All Forum Posts by: Calvin Matthews

Quote from @Brad Larsen:

Quote from @Calvin Matthews:

Hi everyone. My wife and I want to get out of our contract with our property management company but I'd like to do this with the advice of an attorney or lawyer specializing in long term rentals. Any recommendations? Thank you. 

 Robert Brown is a PM focused attorney in TX        Used him for years 

210-782-9111

Best,

Brad

 Hello, thanks for the reply and I apologize for the late response. It's pretty early in the day but I'll give this person a call later today.

Hi everyone. My wife and I want to get out of our contract with our property management company but I'd like to do this with the advice of an attorney or lawyer specializing in long term rentals. Any recommendations? Thank you. 

Hi everyone.

I'm an out of state investor with one house in New Braunfels, TX. My vague and miniscule understanding is that electricity is handled differently in Texas than other states. That being said, I've been hearing of people who use Tesla solar/power walls to generate electricity and sell excess electricity back to the grid, thereby generating a sort of passive side income. I've included an example of someone from Texas who posted on Twitter selling excess energy at $5.52 per kWh while buying at $0.11 per kWh. The only thing is these results are from personal residences, not landlords.

Has anyone looked into this for their rentals? There's a discount of $500 for a power wall delivery if buying directly from tesla (probably other stipulations too), plus there's probably federal/state incentives, and of course there's the potential to sell back electricity to the grid at really high rates. I was wanting to install solar before seeing this post just because I didn't want our tenant to be without electricity in wacky weather times. It would be great to get this done for our rental but if someone's already doing this on their rentals and have an idea of what to consider (sharing this with the tenant, with the HOA, etc.) and how to get max cash flow then that'll be great. Thanks.

 Hello and thank you for the reply. I just called a second company and the representative said they can beat the prices that I was quoted so that's a relief. If I lived there I would just change it myself but at least I know that I'm not going to get ripped off by going with a different company.

 Thanks for the 2 replies. Yes I agree that it's electric, since the full invoice that we received mentions replacing the electric water heater. The water heater pricing is not as expensive as I thought they would be so I agree that buying the water heater and getting that to the plumber is better/cheaper than having them pick it up. There's a lot to learn so thanks for providing valuable feedback.

Quote from @Dan H.:

Quote from @Calvin Matthews:

Quote from @Jeremy H.:

This is absolutely mind boggling

Is this a residential water heater? 

For tanked

3/2 - go with a 40 gallon (water heater cost/delivery ($800) + install by a plumber 4 hrs @ 85/hr ($340) so your final cost should be around $1100-1200. I'd consider $1500 abnormally high, much less 5 grand. Absolutely no effing way. I would tell that plumber to screw himself and make it clear to the PM that you NEVER want to use him. 

2/1 - I'd go with a 40 gallon or smaller - obviously this option is even cheaper

I have done tankless and it is more expensive depending on the install - electric/gas, are the lines already there or do they have to run new lines etc etc. Maybe 2k-2.5k here depending on what route you go, the size, the flow etc 

To answer your question - NEITHER OPTION IS OK. I'd get a new PM for even presenting this absolute crap to me

Haha thanks for the reply. This is for a single family home so it's residential. I found a video that our real estate agent took over 1 1/2 years ago of the first floor and took a screenshot of the water heater; I don't know the exact details but does this screenshot help identify what type of water heater we currently have? Also will you clarify what 3/2 and 2/1 means? Thanks for including a lot of details!

 Looks to me to be a 40 gal electric with existing drain pan.  The drain pan usually lasts longer than one water heater and if metal should last virtually forever.  Non-metal can get damaged replacing the water heater even if it could last longer.

Is this in Hawaii?  I ask because many items cost more in Hawaii.  That price would still be too high, even in Hawaii.

I would not replace a water heater because of stench.  Drain from the bottom until you get a gallon or so of clear water.  This virtually always is less than 5 gallons including the gallon of water and almost always less than 4 gallons.  Then check the anode.  If there is 120V plug present, consider going with an electric anode.  Some people claim the electric anode helps with smell, but I do not have first hand experience with this.

Good luck

 Hello and thanks for your reply. My wife and I purchased the house in October 2021 so I don't know if the previous owners did a water heater replacement or if this is the original (the house was built sometime between 2006-2009 so assuming this is the original water heater then it would be as old as the house).

We live in HI but our house is in TX where I think a lot of products are more reasonably priced. My thinking is to purchase it from Lowe's where I have a Lowe's Pro membership and either have a plumber pick it up or have it delivered depending on the cost. Still, I assume even having a plumber pick it up at Lowe's would be cheaper than the 2 quotes that I received.

I'm going to call a few plumbers to get their opinions/quotes and I'll mention what you've suggested about draining the water heater from the bottom and checking the anode. 

Thanks so much!

Thanks so much for the extremely informative comment again. This house is 4/2.5 or 4 bedrooms, 2 full bathrooms, and 1 half bathroom. Therefore I assume it's a 40 gallon water heater as well, but I'm looking at the Lowe's website and see up to 55 gallon tanks that have the same height/shape so I don't know for sure. Tomorrow is Sunday but I'll look up different plumbing companies in the area and contact them for quotes/opinions. So much relief to know that both of these quotes are rip offs and I'm glad to not have gone with either. Thanks again for your comment.

Haha thanks for the reply. This is for a single family home so it's residential. I found a video that our real estate agent took over 1 1/2 years ago of the first floor and took a screenshot of the water heater; I don't know the exact details but does this screenshot help identify what type of water heater we currently have? Also will you clarify what 3/2 and 2/1 means? Thanks for including a lot of details!

Thanks for letting me know. First rental property and I was never involved with anything construction related in my life so I initially thought that these were fair prices but I'm glad to know that they're both not fair. I asked our property management company to ask around so hopefully we get another quote at a lower price point. 

Aloha @Richard F. and thanks for your message. Unrelated but glad to meet another HI person here (I live in Kapolei but our rental is out of state).

This is extremely useful information. Yeah that band aid term sure scared me to consider the more expensive option as you saw in my original post. I checked Lowe's and they range from between $350.00 and $1450.00 (I don't know what the size of the water heater is) so the price is a wide range but still seems really expensive now that I'm thinking about it. I asked the property manager to get a second quote so hopefully we have enough time to take care of this. If you can think of anything else that's useful to know/for me to ask then I'm definitely curious to learn. Mahalo!