All Forum Posts by: Frank S.

 Like everything, it depends...

It's been a few years since I ran the numbers. 

You mentioned Buffalo, the City of Light!  Does Niagara Falls helps defer your electric costs?

Do you use electric heat or gas heat?  Do you use electric water heaters or natural gas? Do you use electric stove or gas?  

I think that area uses electric based appliances because it's cheaper than natural gas.

Your electric bill may be lower than Illinois, we are natural gas based. 

How big is the house? How much do you consume? Are there tax breaks available?

Now, a 10Kw is about $25,000 easy without uncle Sam kicking in.  Then, you may need a new roof to place them, add another $10K / $12K if you do.  

At $25K payback is about 20 years. At $35K, you are doing it to feel good about the planet, which is fine!  Then, consider the expected useful life of the equipment, I'm going to eyeball it at 25 / 30  years or so. 

As a environmentally friendly engineer, I support green incentives, absolutely.    Even without payback, it's worth doing it. If  you get a payback, well, there is no choice to make than to be green.

Frank

Unless you get some good tax credits, there is no payback on solar panels.   It's done as a good effort to protect our resources, not for the money.  The Heloc assessment may not reflect market price.

In Chicago, payback is about 20 years.

 Fix it.  Get an exterminator for bed bugs and all other insects and move on.  

Forget about the previous seller knowing or now knowing, it's yours now.

It's not from hell, it can be much worse.

For that, you don't need to fly there, just take care of it.  Contact the tenant and listen, tell them you will fix it. 

Good luck, 

That's difficult.  I'm working on pet pee, dog smell, and some mold.  It depends what you want to achieve.  I prefer mold than smoking odors.

It seems  25 years of heavy smoking did some serious damage.   There is no way to assure the smell will be completely gone unless you gut the place. Then,  you will always have third hand smoke, even if you can't smell it.

A must is to get a commercial ozone generator for several hundreds (+_ $300) and run it for days. Days! Don't rent it, buy it.

The smoke is deep in the walls, ceilings, floors, subflooring, etc. The ozone will help but painting and refinishing the floors may be required. Yes, you need to wash every single square foot with TSP and other cleaning agents.

Carpets should be thrown away.  Hopefully you have tons of carpeting that absorbed the nicotine. Maybe  throw away cabinets too. Blinds and window treatments are out for sure.

You will not be able to fully remove it from your ductwork. Ductwork cleaning will not scrub the scum. Can you replace the ductwork? If exposed in the basement,  remove it and power wash it or buy new.  Account a few hundred to clean it. A few grand to replace it.

I power washed an octopus style duct system to save $600. I don't know if it was worth the time.

Good luck, 

Hey good luck,

What Every Real Estate Investor Needs to Know About Cash Flow, RE is called "the dumb man investment" because the calculations are straightforward.. 

Every Landlord's Tax Deduction Guide, a few chapters on taxes may provide some benefit. 

Landlording on Autopilot, the first half

From the BiggerPockets books, use the free one. 

https://assets2.biggerpockets.com/uploads/user_file/file_object/329/UBG_2018.pdf

Rich Dad Poor Dad is embarrassingly bad.  It's a watery make-belief word salad of nonsensical inspirational fluff.

A Random Walk Down Wall Street and Irrational Exuberance are a must read.

Good luck, 

Frank

Jim, 

Good communication goes a long way.

Good luck, 

James, good luck with this. 

One thing popped up.

"You gave him a written lease and told him he had 30 days to sign...but it's been six months."

Did you signed that paper? If so, he may have an executed Lease. You simply don't have a copy. 

In that case, you have to recognize the Lease.

Check "Landlord on Autopilot", treat them like an employee, you don't work for them. 

Good luck, 

Frank

If he doesn't have a lease, check your local ordinance. The last thing you need is a tenant-friendly attorney hunting you. Is it 30 days, 45 days, two months or maybe you can't get him out. Be careful. Do you have a local REIA in your area? Talk to a rental company, they may help.

A few months without rental income is fine and should be expected (vacancy), use that time to clean up the place paint, cabinets, LED lights, etc. and get more money.  Money doesn't justify annoying tenants - well, sometimes it does.  

Good luck, 

The most important aspect of REI is not the location or the house, it's who you place there.

If you want him out, get him out.  I ignore Detroit's ordinances, but in Chicago, I can issue 10-day notice, if they don't correct the issue, I cancel the lease.  If they don't have a Lease, I could issue a 30 day notice to vacate.  I give people more time than that, 30 days is not sufficient. 

Maybe you could wait until spring when you have a much better pool of tenants. You could also bring his rent to market or above market; this way you will justify the headaches. 

I just scheduled the test.  It's $250 if they come or $150 if I drop off the sample.  The test is cheap.  Air quality test is $150 per location. 

They were great,  very informative.