All Forum Posts by: Account Closed

It us hard to believe that we own all C+ Grade apartment buildings and also have many tenants who steal other tenants mail, packages, rob cars, put slugs in washers and dryers, stole the entire set of 28 mail wall-mounted mail boxes and a few days ago we found a piece of a coat hanger in a clothes dryer that was being used to get the dryers to work for free.

So, I went on Amazon, purchased a surveillance camera that is also a USB charger that plugs into a wall and I installed a wall plug receptacle on the side of a light fixture on the ceiling so it was not noticeable. I could have mounted a smoke detector with a camera, but I already had order the USB charger for by employee theft surveillance. I was surprised to find the picture quality for the USB charger was super clear, in color and you can set it to motion detection.

I am going to put some decoys in the mail area and will definitely catch the thieves and the tenants jamming my washers and dryers with slugs and coat hangers and will immediately evict them. Almost every tenant I have doesn't seem like the type who would steal, but I have problems at every property with people jamming my washers and dryers with fake coins. I am always finding plastic coins in our laundry coin boxes and they work very well for the tenants. I looked into the coinless systems, but that seems like a cumbersome and expensive way to manage the washers and dryers. I don't want to have to deal with the extra equipment, monthly fees and I think every property would need an internet connection and that is more maintenance and expenses.

It depends on what state you are in. In California, you need a permit for almost everything including changing a light fixture, changing a toilet, installing a garbage disposer, changing a wall receptacle or even a light switch. You definitely need a permit to install new kitchen cabinets, to change a sink, install a dishwasher, etc..

I know many people will say what I said is not accurate, but I am licensed in California for 8 specialty trades and those are the requirements. Of course, most contractors don't take out all the necessary permits and they will tell you different. Most cities (and maybe the state) have a requirement that any job more than $500 needs a building permit, but this is not always enforced. It used to be that nobody needed a permit to build a concrete or block wall, but that has changed and permits and inspections are now required for the footing excavation, rebar, etc. to ensure the soil doesn't eventually settle and the walls fall over and kill someone.

I would use concrete, make them no less than 4 feet wide because there will not be much difference with the cost and they will be more attractive. Concrete workers who work for concrete companies are frequently unemployed between jobs and easy to hire. I shop for the cheapest truckload of concrete from an independent concrete truck, pay for the lumber and pay for the labor. You should be able to get a nice job for $1,000 for the concrete, $800 for the labor and about $500 for lumber and essentials = $2300 and to do the job with wood stairs will not be less.

You had better do some serious research for the pros and cons for assisted living homes. I owner a 20-unit home in the 1970's in a very upscale neighborhood, was getting $10,000 per month per person and the state regulations, regulations, multi-agent inspections, food handling, employee problems, insurance, 24/7 care, dealing with angry relatives and lawsuits can be like living in hell. Not all money is good money it earning it puts you in an early grave. Research the average number of lawsuits against assisted living homes and it is amazing. I am a contractor, work for several assisted living home owners and they are always broke. You might get excited to think you can charge $3,000 to rent each room, but you may also find out it costs you $10,000 per person per month for all your expenses.

I am going to admit that I am usually 100% against investing in single-family homes, but I've been looking for multi-units for several years and the numbers for single family homes is places like Ohio are starting to look better, but I am not sure, yet. One problem I think I see with Ohio is it looks like property taxes in some areas are 4 times higher than California. I am not sure!

 That is definitely not true about single-family tenants being a higher quality. Would you rather have tenants destroy just the inside of a 800 to 1000 sq ft single-story rental unit, or have tenants destroy both the inside, outside, garage and the entire yard for a single-family house. When a multi-unit tenant moves we have the unit painted, cleaned and a new tenant in the units for as little as 3 days for a cost that never exceeds $1,000 to $1500 for a bad case. The very minimum cost to clean a single-family home, install carpets, etc. is never less than $6,000 and always requires 1 to 4 weeks plus the cleaning of fixtures, etc. is many times more than apartments.

You people need to call me for painting and I can get rich.

I've been painting my entire life since my father was a house painter and I worked with him when I was old enough to walk, in Massachusetts. When I went into the Air Force and was stationed in Idaho I started a painting company and had 8 painters working for me while I was a plumber in the Air Force. In 2019 and 2020 I painted 26 homes I sold in Las Vegas and about 4 homes in Las Vegas my son sold and painted 1 house in Meridian Idaho. So, I have a lot of experience.

I was amazed when I called painters in Idaho and they wanted $6500 to $7500 to paint just the walls in 1200 to 1500 sq ft homes. So, I drove from Los Angeles to Idaho and painted a 1600 sq ft 4 bedroom 1-story house two coats of paint including the ceilings with 1 helper in two days. Add $800 for paint, floor covering and essentials plus my laborer for 2 days and my total cost was about $1400.

