New to Real Estate · Houston, TX · Member since 2018 · 7 posts · 1 vote
Hi all. Our first and only tenant will be moving out at the end of the month and we plan to do some minor rehab and updates before releasing to a new tenant. I know I need to get the utilities back into my name for the time being but wondering what success people have had in finding companies that use "landlord"/"interim billing"/"revert to owner" agreements. I spoke with the gas company (Centerpoint) and they said they only offer them in select states, TX not being one of them. And as far as electric goes, I found one with a no activation/no cancellation policy but high rate and would still need to call to set up each time a tenant moves out. Spent a whole lot of time on the phone and honestly was a very cumbersome process. Is there an easier way to manage this in Houston? What am I missing? Would love some tips/suggestions!
I put utilities back in my name, including Centerpoint. I make sure to sign up for a contractless plan for power and Centerpoint allows cancellation at anytime. The new tenants sign up and when they do your account will close automatically. You won't need to do anything to cancel. Centerpoint's website is not good at getting the billing address right when the service and billing address are different. They keep mailing stuff to the service address. Make sure everything looks good online - don't count on snail mail. I never had to talk to a human and everything worked out.
I put utilities back in my name, including Centerpoint. I make sure to sign up for a contractless plan for power and Centerpoint allows cancellation at anytime. The new tenants sign up and when they do your account will close automatically. You won't need to do anything to cancel. Centerpoint's website is not good at getting the billing address right when the service and billing address are different. They keep mailing stuff to the service address. Make sure everything looks good online - don't count on snail mail. I never had to talk to a human and everything worked out.
@Owen Hehmeyer thanks for the reply. If you don't mind me asking, any suggestions for electric providers that offer the contractless plans? When i go to "powertochoose" to find providers, doesn't provide an option to search for zero contract length. The one I found was TXU but required a phone call to get a commercial plan. Something I would prefer to avoid (20 cents/KWh). With centerpoint, is there anyway around the activation fee for new service? They are also wanting a deposit and said I wouldn't get it back if i cancel in less than a year (I need 12 months of history to get deposit waived and I'm at 11 months). I know in grand scheme these are not significant costs but trying to run a tighter ship.
@Daniel Kennedy This question is very important one if you dealing with multiple properties as investor and you get hit with reconnection all the time when tenant moves out. As an investor of 10 SFH myself and property manager for 50 SFH homes, think about me. I had to go through every time for my house or my investors houses gets emptied. I did try to use the concierge services to help with this situation for my clients but they are not efficient and they don't find good plans for the clients. We also tried to get permission letter from landlords so we can try to help them out doing the connection ourselves but landlords don't like to pay the bills when it's vacant and we end up losing out when we try to help them. So we are doing the same old way of having them reconnect the utilities immediately tenant moves out and follow up with the new tenant to take new connection as they move in.
We use Volt energy which is now Ampra energy which has no contract plans but rates obviously going to be higher but no other choice. TRy them out.
Thanks @Vijaianand Thirunageswaram. The struggle is real! It really is a shame that Houston utility providers don't seem to have a more elegant solution in place but alas, only so much that can be done. I will check out Ampra. Thank you for the recommendation!
This is a good thread. I, too, have no solution beyond sign up and pay Centerpoint's charges, including deposit. It is what it is. For power, I have had good luck with Infuse Energy. No human and website made billing address not equal to servuce address easy. No issues with Autopay or mailing stuff to service address. Rate was fine, too.