All Forum Posts by: Daniel Buck

@Renee Hunter I ended up using the cheap Floor Muffler stuff from home depot (though the same stuff on Amazon is even less expensive - so go that direction if you use it). As I'm not living below me, I don't know how it sounds downstairs, but from my vantage point it seems to do the job. It's certainly not a fancy underlayment, but as of now I have no complaints. 

Thanks guys. 

@Mike McCarthy the tenants do split the rent, and I can see what all three of them are paying. But I’ve never had one tenant make two payments himself so I wasn’t sure if one needed to clear before the next one started. 

Hi All,

I have a tenant who (for reasons unknown to me) made his rent payment in two separate payments this month. I can see the first one in cozy labeled as "in progress" but I cannot see the second portion of his payment. I'm wondering if anyone knows if both payments will list as "in progress" simultaneously (coming from the same bank account I would assume), or if the first one will need to process to completion before the second one will start.

Thanks!

Hi All,

I just closed on my first rental property yesterday (a top/bottom duplex) and I need to redo the floors upstairs. I’m going to rip out the gross carpet and put in LVP. My question is about underlayment, and if anyone has suggestions for the best sound-dampening underlayment to go under LVP (without breaking the bank, please!) As it is right now, you can’t really hear much in terms of voices, music, etc. Its almost entirely footsteps that you can hear. 

Thanks! 

Thanks @Matt Groth! Are you saying you mainly burned wood, but used the monitor while you were gone during the day? If I end up using it, it will be the primary heating source. So I'm guessing I would be using more than what you are saying. Am I understanding you correctly?

@Logan Boesch The electricity IS split. The only thing that's not is the oil (kerosene) heating.

@Logan Boesch Thanks for the input! So very true. Predicable is probably better than unpredictable, even if it means the possibility of maybe losing a little bit of income. My big question mark is in determining how efficient the electric heating system on the premises is, and I likely won't really know that until I use it myself. 

From my understanding, it's not legal in my state to do anything along the lines of a RUBS system for billing back to the tenant. I'm happy for any other NH residents to give me input on this, however!

Hi All,

I'm closing on my first property at the end of the month (a duplex) and was looking for some input on utility costs and how to approach this situation. Let me start by giving some background.

The house has a monitor heating system (not very common, even where I am in NH) with a kerosene fuel source. Each unit has one "monitor". In the first floor unit, it is in the basement (which is very open to the main floor, presumably designed this way intentionally for the heat to rise; in the second floor unit it is in the kitchen. It also has radiant electric heat (in the floors/ceilings, no baseboards or other visible sources). In addition to both of these, the house has a wood-burning stove in the basement (part of the first floor unit) which is meant for heating purposes. 

I would be using the wood stove and just ignoring the rest, except that I will be living in the second floor unit for the time being, and I'm fairly certain I don't want my tenants to be allowed to use the wood stove. The kerosene heat may become costly. I honestly don't know how often the tank will need to be filled as I don't really know anyone else who has it to ask - and I can't find any good info online. But it's not a split system, so the cost for that would fall solely on me. The radiant electric heat, from what I've been told and researched, could actually be fairly efficient, especially because the house is well insulated with newer windows. 

My question is should I lower the rent slightly and only allow electric heat usage (which is separate for each unit, so tenant pays), or keep the rent a little bit higher and include heating (with the monitor system) in the rent. 

Thanks for any advice!

Dan

Would you be able to elaborate? What happened that made you walk away? Why would it have been a money pit?