All Forum Posts by: Brett Jones

I have a question for the Mainers familiar with the Bangor to Old Town area. I've got a single family project underway in Orono that will be student housing for the next few years. We are on track to have it completed in July in time for the upcoming school year (assuming there are classes on campus). I'd like to start advertising now and I'm looking for advise/recommendations for where to place ads. I've setup a listing with the online site UMO has partnered with (Places4Students.com), and I'll do the local Craigslist and the local Facebook rental groups, but I'm wondering what other online resources I'm unaware of?

Thanks..

Something else worth passing on. As I mentioned in a prior reply to one of your posts, I have a project going in Orono. We demo'd the old condemned structure Monday. This exposed the sewer and water lines. The sewer line was at least 90 years old and was in need of replacement all the way to the catch basin in the middle of the street. This will require cutting up the asphalt, doing the work and repairing the road. On Monday it looked like this was going to be an added expense for me, but the city is going to upgrade the system in front on my place (last house on a dead end) while the work is being done, so much of the expense is not something I'll have to cover.

I mention this to you as a recommendation that you inquire about the sewer line in the place you're considering. The fella from the sewer dept I spoke with today had said the home in question had a history of clogged sewer lines. It might be worth contacting the sewer dept and asking about the place you're looking at. Ask the seller about it (might be on the disclosure?). Might be worth inquiring about the water supply as it relates to volume for multi units, if this is a single family converted in to multi.

Orono publishes the water and sewer rate on each departments web sites. You can probably call the water dept and get usage numbers for the last couple of years. Regarding heating expenses. Is the current owner not giving you numbers? If it's an established rental unit, you should be able to get the fuel usage numbers (by volume) from the Bangor Gas company if the building is serviced by gas. If it's oil or propane, you'd need to figure out if each unit was separate or if heat was included, and find out who they were buying fuel from to get that relevant data. Oil systems can be supplied by any vendor at any time, however LP gas is almost exclusively filled into vendor supplied tanks. So if you can see the name of the vendor (dead river, etc) on the tank you should be able to call and get the last years volume of usage. Much of Old Town and Orono is serviced by gas and it's a much cheaper option. It's often worth converting over the burners on oil systems to gas. Also, trying to calculate usage/expense on a building by sq footage, etc, is difficult. Most of those older homes in that area were originally built without insulation, and while most have had some added over the years, it's often spotty and inefficient. Your best be is to dig up usage numbers from prior years.

How long has the home been vacant? Older homes with stone/brick/block foundations that sit vacant for many winters often have issues with the freezing ground damaging foundation walls. Sometime to the to the extent of pushing them over into the cellars. The freezing also breaks plumbing piping if the lines were left wet. Have a pro assess the foundation. If the house is settling on the foundation, the bulge on the roof could the the remnants of an old chimney that was knocked down to below the roof line, then sheathed and roofed over when the last roof was installed. The house settles, and the chimney stays in place...

Also.. How much have you looked into the LA market? My understanding is that the LA market (Lewiston specifically) was the only are in Maine that hasn't seen any appreciation since the housing bubble burst..

That's a very broad question, with a ton of variables. On the inspection side of things, if you don't have much, or any construction knowledge, a good place to start may be some instructional literature for residential building inspections (Something like this: https://www.amazon.com/Home-In...). Specific to New England I'd break it down to two types of small residential buildings, those that are built on stacked stone, brick or block foundations, and those built on poured foundations. I wouldn't say one if better than the other, and both are effected by water/drainage/moisture, but the issues to look for are different for both.

It might be easier to give you meaningful advise if you have specific questions, or examples of properties you're looking at.

Below is a link to lead information from a legal advocacy group in Maine (Pine Tree Legal). This will give you a sense of worst case scenario if a tenant followed PTLA's advice. 

The state has guidelines on lead abatement. I would also recommend contacting the code enforcement office for the municipality the home exists in. They may have requirements beyond State of Maine requirements.

I'm not sure of the scope of your renovation, but one of the blessings of a full renovation is that all that old lead covered trim, doors, cabs, etc is pulled out of the home.

If you're going back and forth on how much reno to do on this project before you rent it out, read carefully the abatement section on the link below.  A full reno make be the cheap option.

https://ptla.org/what-you-and-your-family-should-know-about-lead#

If you're just interested in clearing the property to get on with the renovation, I would personally call antiques dealers. I know a few people who make a business of buying the contents of homes in situations like these. There isn't a lot of cash coming your way (sometimes nothing, sometimes $300-$500), but the guys come in and clear out everything, including the trash.

I am about to break ground on a project in Orono. It's a single family, very close to the campus and will be use initially as student housing. My kids will be living there while attending UMO, with the first one starting this fall. With one (and later two) of the bedrooms occupied by my kid(s), the landlord-tenant dynamic will be a little different (I will be, in part, both the landlord and tenant). One of the things I've learned that's worth passing on, at least specifically to the cities of Old Town and Orono, is that those cities limit the number of non related people living together to 3 per residence. That limit of 3 paying tenants per unit makes it harder to make the numbers work, unless you're thinking multi-unit buildings. Orono also has a few additional permits that I hadn't run into before. There is an annual rental house permit, and a one time student housing permit that must be obtained. The area shows strong support for traditional and short term rentals, so if we find the student side of the market doesn't fit well with our operation we have options. Specific to the short term market, I'm also wondering if a shorter student lease (Aug though May) and AirBnB (Jun-Jul) can coexist.

I had three turnovers this summer and I've found I'm getting a much larger response from Facebook than Craigslist, but 2 out of the three tenants came in via Craigslist. I do like the ability to peek into the life of prospective tenants that Facebook allows. If you're worried about listing under a personal account, setup an account for your rental business and post under that.

I’m out of town this week. Hope everyone else enjoys themselves.