber
To simplify creating the closet frame out of 2x4s in 3D, we’ll first create 2×4 objects that are any length, e.g. 12 inches long, along each axis (x, y, and z). To do this, we’ll first create a 2×4 rectangle as follows:
Choose the rectangle tool.
Click and drag anywhere until you see a rectangle.
Before clicking a second time, type “1.5,3.5” (without quotes) to manually specify the dimensions and then hit Enter. What you type will show up in the Dimensions field in the bottom right corner.
You will see the rectangle as shown below.
Now, we want to pull the rectangle to create a 12-inch long object representing a piece of wood. Click the Push / Pull tool.
Zoom in, if necessary. Then, click on the face of the rectangle and drag up. Do not click as doing so will set the length. Instead, type “12” (without quotes) to specify the length in inches to pull the rectangle to create a 12″ long 2×4. Then, hit Enter.
Now that we have one piece of 2×4 in one direction. Let’s copy and paste it twice to create two more pieces in the other two directions. Click the “Select” tool.
Drag a rectangle around the entire object you just created to select all of it. The object will turn blue as shown below.
Click Copy / Ctrl+C and then Paste / Ctrl+V to paste a clone of that object. Do this twice.
Now, select the 2nd object and then click the Rotate tool.
Click somewhere on the object and then click again to start rotating the object. Don’t click a third time since doing so would set the rotation angle. Instead, type “90” (without quotes) to rotate the object by 90 degrees.
Do the same with the 3rd copy of the object but rotate it in a different direction.
Come to think of it, we should make 3 more copies of the object and rotate them so we can have 2x4s in all 6 perpendicular directions. If you’re having a hard time selecting one entire object using the “Select” tool because it’s too close to another object, try using the “Lasso” selection tool.
Now we’ve got our 2×4 building blocks which we can move to the side and clone to create the closet frame. I’ll select all 6 objects and move them as shown below.
Now, we’ll create a closet frame by first cloning one of the building blocks, moving the clone, and pulling it to change its length. I’ll start with the back left corner of the closet frame. When I copied and pasted one of the 2×4 objects, I clicked on the origin to position the object there.
Let’s say we want our closet frame to be 80 inches tall. I’ll switch to the Push / Pull tool, click on the face of the object that I want to pull, drag up, and then type 80 to set the length to 80 inches.
Since we want all corners to be 80 inches tall, we can clone the first 80-inch tall object three more times and position them as far as we want from each other. When you paste a copy of an object, you will see tooltips that help you align the object relative to the axes and to other objects.
Above, we see a copy of the 80-inch tall 2×4 but we don’t know how far it is from the first 80-inch 2×4. Click the Dimensions tool.
Then, click on each of the two endpoints of the distance you want to measure. In this example, the distance is 2′ 8.5″.
Let’s select the 2nd object and then click the Move tool so we can move the object to be 2 feet away from the other object.
Click on one corner / endpoint and then drag such that the distance becomes 2 feet.
When dragging, you’ll see tips such as “On Red Axis” which will help you stay on the same plane and only move in one direction. Below, we now see the distance between both objects is 2 feet.
Repeat the above steps for the remaining parts.
To learn more, including how to move and align objects relatively and absolutely, read my other SketchUp article.
So, last week I renovated one of my rental properties. This included replacing an old kitchen from 1995 with a new one. Here’s an overview of the process.
1. Take a picture of and measure the old kitchen cabinets
I just drew the measurements in Photoshop. Note that the picture below is what the cabinets looked like in 2008. The remodel was done in 2021 and the cabinets were is much worse condition then.
2. Design and order new cabinets
Cabinet Prices
Cabinet prices can vary widely. Home Depot, for example, is expensive. HD Supply has cheap cabinets but they look cheap. IKEA’s cabinets are mid-priced but you have assemble them. Chinese stores have cheap cabinets that look expensive. They also come pre-assembled. But, you have to inspect each cabinet before installing them because their quality control isn’t very good.
Cabinet or Drawers
There are base cabinets that sit on the floor and wall cabinets that are on the wall. Wall cabinets are always just cabinets with a swing out door. They are more expensive if the door has a glass window in it. Base cabinets can be regular cabinets or have drawers. If they are just cabinets, then you’d have a hard time reaching for items in the back of them. If they are drawers, then you can just slide out the drawers to access anything in them. Since drawers require more material and come with sliding mechanisms, they are more expensive then drawers.
Types of Cabinets
2D / 3D Design
I ended up just buying the cabinets from a Chinese store (warehouse) called Uni Tile & Marble.
I ended up choosing solid gray color cabinets. This is because the house is a rental house and tenants somehow ruin the surface of the cabinets, I can later just easily repaint the cabinets. This is what the cabinets look like in the showroom.
Countertops
For the countertop, the one on display was off white with a random gray design.
