All Forum Posts by: David Tiemann

That sucks that the LED light failed. I have had very good luck with them so far. My construction company has installed hundreds of LED light fixtures of all flavors and have not had any issues.

Thank you all for your advice! I think a 30 day notice with no reason given is the way to go. Thanks again!

We have started using light fixtures that are LED, Lowes sells them in a twin pack for $50. Tenants don’t have to remove the glass to change a bulb. Look at the ‘lumens’. One 60 watt bulb is about 700 lumens. Good luck!

If the thermostat is set too low it will develop ice/frost on the coil inside of the unit. The more frost and ice develop the air flow is restricted and the coil becomes a block of ice. Some systems can handle 60 degree temps and some cannot. The coil would need to be VERY CLEAN! Any lint, hair, dirt on the coil will slow air flow and develop ice. In addition the fan speed needs to be set to HIGH when the unit is in cooling mode. You need a large volume of air across the coil to keep frost from forming. This also means keeping the filter clean as well. One other trick, the temperature on most digital thermostats can be ‘adjusted’ about 3 degrees up or down. When it is 70, you can ‘adjust’ it to say 67. Your HVAC tech can do this for you. Overall, the unit needs to be in tip top shape and clean to get it down to 60 with out freezing. Good luck!

I have an inherited tenant that was arrested for two counts of delivery of a controlled substance. The police raided the apartment early in the morning on a Saturday. In addition, my triplexes are right across the street from the high school, so there is a drug free zone charge as well. Three felony charges in all. The tenant is still in custody, but her girlfriend remained in the apartment. I want to ask them to leave. They are month to month tenants with no lease. Our lease has a clause in it addressing drugs, however we never signed our lease with these tenants, we just left them as month to month. Can I give them 30 days notice with cause, (the drug charges). Or should I just give them 30 days notice, and say that we need to remodel the unit. (We will in fact do a total remodel when they leave.) This is in Texas, by the way. Thank you!

I am a contractor and real estate investor, 20 +yrs. I have tried a lot of things over the years looking to achieve low maintenance rentals. This is what we currently do: Flooring-glue down vinyl plank, looks like wood, pay attention to the ‘wear rating’. Countertops- Formica Showers-12” ceramic tile, epoxy grout, sanded caulk in corners and along the tub. Carpet-When we do have carpet, the carpet we use is color died in the liquid state, it is a less vibrant color, but the color will not come out. Paint-we paint the entire unit 1 color, walls, ceilings, doors, trim, and cabinets. Get good paint from a comercial paint store, use their knowledge of the products to select the right paint. Toilets-you get what you pay for. I like Kohler and American Standard. Pay attention to the water surface area, and trap size. Bigger is better. We use the same products and colors in every unit, this eliminated the problems trying to remember what we used in each unit. Good luck!

We purchased 4 triplexes that are side by side. They are all surveyed and taxed separately, but we had them appraised as 12 units and took out a commercial loan. Ultimately it is up to you how you want to approach it. It is much easier to increase value grouped together through renovation, utility billing, rent increases, etc. We showed the bank our plan to improve the NOI by doing those things and got them to lower the down payment by 5%. Good luck!

Thanks for y’all’s input!

Here are a few things I would do. Find out who is paying the utilities; gas, water, electric, etc. If the landlord is paying some of the utilities check into the possibility of passing that cost on to the tenant. Find out who is maintaining the yards. Walk through every unit, not just one. Good luck!

I have a tenant who has lived in one of our properties (SFH) for about 1 1/2 years now. On the original lease it listed the Husband, wife, and 3 kids. Blended family. They divorced about 6 months ago. They asked that she and her child be removed from the lease. Should now only be 3 people living in the house, all males. At that time the ex wife warned us that he was bad at managing money and would likely get behind on rent. He has paid late, with late fees, every month since then. Not my favorite type of tenant. I stopped by that house today to check out a minor plumbing issue. It is obvious that he has moved another woman and her kids into the house. There are 4 extra kids there, and both bathrooms have feminine products in them. The house smells bad, and is very messy. Both bathrooms have mold/mildew growing on the walls and ceilings. Too many people showering and not running the exhaust fans. We would not have allowed that many people in a house of this size. This house will be destroyed if I let this go on, so I want to ask them to leave. He is on a month to month lease right now. I would not give a reason for asking them to leave other than ‘we need to do some renovations’. I did do this once before with a TERRIBLE inherited tenant, and it worked out okay. Tenant got upset, but she left. So what is your advice for me? And have any of you faced similar situations?