Utility costs for multi-family properties in Anchorage

[Kaiden Foster]

Hi all! New to real estate investing and BP forums. Hoping to get some good insight right off the bat. 

I'm currently transitioning from tech to real estate and my wife and I are planning to move back to Alaska by the end of this summer (2021). Very curious about multi-family properties in Anchorage and the valley but am having difficulty figuring out what utilities look like on a monthly basis. Anyone here who can enlighten me? Basic questions are:

1. Expected monthly costs for electric, gas, water & sewer, garbage?

2. Which of these do tenants usually pay vs the property owner?

[Gabe N.]

Water/Sewage is a big one in Anchorage that is normally paid by the landlord. Anchorage Sewer and Wastewater offers flat rates on 1, 2 and 3 unit buildings ($186/mo for duplex and $280ish for a triplex) but on the 4 plex and up it's a metered water supply that gets billed on a per gallon basis. Normal rates are $400-500/month.

Another big one is property tax which the Municipality absolutely rakes you over the coals for. They also will not adjust the tax assessed value down based on appraisal or sale price. I asked and they said it was simply inflated 3% per year after an initial appraisal and they would not change it. My duplex at $325k tax appraisal is $5300 per year taxes and my 4 plex in Wasilla at $400k appraisal is $4600/year.

Also depending on which side of town you live on there are different requirements for trash service. On the east side of anchorage (from airport heights eastward-including Muldoon and Boniface) every building is required to pay for trash service from the municipal Solid Waste service. Rates are fairly reasonable but they will literally not allow you to cancel it and use a private trash company. If you don't pay they just refer your bill to a collection agency to track you down. The requirement is a minimum of a single trash 1 yard trash can for each unit in the building. Monthly that amounts to about $22 per trash can. When I bought my duplex they just dropped them off, dug up my mailing address from the tax assessors office and started sending the bills.

Electric is better now that ML&P (Municipal light and power) sold out their government monopoly electric to Chugach electric. Gas is Enstar and they are reasonable though in the winter the gas bill is about double or triple what it is in the summer.

My bills go like this: Gas-$50 per unit summer, $125 winter, Trash $22/unit, Water/sewer $120 per unit, Electric $50-75 per unit.

I pay all the bills for my duplex as I owner occupy that building and just work it into the rent for the other half. Most rental properties here are separate electric but everything else is together. Some have the gas separately metered. In terms of how renters look for rental units it's normally expected they pay electric but the landlord covers the rest. The exception being duplexes where the tenant sometimes takes care of gas and trash.