It contrasted well with the gray cabinets and looked exotic but it was also more expensive than other countertops on offer. I decided to go with a cheaper countertop ($300 per 8 foot slab) but my tenant offered to pay the difference for the more expensive countertop so I ended up getting the more expensive one.
Quarts countertops are super heavy and require special handling and are not easy to cut. I ended up paying the store to transport and install the countertops. If you’re looking for a cheaper DIY option, you can just buy cheap laminate countertops at the Home Depot and use a simple jigsaw to cut out the sink hole.
Sinks
For the sink, I prefer the large single basin type. Even though they’re available at Chinese stores, Chinese stores then to have outdated return policies with unreasonable restocking fees (25%) so for these types of items, I buy them at the Home Depot or Lowes.
Faucet
For the faucet, I definitely prefer the type in the picture below. It makes it easier to spray and clean the entire sink or whatever else you are washing / cleaning.
3. Pick Up New Cabinets
I could have had the cabinets delivered for a ridiculous $200 fee but since I need to dispose of the old cabinets, I decided to rent a 10′ U-Haul box truck to both pick up the new cabinets and transport the old cabinets to the dump.
A 10′ box truck was big enough to lay all cabinets on the truck bed.
The house were the cabinets will be installed.
4. Demolish Old Cabinets
The old cabinets were original to the house from 1995. They were definitely low quality cabinets. They were just screwed into the wall. Some sections were large so I used a Milwaukee Monster sawzall to cut cabinets in half.
5. Dispose of Old Cabinets
Since we had the truck for 24 hours, we loaded the old cabinets and other construction debris in it
and took it to the dump where I paid $138 to dump it all.
6. Prepare Wall
After removing the kitchen cabinets, the walls needed to be patched up and painted.
First, we enlarged some of the holes in the wall by cutting with an oscillating tool. The holes were shaped like rectangles where vertical edges would be along the center of studs. This would allow us to screw drywall nails through them into the studs. Cutting drywall was easy using a small, cordless reciprocating saw.
We then patched crevices with spackling paste.
After waiting for the spackling paste to dry, I then used an orbital sander to smoothen the wall surface.
I then sprayed wall texture to try to match the texture of the existing wall. This didn’t work well as the material was often clogging up. Next time, just use an air compressor with an actual texture sprayer gun.
I then painted the ceiling Swiss Coffee.
And painted the walls Roman Plaster.
I then touched up the corners where the two colors met. Semigloss paint was used to make cleaning easier.
7. Mark Walls
After the paint dried, we marked where all the studs in the wall were using a stud finder and then marked level (horizontal) and plumb (vertical) points using a laser level.
Then, we connected the points and drew outlines for where the cabinets would go. Note that the distance between the countertop to the bottom of the wall cabinets should be 18 inches.
8. Install Cabinets
We then installed the wall cabinets first. To facilitate this, we screwed a 2×4 to the wall so we could sit the cabinets on it while we screw the cabinets into the wall. If a cabinet didn’t span 2 studs, we’d use drywall anchors.
If walls or floor are not level or flat, use shims.
9. Install Cabinet Handles
To facilitate installing the cabinet handles perfectly, we bought a plastic template / jig. It did not work for drawers, though, so for drawers, we made our own jig.
10. Install Microwave
Since the microwave goes above the range, we installed that next. This required cutting holes in the cabinet above it for bolts and the vent.
11. Install Plywood on Base Cabinets
We then cut plywood and screwed it to the base cabinets.
12. Install Sink
We then cut a hole in the plywood for the sink using a mini circular saw for the straight sides and a jig saw for the corners. Then we installed the faucet, soap dispenser, dishwasher air gap, and garbage disposer to the sink and then installed the sink. This was done before installing the countertop because the countertop would not be ready for another 2 weeks.
I just got a top mount sink that includes the faucet holes rather than an undermount sink. This simplified installation.
13. Install Crown Molding
We then installed the crown molding. This was very tricky for a couple of reasons.
depending on the shape of the top of your wall cabinets and the shape of your crown molding, there may not be enough surface area to shoot finish nails into or there may not be enough clearance to shoot nails from above
cutting miter angles can be tricky and holding the crown molding down on the miter saw the same way isn’t easy.
Cutting the crown molding
Fortunately for this project, we only needed 45 degree cuts. But, we messed up a few times at first and wasted some expensive molding. Here are some tips to cut crown molding easily and correctly each time.
Label the surface of the miter saw “TOP” to remind yourself that the top of the crown molding should be facing down and the bottom of the molding flat against the fence.
Find a way to secure 2 pieces of wood to the sides of the miter saw.
Place your crown molding against the fence and then screw a piece of plywood or wood board to the two pieces of wood on each side of the miter saw. This allow you to put the crown molding on the saw at the same angle every time ensuring perfect cuts.
