Hot water heaters are expensive, but not THAT expensive

[Matt McConkey]

Without going into the giant back story, my wife and I own a townhome in the Chicagoland area and we rent it out to a family who has been there for several years. 

As with any cold weather climate, there are items that are bound to go out, so we pay a service company to check the HVAC a couple times a year. They do a great job and have always been what we feel is fair for the work they do over the past years.

So the tenant messages us and says the hot water heater isn't working. We call our service company, they look it over and tell us it's going to be $1,500 to replace the hot water heater with a standard replacement. 

Alarm bells are ringing. 

She calls a couple other places and we get another guy out there. They replace it, give us a warranty and all done same day for $500 less. 

The lesson here is even though you might have a good relationship with someone, if something sounds off, don't be afraid to double check. In our case, it saved us a nice chunk of change.