Pittsburgh - Estimating Rental Property Repairs

[Stefan D.]

How much do yinz budget for repairs and capex for single family rentals from the early 1900's in the Pittsburgh area?  

Rules of thumb such as 5% of gross rent for repairs, and 5-7% for capex seem optimistically low for old houses. ($1440 yearly for a property that rents for $1000)

[Jim K.]

@Stefan D.

I know, Stefan. I know exactly where you're coming from and what you're asking. I wish I could give it to you, you're obviously being perfectly sincere about this. I'd be willing to bet that if I asked you to show up on a new acquisition you'd be there next week in work clothes ready to trade your sweat for knowledge.

Sadly, I can't even begin to give you what you want in a BP post. And that's exactly why flippers don't make the big bucks in the Rust Belt, and steer away from structures built in more than 40 years ago, with more standardized building practices. Why all the even remotely good renovation GCs in this town are all locked up for the next three years. Why you cannot even find a handyman worth hiring here because he's completely invested in renovating his own properties or booked solid by property management guys at $50 per basically forever.

You've touched on the single biggest residential property problem of the area, the glut of outdated housing and the difficulties of renovating and maintaining it for a shrinking population.

Where am I supposed to start? Look at the windows closest the upper northeast corner of an unsheltered two-story residential structure for lintel damage?

Galvanized water supply pipes that register steady water pressure can typically be pressed into service for another ten years as long as you install fixtures with flow rates not in excess of 2.5 gpm?

Look for corrosion on the joints of copper water tubing to determine excessive flux use?

Interior studs are often not level and flush in houses designed to be plastered, which makes upgrading a pain?

Gravity hot water classic hydronic heating systems do not depend on the Venturi effect to heat radiators and large circulation pumps have typically been added to them?

It takes years to figure even a good portion of it out. And to make matters worse, things are different from region to region, and the best tradespeople never give away their best working solutions under any circumstances, so you either have to discover the solutions on your own piecemeal or hire someone looking for work who at least looks legit and pray that they're not BSing you, which is usually a really bad gamble.

One of Pittsburgh's oddest features is the extremely high number of freeze-thaw cycles of the area. You may notice that we go weeks at a time with the temperature just above 32 in the daytime and just below 32 at night. The frost heaving issues this creates in this area dwarf almost every other area in the USA. Do I run down the list of those issues as I understand them and as they relate to foundations and mudsill construction?

What you and Phil want is The Rust Belt Troubleshooting and Maintenance Guide to Aging Residential Property, free e-Book edition, with Property Snagging Checklists and Additional Forms. Sadly, this book does not exist and I'm not going to devote years of my life to researching and writing it instead of leveraging my skills to pay myself. Nor is anyone else with even a fair collection of those high-demand skills going to sit down and write something like that.