Installing the crown molding
For our particular case, we decided to secure the crown molding to thin plywood using small screws. We then lifted it and let it sit on top of the wall cabinets – no further screwing or nailing necessary.
14. Install Baseboard and Trim Molding
We then cut the baseboard and trim molding to length and shot them into the cabinets using a finish nailer powered by an air compressor. The baseboard and molding were necessary to hide gaps between the cabinets and the floor and walls.
15. Install The Countertop
For the countertops, I decided to go with quartz instead of marble. Since it’s very heavy and tricky to cut and to smoothen the edges, I decided to just pay someone to install the countertops.
First, one of the 8 foot slabs was cut to go on each side of the range. I believe this was done using a diamond blade.
A thin strip of the excess material was cut to make a finished end. The strip was secured using a special epoxy glue.
The strip was then clamped down and the epoxy left to cure for a while.
The installer intentionally cut the slab and the thin strip to be longer than the final length so that after the strip was secured he could cut and trim the end where you see all the glue oozing out.
This resulted in a very clean joint. He then smoothened the end.
This is how the joint ended up looking (with some dust that would eventually be wiped off).
For the sink side, a hole was cut out.
To create rounded corners, the installer cut a bunch of lines at each corner.
And then using a flathead screwdriver, broke off the thin pieces.
And then used an angle grinder to grind away rough edges to create a smooth rounded corner.
They then glued the quartz countertop to the plywood.
And this is the end result.
Note that we also
replaced the flourescent tube light box with flat LED lights
painted the walls BEHR Roman Plaster (semigloss)
replaced the old style kitchen outlets and switches with new Decora ones including adding a dimmer for the very bright LED lights
replaced the linoleum sheet / vinyl tile flooring with LifeProof Dusk Cherry luxury vinyl planks.
Tools
This project was big enough that I ended up bringing most of my tools to the worksite.
If you have an electrical outlet or switch that isn’t working, here are some steps for debugging and fixing the issue. First of all, it’s important to understand the flow of electricity within a typical home.
Electrical Components and Electricity Flow
Electricity comes through a cable from your local utility to your house
That cable enters a circuit breaker panel on a wall
The circuit breaker panel contains many circuit breakers.
Each circuit breaker has electrical wiring to different parts of the house (kitchen, bedrooms, living room, bathroom, garage, etc). For example, below is a picture of electrical wiring from one circuit breaker in the panel going to 4 outlets. The wiring (or circuit) forms a loop. Electricity flows
from the panel
through the circuit breaker
through the black (hot) wire
through each outlet
through the white (neutral / return) wire
through each outlet
and back to the circuit breaker panel
The bare copper or green wire (ground) goes from each outlet to the circuit breaker panel and then to a rod stuck in the ground.
Each circuit delivers 120 V (volts) of electricity or 240 V depending on the use. Most circuits carry 120 V but electric ranges, electric water heaters and electric clothes dryers carry 240 V since they require more power to function.
Each circuit breaker is rated for a specific number of amperes (amps). Usually 20 A for circuits that require more power, e.g. kitchens, and 15 A for circuits that don’t require much power, e.g. bedrooms.
Circuits that require more power (e.g. 20 Amps vs 15 Amps) use thicker electrical wiring. The smaller the gauge number, the thicker the wire.
12 gauge Romex is rated for 20 Amps and is commonly yellow jacketed.
14 gauge Romex is still used in some applications and is rated for 15 Amps and is grey jacketed.
10 gauge Romex has an orange jacket and is used for water heaters or clothes driers.
The power (P) available to any particular circuit is determined by the voltage (V) running through it and the amps (A) the circuit breaker and the wiring support. The formula for power is P = VxI. So, if a circuit has 120 V and is rated for 15 A, then it supports a maximum power of 120 x 15 = 1800 Watts.
Each device (toaster, laptop, lamp, refrigerator, TV, etc) plugged into an outlet or is in a circuit draws power. The device will indicate how many amps it draws or power (in watts) is consumes to work. For example, below is a label on the back of a toaster oven. It requires 120V AC (alternating current, as opposed to DC, direct current) and it consumes up to 1200 W of power.
This toaster, which consumes up to 1200 W, can be used on a 15 A circuit because a 15 A circuit supports up to 1800 W of power. However, if two of these toasters were plugged in to the came 15 A circuit, then they’d both consume up to 1200 + 1200 = 2400 W which exceeds the power rating of the circuit. This would cause the circuit breaker associated with the circuit to trip and disconnect power to the circuit. Without the circuit breaker, the 15 A rated wiring would begin to melt due to the heat buildup and possibly catch on fire. If the circuit breaker turns off, you can toggle it back on.
