All Forum Posts by: Andrew S.

I installed too thick of underlayment which caused the floor to not float like it should in my kitchen. My girlfriend installed LVP with smaller than recommended gaps against the walls and she doesn't have gaps. She swears the gaps just give more problems. 

I'm curious if you'll be able to increase rent $150+ and passing along utilities and keeping the tenant(s). I purchased a full 6 unit this summer with rents $150 below market rate. I raised it $50 after 2 months and plan to another $50 this summer. 

In order to bring the units to market rates, I'd have to paint, new flooring, and minor other stuff. I'm not in a rush to spend $3k to $5k to gain $50 to $100 per month with a couple vacancies. I'm still fairly new to investing but it still cash flows fine

The property is a quadplex with 2 single family houses on it. The quadplex has a normal common main and each unit main. Both single family house don't have a main shutoff. It's in a small town, we don't have water meters. I receive 2 water bills so I assume there's a second sidewalk water main for the 2 single family houses but I don't know that for sure. I don't have any immediate need to shut the main off but trying to be prepared. Installing one would require opening a wall/ floor and most likely re-routing some plumbing to install one. I could do it myself with PEX. I assume the houses do not have individual main shutoffs inside them and rely on the sidewalk main. There are both built on block foundations and the water just comes through the wall/ floor in multiple locations to their destinations. You can't see where the one line enters the house and tees off. There's only 1' under the floor until the dirt so access it's ideal. I can't easily identify the piping layout with a small boroscope. I'll start with a call to the local water dept and work with them to locate the sidewalk main and my possible house mains. My primary residence in a nearby larger town has a normal water main inside with the water meter, so I'm familiar with that traditional setup.

I have a 1935 house that has the water pipes coming out of a common center wall to the kitchen on one side and bathroom on the other side of the wall. I assume the main water valve is behind the wall on both sides, before it tees off to the kitchen, bathroom, and water heater. I'm doing a minor renovation of the house now, is it worth busting open the wall behind the water heater to locate the main water shutoff valve? The water heater, kitchen sink, and bathroom all have their own valves so I don't think I need to worry about it. But I currently have no way to replace a valve if I wanted to. This probably falls under the category of if it's not broke, don't fix it. Thanks.

I've done one rental with a move-in tomorrow situation however they still completed the application, credit & background check. They didn't have landlord references after living with an ex and parents but so far so good. I use Cozy for background checks and rent collection and use that to defer the cash now offers. Personally I'd rather have a direct deposit that takes a week than cash that I have to go deposit. Call me a millennial I guess. I'd debated offering rent discounts for electronic payments but thankfully now 7 of my 8 rentals use Cozy.

@Nathan G. Thanks. Do you supply renters with a dehumidifier? I assume that would help. I didn't plan to charge the tenant for cleaning and planned to do a minor cleaning and then paint. They texted about the mildew the day before moving out and then didn't have time to do a walk through. I didn't have a cleaner lined up and planned my day to work there so I just went to cleaning. The disinterested third party makes sense for reasonable and fair cleaning charges.

Hey BP community, I have an inherited tenant who moved out of a single family home. They left with a decent amount of mildew on the window sills. I'm in Montana and the windows are good double pane vinyl windows. I assume the window sill mildew is a result of cold outdoor temps, maybe not great wall insulation, keeping the heat turned down when they were away building their house and/ or not venting the bathroom during showers.  I have an estoppel that says there was no maintenance issues 6 months ago when I purchased it. A few months ago, they mentioned mildew on a baseboard after leaving a wet towel there for a while. It'll probably take me 4 - 6 hours to clean up. Is it worth charging them ~$150 out of their security deposit to clean this or should I just move on? Should I charge more, less, or nothing at all? Sounds like other forums would suggest to move on and not deal with any future legal battles about mold being the landlords responsibility. Thanks, Andrew  

Hey BP, I have some friends that are looking to purchase or lease a vacant building that is currently owned by the school district. It's an empty warehouse building that they would like to develop into a new recreation center/ gym. Curious if anyone has experience working with your school district? Thanks, Andrew

Write in your lease a minimum propane level for them to maintain. As part of a normal maintenance inspection for fall, mid-winter, and spring you could double check the level. Or whatever frequency you want. And if it's -40 F for a month then go over there and double check it. Once you determine how often it needs to be filled than you'll become more comfortable with the timing.

Hey BP! I have a 6 unit property that has a parking lot. I plan to have the parking lot plowed. Do I need to shovel the "sidewalks" from the parking lot to the individual unit or could I incorporate that into the lease as responsible by the tenants? If it matters, there isn't a concrete sidewalk it's walking 30' through a grass yard to get to the units. Thanks