Deregulated Energy w/ Rental Units

[George Peslis]

Have you guys heard about the deregulated energy companies?  I actually signed up with one and have all my tenants and properties as my customers.  They can earn free energy which frees up money for them (to pay me) and earns me more customers.

What are your guys thoughts on that?  Has anybody else done this?  

[Peter Kaplan]

I know this post is over a year old, but wanted to add my two cents because energy management within the real estate sector is my primary business. This is not a sales post at all, just trying to help as I have been helped out by other past posts in this forum.

99% of these multi level marketing companies that pretend to save people money on their utilities don't work. I would not go as far as saying they are scam, but they're only intent is producing Commissions for their agents. The commission was generated are tiny, compared to what the actual supply company makes and not in line with what they are supposed to be. .
The whole purpose of using an energy management, or third-party supplier is save money, and control costs rather than. Be subject to the volatility in most utility markets. Instead of having large bills one month in smaller bills on another month, this product levels out the bell curve and gives you a consistent cost management, which I have found on my properties to be essential in properly managing an asset.

This cannot be done by a multilevel marketing company. They will show-fancy graphs and charts and show how great they are doing, but the minute a high demand month (energy usually caused by weather). comes you or your tenants will hemorrhage money.

However, in my rental buildings that I own I have set it up so all tenants are using third-party electric and natural gas suppliers. They are saving money every month on their electric and their natural gas, and are actually earning a residual income. I bypass earning any money on their energy, and use it more as added value to keep them happy and paying the rent in a timely manner. I want to stress, that I am not panning for sales or leads only trying to help out on this forum.
Our website www.uecnow.com has lot of great information and a FAQ section if this is something that interests you feel free to call us and I will do whatever I can to make you feel more comfortable using a third-party. We also have a cloud based utility (water,sewage,electric, and has)management software that is geared towards multi building owners. It tracks manages and budgets your utility expenses so that you always have a firm grasp of what you are overhead is and will be.

The end game ALWAYS has to be focusing on saving money and / or containing costs. Folks that go into this only thinking they are making easy money generally end up costing themselves and tenants money.

I have seen it countless times with other investors that I deal with, where they end up paying double or even triple what they would have paid the utility in a given month and actually losing a renter because of it.

I hope this helps