In the picture above, the first outlet is a GFCI (ground fault circuit interrupter) outlet. It behaves like a circuit breaker. If the total power drawn through the outlet exceeds its rating, e.g. 15 A or 20 A, then the outlet would disconnect itself from the circuit thereby rendering the entire circuit without power because it is the first device in the circuit. If a GFCI outlet turns off, you can push a button on it to reset it.
Debugging Electrical Outlets / Switches
Now that we understand basic home electricity, we can make a list of things to check for debugging a non-working outlet or switch or entire circuit.
Outlet not working
Check all circuit breakers in the circuit breaker panel. If any are off, turn them on.
If the outlet is a GFCI outlet, it may have been turned off. Push the RESET button on it to turn it on.
Check neighboring outlets to see if they are working or not as they may be on the same circuit as the outlet that isn’t working. If the neighboring outlets are not working, see if any are GFCI outlets. If any are, then push the RESET button to turn them on. A GFCI outlet that is off will cause downstream devices (outlets, switches, etc) to also be off.
Using a voltage tester tool, test for the presence of voltage at each component (outlet, switch, circuit breaker). Some voltage testers will beep and/or show a red color when it detects voltage.
Try to determine which components (outlets, switches) are on a circuit and in what order.
Plug an outlet tester into the outlet to check whether the wires were installed correctly. For example, the outlet may have an open neutral meaning the white wire may be disconnected. Even if the black (hot) wire is connected, if the white (neutral) wire is disconnected, then the outlet, and all downstream outlets, won’t work. Using an outlet tester is the easiest way to test continuity in wires.
If an open neutral exists, open the outlet and verify the white wire is installed correctly. If the outlet tester still reports an open neutral, then the white wire may be loose or disconnected on the other end, e.g. at the circuit breaker. If the white wire is connected at the circuit breaker, then it could be disconnected somewhere in between both end points, which could happen if a rat chewed on the wire. In that case, new wiring needs to be added.
If the outlet tester reports an open ground (ground wire not connected), then the outlet will still work but it’s not safe to use.
Use the outlet tester on ALL outlets in a circuit. A disconnect in one outlet can cause all downstream outlets to not work.
In order for an outlet to work, electricity must flow from the black wire into the outlet and out from the white wire thereby creating a loop. The outlet tester is one way to check for continuity. Another is by using a multimeter. A multimeter can also be used to trace wires through walls to see to find each end point.
If an outlet sort of works, e.g. a light connected to it is dim or flickers, it could be because there are too many devices drawing too much power to it or the voltage in the circuit is too low, e.g. 85 V instead of 120 V. To determine the actual voltage on the line, you can use a multimeter.
So, I was going to replace the old bamboo flooring in the living room and vinyl tiles on top of linoleum sheet flooring in the dining and kitchen areas of my rental with tile but since I hate dealing with mortar and cutting tile, I asked some contractors to do it. Apparently they all want thousands of dollars so I decided to instead install luxury vinyl planks which are easy enough to do myself (or with a helper). I decided to go with this particular brand and color:
Lifeproof Dusk Cherry 8.7 in. W x 47.6 in. L Luxury Vinyl Plank Flooring
It’s exclusive to the Home Depot and it looks pretty nice. It costs $2.99 per square foot but it comes with the underlayment pre-attached which greatly simplifies installation.
These planks are waterproof and float on the subfloor. No glue or mortar is necessary. The planks click and lock into each other.
Following are some tips I came up with after following the instructions and realizing the instructions could be better.
Subfloor preparation
Removing linoleum sheet / vinyl tile and adhesive
Don’t try to do this by hand. Spend a little bit of money ($85) and rent a power floor scraper. You’ll save a ton of time and energy.
Notice how the top part of the blade sits underneath the black curved deflector. This was problematic because vinyl tiles that were getting stuck where those two parts meet making it difficult to move forward.
To fix this, I unscrewed the bolts and put the scraper blade above the deflector.
This tool is loud and heavy and can’t reach into tight spaces. For tight spaces, I bought a pneumatic floor scraper from Harbor Freight.
This tool requires a compressor that preferably has a large tank. I have a small 2.5 gallon compressor and this tool would work very well at high pressure for about 30 seconds before losing strength. I’d have to stop for another 20 seconds for the compressor tank to fill up before proceeding again with high pressure. To address this, you can buy or rent a large air compressor.
Removing tile flooring and mortar
If you have a lot of tile to remove, you can rent a demolition hammer with the following scraper / breaker attachments.
Installing click-lock vinyl plank flooring
Cutting planks
The instructions say to use a utility knife to score planks on both sides and snapping them into two pieces. Though that works without producing any vinyl dust, doing this a lot can get tiring very quickly and is error prone. Instead, just buy a flooring saw like the SKIL 4-3/8-in 7-Amp Sliding Corded Miter Saw.
It’s lightweight and can do rip and cross cuts.
For clean cuts, place the plank face side down and underlayment side up.
