All Forum Posts by: Aaron Lancaster

The tenant at my duplex recently contacted my PM about their toilet being clogged. The plumber found the cause to be a wad of toilet paper in the line which was due to several bellies in the line. He recommended a camera to locate the issue. After sending a camera in, he sent me the following estimate for $24,000 which seems extremely high. This is what he put in the description of the quote

"We found the sewer line in the left apartment has a cross under slab with a clenaout cap under the slab as well. The back fall is from the cross to approximately 3 feet from cleanout. In addition, from the cross into the kitchen and bathroom of that apartment. Furthermore, from the cross into the next apartment near the downstairs toilet. We recommend removing the old lines as the apartments will continue to back up and will need to be addressed. The only permanent solution is to replace the line under slab. We will jack hammer up the floor from the window in the living room to the downstairs toilet and kitchen in the left apartment and branch off into the apartment next door. And jackhammer to the bathroom in that apartment. We will also be jackhammering the floor inside the closet on the right apartment next to the bathroom to reattach the upstairs drain line. will install new schedule 40 pvc and reconnect the upstairs drain lines into the new truck line. We will ensure there is proper fall in the new line. We will not be responsible for replacing any flooring, sheetrock or concrete that needs to be taken up."

I’m new to dealing with this kind of issue and would appreciate guidance from someone more knowledgeable about how pressing this situation is and whether the quoted estimate is reasonable. To me, it feels like I could simply have the lines snaked regularly to avoid clogs. I’ve owned this property for four years, and this is the first complaint of this nature I’ve encountered, so I’m curious if, by leaving it as is, I could go extended periods without facing clog issues.

Any advice is much appreciated!

I own a two-story duplex where water constantly drips down the siding, even when it hasn't rained for days or weeks. My property manager had someone inspect the issue, and they initially said the AC unit was the problem. They claimed the compressor was overworking, used an outdated refrigerant that’s no longer available, the indoor coil had a cracked pan, and the system was beyond repair. So, I replaced the AC unit.

However, the water dripping outside persisted. My property manager then sent another technician who said the gutters need to be cleaned and recommended installing leaf guards around the entire duplex, along with larger downspouts and overflow guards, for a total of $3,013. This seems excessive and overpriced, especially since only the front of the building has the water issue. The sides and back are one-story, and I can easily clean those gutters myself during turnovers.

I’m also considering that periodic gutter cleanings might be more cost-effective than following the tech's recommendation.

Does this quote and the suggested work seem reasonable? Any advice on how to proceed would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all for your responses. After reading each one and thinking through this a bit more, I've decided that due to the age of the roof, I'm going to go ahead and get it replaced. If I don't replace it now, it'll have to be done soon anyway. I might as well take this opportunity to file a claim and see if I can save a little bit of $ on a new roof even though I'll have to pay $10k out of pocket. Then I shouldn't (hopefully) have to think about it for another 15 years or so. I'm also planning to reduce my deductible to $5k once I get the new roof on. $10k always felt a bit high even though I always keep at least this amount in reserves.

If the insurance company declines to help pay due to the age of the roof, I may just set some money aside specifically for the roof and then replace it later this year or early next.

I had my roof inspected after some recent storms in the area and the roofer told me he strongly recommends I replace the roof within the next year. Although no leaks were spotted, he said that because my roof is at least 15 years old (not sure of the exact age), the asphalt shingles are rough (petrifying) and suffering heavy granular loss. He said that one more hail storm with quarter-sized hail or larger could possibly destroy any remaining granules and leaks could sprout. 

The property is in Northwest Arkansas so we get very hot summers, very cold winters, and semi-frequent tornados and hail storms, so roofs usually don't last longer than 15 years around here (according to the roofer). I have catastrophic insurance ($10k deductible) so although I might be able to file a claim, it likely wouldn't be worth dealing with the insurance company.

Any thoughts on whether I should replace it this year or wait until problems occur? 

I lived in Springfield for 5 years and turned my SFH into a rental when I moved to Northwest, AR in 2017 and have been renting it ever since. I'm using DeMill Properties as my property manager and they are fantastic! I'd highly recommend them.

While I was in Springfield, I had the opportunity to live in various places throughout the city, and I can say that the part of town where I felt the safest was the south side. Really anything south of Battlefield Road felt very safe. As you go north, it starts to feel less safe. You start getting into class B, and even C neighborhoods the more north that you go. Not necessarily a bad thing, I've definitely considered buying in those areas but just haven't gotten up the nerve to do it yet.

Also, if youre looking for a realtor, I can send you contact info for the buyers agent I used to buy the SFH. She was great and was even willing to go inspect properties for me when I was looking to buy in Springfield from out of state after I moved. Let me know if you're interested and I can DM you her contact info.

Thank you all for your quick responses. There seems to be a common consensus that it just needs to be replaced, so that's what I'll do.

I've got an electric glass-top stove in one of my units and only 3 out of 4 burners are working. The unit is currently vacant. Should I just leave it as is, or should I take this opportunity to replace it? It was manufactured in 1995 and is an outdated, yellowish-white color so probably not worth repairing.

IMHO it is never okay to buy a property that doesn't at least have positive cash flow on day one. If you can't find a property that meets at least that criteria, I'd invest in a balanced liquid portfolio and only buy real estate if/when I can find a deal that can be expected to return at minimum what my liquid portfolio can be expected to return.

@Phil Mcnally - I would agree with you that rental property would fall mostly into the prosperity bucket with some overlap in the gold bucket since a fixed rate mortgage is a great inflation hedge. I probably wouldn't completely forego holding gold just because real estate may do very badly during a hyper inflationary environment where fiat currency becomes worthless. While this is a remote possibility, it could happen and it could become confusing as to how to collect rent. It's highly unlikely that your tenants will happen to own gold or silver coins, foreign currency, or cryptocurrency that they can pay you with. And with no point of reference like the US dollar, it would be hard to know how many silver coins, or what fraction of a bitcoin to charge someone.

@Patrick Davis - You make some good points about the timeframe of when you'd want to make a purchase. I would agree that if you're planning your next purchase within the next year or so, you could just hold mostly cash. But in a scenario where you are neutral about the timing of your next purchase, I think you could own something like the Permanent Portfolio.

I'm glad to know there are others out there thinking about asset allocation outside of real estate because it can sometimes seem like an unpopular topic here on Bigger Pockets. :)

Hey John, welcome to the community! I also have a very analytical mind when it comes to investing and am sometimes guilty of analysis paralysis, so I understand where you're coming from.

One of my favorite books I've read on investing is called "HOLD: How to Find, Buy and Rent Houses for Wealth" and the book's website has some good resources they provide for free: https://kellerink.com/products...

At the bottom of that link, there's a download link to a spreadsheet called "HOLD worksheet 30" which is what I've used in the past to analyze deals. It does a similar analysis to what you can get from DealCheck, but since it's a spreadsheet, it's more customizable if you're into spreadsheets like I am. So you could add in a calculation for cap rate, cash-on-cash return, or whatever other metric or ratio you're interested in. Not sure if that's what you're looking for, but hopefully it's helpful.