All Forum Posts by: Chris Park

Having the remote thermostat installed is easy if you aren't a DIY person...

But what's the legality of having the LL control the temp of the unit? I cant see that as being legal. Ive heard of ones that have password protected settings .... I guess you could set max high and low values but I cant see it being legal to set how much/often its on/off. 

And who the hell wants to have to constantly monitor the unit and shut the AC on/off with the WIFI every time they leave? If its not automatic, I'm not doing it.....

 Do you live in the main home on the same property? If so, put a new thermostat in the tenants unit with wifi capabilities and connect it to your device. Then put up a blink camera on the drive and when you get a notification that he has left on the camera just go to the thermostat app and turn his air off or up. 

It's interesting that I'm seeing more and more posts about energy costs.   I ran rental properties for 10 years and never once did I run into issues with tenants either keeping the heat to high or the AC to low.   I installed Honeywell thermostats that would allow me to make sure the heat was at least 60 degrees in the winter time just to make sure the pipes wouldn't freeze but that's about it.   Just throwing this out there, but are margins extra thin these days for landlords, because their mortgage payments are higher because of the costs of housing and interest rates?   Also natural gas and electric prices are higher due to the economy.   Just wondering what's going on.   

 What do the specs of the unit state? Use Watt's Law to calculate usage if the label only shows amps to get hourly usage. Or google an online amps to watts converter.

You forgot to add your location to your post or your profile. 

I live in a pretty hot place myself with 2 ac units, 2 pool pumps and combined with a 3000sf house it runs about $200/mo. I don’t see how a guest house alone could cost more than $100/mo 3-4 months out of the year. Maybe get a better unit like a mini-split? I’m just wondering if you aren’t over estimating the cost of his extra cooling. 

But either way. Nothing you can do until the lease ends. Then you raise rent or non-renew. Either they’ll pay extra or you’ll be vacant and writing a new lease. 

You have to wait until the lease is over. You can’t change anything mid-lease. After it’s over you either raise the rent or non-renew them. Are you talking an extra $50-$100 / mo 4-6 months out of the year? You’re talking extra cooling on a guest house. So $300-$500/yr. Raise rent $25-$50/mo. 

 How do you screen if you don't charge.  I use Rentprep which does it for me and they pay directly to them.  Are you paying for the screening out of pocket or how does it get done.  I don't know how I would do it better than a professional company and even if I could I prefer a 3rd party to do it and me receive no income to avoid conflict of interest.  

Yes in my opinion you screwed up with this one but redeemed yourself.  It is tough and I am often really routing for certain applicants I like however they just aren't a good fit.  I call every lead that comes through Zillow or ask FB Mktplace leads to call me and we talk about qualifications.  If everything sounds good before inviting them to tour I ask them if they have the move in funds up front.  It is expensive to move so I understand not having them but if you don't you are not in a position to move.  I'm looking for tenants who have a savings mindset/ ability and aren't just living paycheck to paycheck.  If you haven't saved the funds to move you also don't have a savings to cover medical or car bills and we are only a single emergency away from not paying rent.  I tell them they can call back when they have it but to no surprise nobody does.  If you did anything wrong here it is you had someone apply and probably pay an application fee who had no business applying.