If you need to cut irregular shapes or cuts that are difficult with a flooring saw, just use an angle grinder if the cuts don’t need to be perfect since they’ll be hidden underneath baseboard. I temporarily took off the blade guard so I could see where I was cutting.
Spacers
You’re supposed to leave a 1/4 inch gap between the wall and the planks. At first I used the spacers that came with a flooring kit from Harbor Freight.
Though this kit is cheap, the spacers and the tapping block are no good. The red spacers keep falling out of place and the tapping block is made of rubber which helps protect the vinyl planks from damage but it makes it difficult to tap the planks together. Instead, by the following tapping block and spacers. Or, just buy the kit which comes with 2 other tools.
Pro Flooring Installation Kit for Vinyl, Laminate and Hardwood Flooring
The hammer doubles has a hard side for hitting the tapping black and a soft (mallet) side for hitting vinyl plank seams. Since I did not have this kit, I used a separate hammer and mallet.
Installation Steps
First Row Starting at one end, place a spacer against the wall and lay planks down to lay the first row. Overlay the short end of the planks and tap them together using a mallet.
Second and Even Number Rows Cut a plank in half or at least 8 inches from one end to stagger the placement of planks. Make sure that no plank pieces are less than 8 inches long, if possible.
Install plank by wall Place a spacer by the wall, place a plank such that the long edge overlaps the long edge of the existing plank in the first row at a 45 degree angle.
Then, lay the plank down and tap down on the two long edges using a mallet.
Install next planks The subsequent planks will have two edges that need to be snapped into place – a long edge and a short edge. Again, position the plank at an angle to get the long edge into the groove of the neighboring plank’s long edge. Then, slide the plank towards the short edge of the neighboring plank’s short edge. Lay the plank down and hit the short edge using a mallet.
Then, using a hammer, hit the tapping block so there’s no gap between the long edges of the plank.
Keep doing this until you get to the last plank in that row.
Install last plank in row For the last plank in the row, you’ll likely need to cut the plank. Then, install the plank. If you notice any short edges of the planks in that row have a gap, you can close the gap by using the following method. Notice I put the tapping block underneath the metal pull bar which worked better than if you don’t use the tapping block.
If you own a multifamily investment property which you are renting out to 2 or more tenants, you’ll probably be disappointed to find out that there’s only one water meter (provided by the city) to the entire building located underground under the sidewalk. Following are some scenarios on how water pipes reach each unit and how to possibly measure each unit’s water usage.
Separate cold water pipes
Even though there’s only one water meter under the sidewalk, it’s possible that the downstream water pipe after the meter branches into multiple pipes, one for each unit, thereby creating multiple cold water networks If this is the case, then you’re in luck and you can install a water meter, e.g. Badger Model 25 or Neptune T-10 at each branching water pipe.
Shared cold water pipes, separate hot water pipes
If the cold water pipes from the city’s water meter go to all units in a shared manner, then it would be very difficult to measure water usage by unit. However, if each unit has its own hot water pipes that are not shared with other units, which would be the case if each unit has its own hot water heater, then you can measure hot water usage by installing a water meter at the cold water inlet to or the hot water outlet from the water heater.
Billing each unit for water
Usually there will be one water bill for a multifamily property. Since there are multiple tenants, you’d need to fairly split the bill among them based on each unit’s water usage.
Based on headcount
If both hot and cold water are shared among all units, then one common method is to bill each unit proportionally based on headcount (number of occupants). If one unit has twice as many people living in it as another, then that unit would pay twice as much for water. Of course, headcount can change over time so this would need to be updated whenever there is a change.
Based on hot water usage
If cold water is shared but hot water is separate, then you can split the water bill proportionally based on hot water usage. This would be more accurate that going based on headcount.
Water meters
Following are some popular water meters for residential use.
Badger Model 25
This meter has plastic threads and costs about $100.
The water meters above are manual read meters. To measure water usage remotely and see usage over time, you can buy a smart water meter. One of the best ones is Flume 2.
Flume 2 Smart Home Water Monitor
This smart water meter does not require plumbing as it is just attached or strapped around a compatible water meter. It costs $200.
The Flume water monitor just straps onto an inline water meter. It reads the magnetic field generated by your water meter, which the company says can detect any water usage all the way down to one one-hundredth of a gallon — i.e. a slowly dripping faucet.
Many, if not most, people aren’t experienced with buying and selling a house. For that reason, they hire a real estate agent. However, once you’ve bought one or two houses, you’ll realize it’s not that hard. 50 years ago, when online MLS sites like Zillow didn’t exist, having an agent find a house for you was useful. However, nowadays, buyers can get notified instantly when a house matching their criteria comes on the market. This reduces the value of having an agent. Furthermore, in California, real estate agents get a 3% commission. Even though this is paid by the seller, in certain situations the buyer pays by having to offer a higher purchase price. By buying a house without an agent, the seller doesn’t have to pay 3% commission to a buyer’s agent which means you can offer a lower purchase price than other buyers who have an agent. For a $500,000 house, this can save you $15,000.
