Water Conservation and Investing in Real Estate

[Matthew Gil]

Never thought I’d write a post about water conservation, but the I have noticed a trend that is affecting our bottom line.

Some back story. While we require some of our tenants to pay their water bill, not all of them do and on our multi units we pay the water and sewer bills.

In the past two years our water and sewer costs have gone up in a very noticeable way. So much so, that it is effecting our expenses ratio and we are actually considering moving to another secondary market. Between property taxes and this latest issue with water prices, are bottom line is getting thinner.

Which leads me to my question. How do you landlords contain water and sewer costs? Any simple (cheap) or green technologies that you use. If your tenants pay for all of the water expenses, what is your process and how do you enforce payment?

Thanks in advance,

[Timothy W.]

Matt,
I had this problem on a building and discovered a freeze break that was raising my bill by about 300%. I have a check system I go through.

First - Check your water bills and see if your usage isn't going up. Usage of water increases your sewer bill. Even gradual increases in usage warrant an inspection to see if you have a pipe leak.

Second - go to Walmart and get the $3.50 "Navy" shower heads. They significantly decrease the amount of water used.

Third - replace any old internals of toilets in your buildings. It's a $24 kit and a half hour of labor to do a complete internals replace. A flapper that didn't close completely cost me about $200 in water costs over a couple months before I caught what was doing it.

Fourth - check the faucets to make sure they aren't leaking.

Fifth - make sure there aren't any unauthorized appliances.

That's all I've figured out at this point.