I painted the 30 1200 to 2700 sq ft homes in Las Vegas with two helpers including ceilings and it never took more than two days to paint a house and that included removing all the electric wall plates, dropping ceiling light fixtures, removing smoke detectors, cleaning windows, installing new blinds, cleaning bathroom fixtures and it never took the 3 of us more than 2 days because I am good at knowing how to get the most from my workers like a Lakers coach knows which players to put on the court because the cost to do a paint job is not as critical as the time it takes because when I go to Las Vegas to manage a job I have to leave Los Angeles and my 20+ employees without my micro-management and "When The Cat Is Away The Mouse Will Play" if you know what I mean.

I am a very difficult person to work for because I am 71-years old, a workaholic, a fast worker and when young workers are slow I fire them within minutes when they are working because I don't like to have to waste my time and stop the work I am doing to constantly check on my workers and I don't like to get emotional and have to keep correcting workers when they work sloppy and slow. I've fired many painters within a few minutes after they start working because many of them look like a drunk on the high end of a ladder and I prefer to avoid having to pay a painter for a day and then have to re-paint everything I paid him for.

I know many people think it is better to look for a painter who can do A to Z, but I've also fired many so-called painting companies that were worse than the worse of my employees. I hired a professional paint company and gave them 50 gallons of paint to paint the exterior of a 6-unit and 14-unit apartment buildings side-by-side. At the end of the day, the boss came to me and told me he needed more paint and I blew up and fired him because they used a paint sprayer and painted only one wall that was 30 feet wide and 36 feet high. I knew right away these clowns did something very bad and when I went to look at their work it looked like they sprayed the paint on the wall with a garden hose with no nozzle on it and the paint looked like stalagmites and icicles pouring down the wall. So, don't think you will get a better job because you hire someone who was recommended.

The most-critical thing even most painters don't know about painting is how much water or thinner needs to be put into the paint to make the paint the perfect viscosity. Most painters think that thicker is better and keeping the paint too thick is the worse thing most painters do. Think about how thin paint is on vehicles. It is so thin it is hard to measure. Thinner is always better than too thick and the paint job always looks better when you have to put two coats of paint and you use two thinner coats than two coats that are too thick because you will get a more-even-looking finish and you can paint about 3 to 4 times faster when paint is not too thick. So, I can paint a room 2 coats in about half the time it will take most painters to paint one coat with paint that is too thick. That is why my 3-man crew (including myself) can paint a 2700 square foot house two coats of paint including the ceilings in two days with two workers. I personally paint the ceilings and have my two workers paint the walls and when I'm finished with the ceilings I help with the walls. Then one of the workers focuses on cleaning, installing the blinds and repairs and replaces plumbing fixtures, electrical problems and everything else that needs to be done.

I don't believe a dishwasher is important to any tenant with the exception of the tenants who already had a dishwasher they don't use and then complain when the landlords removes them.

In my past 50+ years of renting homes and apartments I never had an applicant ask if a home or apartment had a dishwasher.

In 2020, I sold 26 homes in Las Vegas and 50% of them had broken dishwashers that tenants never reported. I purchased a 6-unit building in Hawthorne California in March, removed all 6 dishwashers, most of them were broke and not one tenant complained.

My 2nd wife and I had a dishwasher for 18 years and used it about 3 times.

Maybe, installing dishwashers makes the landlords feel better than their applicants and tenants. 

"How could your tenants ever live without a dishwasher!!!"  

"The more you own, the more you have to maintain. As mentioned in several posts, before we starting removing disposers we were getting 2 to 5 calls per week for leaking, jammed and over-stuffed disposers. We still have a few in our rental units, but we don't get one service call per month for a disposer. "What a relief from the having to communicate, schedule and pay for the service and today I think a super cheap dishwasher is about $500 with parts plus at least $200 to $300 to change.

Are you serious? I am a heating contractor and I won't install a cheap programmable thermostat (non-internet) for less than $350. If he installs a digital programmable thermostat with internet capability he may need to run a power wire from the furnace and then pay for the installation of the internet equipment plus a monthly fee. As a contractor I am not working 8 hours purchasing the thermostat, running the wire, setting it up on the internet, programming, teaching the owner how to use the thermostat and then go back to my office and wait for several service call requests that I was positive I would get where I have to go back to the jobsite because the owner can't remember how to program the thermostat, can't comprehend the instructions...not for less than $1500 to $1800 plus he pays for the internet equipment and monthly fee.

 Sure! There are good and bad people in every profession. 

Sorry, but the following is from the internet and not from myself:

"A CPA is better qualified than an accountant to perform accounting duties, and recognized by the government as someone who is credible and an expert in the field. Individuals who have received a CPA designation are trained in generally accepted accounting principles and best practices (including online tools). Typically, they are also much better paid.

A Certified Public Accountant is allowed to perform certain duties that regular accountants are not permitted to do, such as preparing an audited financial statement, or acting as a taxpayer or company representative in discussion with IRS Revenue Officers or Counsel. An accountant without the CPA designation cannot do any of these things."