Below are steps to buy a house without an agent.
1. Get a pre-approval letter
Assuming you will be borrowing money to buy the house, as for most people, you need a pre-approval letter. This is for 2 reasons:
Find out how much of a house you can afford
Prove to the seller you can actually afford to buy their house
To get a pre-approval letter, you can submit an application to purchase a home on Zillow Home Loans. You can do the same at LoanDepot.com which is reportedly the second-largest non-bank provider of direct-to-consumer loans in the United States. Another option is to compare lenders based on interest rate offered. By filling out some information on Zillow’s Mortgage Rates page, you’ll be presented with multiple lenders and interest rates. You can then pick a lender, get in contact with them, and ask for a pre-approval letter at the rate they advertised. Here’s an example pre-approval letter.
A pre-approval letter is different from a prequalification letter. With a pre-approval, your financial situation is verified and your credit score is checked.
2. Search for a house
The easiest thing to do is search Zillow. You can also search Redfin, Trulia, and official MLS websites.
Appraisal
Note the automated estimates, e.g. Zestimate and Redfin estimate. They will give you a good idea of the value of the property. However, don’t assume they are correct. Sometimes, their algorithms use uncomparable properties to determine value leading to incorrect values, e.g. comparing a multifamily property or condo to a single-family property. You can see the properties each website uses to determine a particular value. If they don’t make sense, you can calculate the price per sq ft of similar properties recently sold and come up with a more accurate estimate. See an example. Based on the pictures, neighborhood and estimate, think of how much you’d pay for the property.
Tips
See my post on house-buying tips to learn more about certain things to watch out for.
RPA – California Residential Purchase Agreement and Joint Escrow Instructions – 4 Pack
This form is the main form used for making an offer. It includes
(AD) Disclosure Regarding Real Estate Agency Relationship
(BIA) Buyer’s Inspection Advisory
(PRBS) Possible Representation Of More Than One Buyer Or Seller
(WFA) Wire Fraud Advisory
Price
$170.98 (CAR Member Price)
$341.95 (CAR Non-Member Price)
Other useful forms
TDS – Real Estate Transfer Disclosure Statement The property disclosure statement is required by law in most residential sales transactions in California. It includes Seller’s mandatory disclosure of specified items and any known adverse material conditions, as well as sections for Seller’s and Buyer’s agents to comply with diligent visual inspection requirements.
BCO – Buyer Counteroffer Counteroffer form to be used when a buyer initiates a counter offer.
SCO – Seller Counteroffer Counteroffer form to be used when a seller initiates a counter offer.
WOO – Withdrawal of an Offer This form is used to revoke an offer or counter offer before the document has been accepted.
Important Terms of Purchase Offer
The standard California residential purchase offer form is written to protect buyers by default. Following are some key clauses.
You will submit the purchase offer to the seller’s agent or, if it’s an FSBO (for sale by owner) listing, then to the seller directly.
Since you are submitting your purchase offer yourself without an agent, you should make it clear that your offer will not require the seller to pay a commission to a buyer’s agent. For a 3% rate, the seller could save $15000 on a $500,000 purchase offer. Below is an example cover letter for this purpose.
Note to Seller:
This offer is from a buyer with no agent. I (the buyer) am representing myself. As such, acceptance of this offer by you (the seller) would save you from having to pay a commission to a buyer’s agent. Since my offer is for $390K, assuming a commission rate of 3%, my offer would save you $390K x 3% = $11,700, and your total commission expense would only be $11,700 to your own agent (seller’s agent). Your net proceeds (excluding other expenses) would be $390K – $11700 = $378300 as shown below.
My Offer
Commission to Seller’s Agent
Commission to Buyer’s Agent
Seller’s Net Proceeds
Purchase Price
3%
0%
(excluding other expenses)
$390,000
$11,700
0
$378,300
If there is another offer above $390K but below $403K and that offer includes a buyer’s agent, then you’d have to pay 6% commission (3% for each agent). In this case, my offer will net you higher proceeds as you can see from the table below.
Other Offers
Commissionto Seller’s Agent
Commission to Buyer’s Agent
Seller’s Net Proceeds
Purchase Price
3%
3%
(excluding other expenses)
$391,000
$11,730
$11,730
$367,540
$392,000
$11,760
$11,760
$368,480
$393,000
$11,790
$11,790
$369,420
$394,000
$11,820
$11,820
$370,360
$395,000
$11,850
$11,850
$371,300
$396,000
$11,880
$11,880
$372,240
$397,000
$11,910
$11,910
$373,180
$398,000
$11,940
$11,940
$374,120
$399,000
$11,970
$11,970
$375,060
$400,000
$12,000
$12,000
$376,000
$401,000
$12,030
$12,030
$376,940
$402,000
$12,060
$12,060
$377,880
$403,000
$12,090
$12,090
$378,820
To conclude, my offer of $390K will net you a higher profit than any other offer up to $402K.
5. Do a home inspection
Inspections aren’t usually required by your mortgage lender, but they can reveal hidden issues that the seller might not know about. A typical home inspection covers surface-level elements of the home, including its plumbing, structure, heating system, and more.
You can search for home inspectors on Zillow’s website or Google.
Expect to pay at least $400 for a home inspection from a reputable company on an average 2,000-square-foot home.
If the inspection reveals an issue with the home, there are a few ways you can negotiate with the seller.
Ask For Repairs You can ask the seller to repair any problems with the home before closing.
Ask For Reimbursement You can ask the seller to reimburse you for the cost of repairs. This guarantees that you’ll get work from a quality contractor because you choose the professional. However, you might have trouble getting a seller to agree to pay a bill if they don’t know how much it will be.
Ask For A Discount You can ask the seller for a reduction of the sale price if there are significant repairs that need to be made.
Cancel The Sale If you can’t reach a solution with the seller and the issues are a deal-breaker for you, you can always cancel the sale.
7. Finalize financing and close
When you reach an agreement with the seller, it’s time to close on the loan.
Appraisal
Your lender will likely require you to pay for an appraisal. You’ll pay up to $500 and the lender will choose the appraiser. They do this to protect themselves so that if you default on the loan, they can reduce their losses. The appraisal report will also protect you so that you are not overpaying for the property. If the property isn’t worth what you’re offering, you can negotiate to lower the purchase price. Or, you can put a larger down payment if you really want the house.
Your lender will first give you a loan estimate. As soon as the appraisal and underwriting are cleared, your lender will send you a closing disclosure. Your loan estimate and closing disclosure tell you about the terms of your loan, your closing costs, your interest rate, and more. Compare the loan estimate to the final closing disclosure to ensure everything is as expected. If everything looks good, contact your lender and schedule your closing. The examples below are for a refinance but they are similar for a purchase.
Sort the photos as desired, usually by date, so they appear in chronological order.
2. Select and drag photos to video track
All photos will be added to the video track
3. Change duration of each photo
If the duration of each photo is too short or long, select all photos, right click and click on “Change Photo Duration …”. This will change the duration for each and all photos.
4. Add a transition effect
Choose a transition (a simple “crossfade” is the best”), right click and click on “Apply current effect to video track”.
This will result in the transition being applied to all photos.
5. Add Pan and Zoom effect
Select all photos, right click and click on “Auto Pan & Zoom”.
6. Drag audio file to music track
You can find some background music from Sound Cloud.
7. Add intro slide
Click “Instant Project” icon, click on “Beginning”, choose a template, right click and click on “Add at the beginning”.
8. Edit intro slide
Since the intro slide is a template, you will see placeholder content.
Drag a photo to the placeholder clip and hold “Ctrl” to replace the clip. This will cause the photo to be formatted to fit the template.
Double-click the text clip to edit the text of the intro template.
9. Add end slide
This process is the same as for adding the intro slide but click on “Add at the end” instead.
10. Add text to some photos
Click “Title” and then pick a title template. The one with a semi-transparent background is good. Drag it to the Title track where you want the text to appear.
11. Change text and background color
This title template animates the text.
Convert it to a simple fade in and out by clicking on the “Attribute” tab in the Options Panel for the title, click on “Attribute” tab, click on “Animation”, and disable animation by unchecking the “Apply” checkbox.
The background of the text is too light so let’s darken that semi-transparent bar. Double-click on the title clip and in the Options Panel, click the “Edit” tab, and click on the black color in the Text Backdrop context menu as shown in the screenshot below.
Double-click on the title clip again and edit the text.
12. Add more text
Copy and paste the text clip to other photo clips and edit the text.
13. Render video
Click the “Share” tab, choose a setting, and click “Start” button.
I bought a 7’x10′ green screen. I got just the fabric because I semi-permanently attached it to my garage ceiling since I don’t plan on using anywhere else.
Create presentations slides and export them as images
Record video
Stand in front of the green screen with softbox lights on
Clip lavalier mic to shirt and connect it to smartphone on tripod (if necessary, using USB extension cables and an adapter).
Place laptop on laptop stand outside the camera field of view
In video recording app, ensure audio source is set to “external mic”.
Press record and speak while reading and changing slides remotely using the wireless presenter pen
Create final presentation video
Google Slides Tips
Export all slides as images
Creating slides in Google Slides is very similar to how you create them in other presentation apps like MS Powerpoint. In Google Slides, however, if you want to export all slides as images, you need an add-on. I use Slides Toolbox by Digital Thoughts. Once you’ve added that add-on, you can open it
and choose to export all slides as JPG or PNG images.
Set a background with transparency
Notice how in my final rendered video, the background video shows through the slides.
That was accomplished by setting the transparency of the background in Google Slides to around 70% opaque (30% transparent). If you want a semi-transparent background, then you must export the slides as PNG images rather than JPG images.
Test Slides
Download a sample presentation with semi-transparent background in ODP (OpenDocument Presentation) format which you can import into Google Slides.
Position the lavalier mic such that you don’t hear the sound of you breathing.
Stand far from the camera to record more of yourself. You can always crop the video later.
If you have a fast computer with plenty of SSD space, record your video in 4K for ultra hi definition (UHD) resolution. Otherwise, record at 1080p hi definition (HD).
Using the softbox lights, and other lights, if necessary, eliminate as many shadows as possible. For example, the picture below shows dark shadows which will be difficult to remove when you’re editing the video.
In the Cinema FV-5 video recording app, set audio source to “external mic”. When you push the cable into your phone, the wired microphone icon near the top-right corner appears in the app. This tells me the audio source will come from the external mic.
When you export the video, you will have many settings and export presets to choose from. For each preset, you can see the estimated output file size. There’s no point in choosing a high quality output if the source video is low quality. In Windows Explorer, right click on the foreground video and click Properties > Details to see the video specs. The screenshot below shows that my foreground video taken on my phone was 1920×1080 with a bit rate of 22254 kbps (~22 Mbps) and a frame rate of 30 frames per second (fps).
For this, I chose the following spec which gave an estimated output file size of 252 MB for a 13 minute video.
Workflow
In VideoStudio, my workflow is
Create a new project
Add all assets (videos, slides, etc) to the project
Verify SmartProxy is enabled
Add an overlay track so that I have 2 overlay tracks
Drag the background video to the Video track
Drag the slides to the Overlay 1 track in order
Drag the foreground video with the green screen to the Overlay 2 track
Crop the foreground video as necessary
Using NewBlue FX Chroma Key filter, remove the green background so that it’s transparent
Copy and paste the background video multiple times to span the duration of the foreground video
In the Preview panel, drag the foreground video to the left
In the Preview panel, drag the slides to the right and line them up using the grid that appears
Preview the composite video and make changes, as necessary
Most people take pictures by just manually taking a shot when they are ready. Since many things could go wrong with taking just a single shot, e.g. the subject blinks or yawns, a car drives by, etc, then some people will take multiple shots manually – maybe 2 or 3. However, this still doesn’t necessary offer the best shot because the subject may not like how they look in a particular stance or the lighting may not be at their particular angle. Also, photos of people just looking straight at the camera or posing often look boring, as opposed to photos that appear to be taken randomly or without the subject knowing.
Snapshot from Video
To resolve this, you could take a 4K video from your mobile phone, open the video in a video play like VLC, scrub through the video and when you are on a frame you like, take a snapshot (not a screenshot).
Pros:
many frames to choose from (usually 30 frames per second)
Cons:
large file size
must open video and scrub through and pic from you like
videos are generally more compressed than images
Series of Still Images Taken Automatically
To get around the cons of the video approach, you can take a series of still images and just pic the ones you like. This is sometimes called “burst” mode. Ideally, you would be able to
set a delay timer (if you will put the camera down and be in the picture yourself)
set how many pictures to take, e.g. a max of 5 or 10 pictures or unlimited if you want to stop taking pictures when you push a button
an time interval between which photos will be taken, e.g. take a picture every 0.5 seconds, 1 second, 5 seconds, etc.
One app that meets these requirements is Open Camera. It’s free and looks well made. In the screenshot below. I enabled Face detection so that if the subject moves, like when you’re taking a video, the subjects face should always be in focus. I set Repeat to 10x to take a maximum of 10 pictures and I set Repeat mode interval to 1s so a picture will be taken automatically every 1 second.
In this example, I’d end up with 10 pictures. I could then just pick the best one and delete the rest.
Comparison
To compare the picture quality of this method verses taking stills from a video, consider the following photos.
From videoFrom a series of still images
If we zoom in to 100% and focus on a small section, you’ll notice there are more artifacts and blurriness in the still taken from the video, not to mention the contrast and color looks much better in the still shot.
From video
From a series of still images
If I enlarge the images, the artifacts in the video snapshot become much more apparent.
From videoFrom a series of still images
If you set the Repeat to Unlimited and Repeat mode interval to No delay, the app will take as many pictures as it can until you push the stop button. For comparison, a 10 second 4K video consumed 61 MB whereas 10 seconds of unlimited, no delay pictures produced 23 images totaling 45 MB.
The next time you want to take a picture, you may want to try Open Camera and take a series of many pictures as your subject walks around or behaves naturally.
