All Forum Posts by: Jamie S.

imagine this scenario... you are renting a home to a family with kids, heat exchanger cracks pumping carbon monoxide into the home, poisoning the kids.    Could you live with that? What about when you are sued for everything and lose your home.

After a tenant burned down one of my houses with kerosene heaters and could have killed the kids had they not been staying with the other parent on new years eve... I personally install detectors and photograph them in place.  It's worth the 20 bucks.  

My general test of necessary is whether or not I would want to explain my choice to a judge.

Off topic,  @Eric Weireter, do you have experience with Garman Homes?  I adore the house they built that I drove by accidentally.  But then I looked it up and it was a $725K house (sigh).   I can't seem to find a builder that will quote me anything less than $200 a sq foot around here or even look at my plan without a hefty deposit.  

This was the house

https://www.facebook.com/bandwbygarman/

Even if the roof is falling in it's probably still cheaper to just repair it, all the infrastructure, utilities, surveys, permits, soil studies etc cost a fortune.   They would make you run new everything.    You get grandfathered in on a lot of things if you leave it in place.   IMHO unless you are a home builder you will probably lose money trying to custom build.     

Plus people will pay extra for quirky, older homes in that area.

There is reasonably large demand for nice rentals due to all the visiting faculty, doctors, business school students, etc that are here for 2-3 year appointments.  There's a reason 1 bedroom condos across from Duke are going for well over $200K.    It's not your normal rental market.  They also make better renters than students.

I would target 27705, 27707 or anywhere near American Tobacco.  Avoid going north of 85.  The areas to the west of 147 around lakewood cemetery are still depressed and ripe for development.  I also like the area around Bennett Memorial/America Village for bargains and large lots.   Check out the schools carefully, if it's a family home you will want to make sure you are picking something zoned for a popular school.   1 mile can make a lot of difference in Durham.   

South of I-40 and around the mall can be tricky, just a little bit further and you are in Cary which is probably the better investment.  You are taking a hit just for being in a less desirable school area.  You are better off going for a premium urban neighborhood in Durham or close to Duke in terms of value.    

The new highway 70 connector is going in which will make it easy to get to Duke,  you might want to check the area around highway 70 near 540 for some good bargains.

I have bought from both locations several times.  House wrap, doors, hardiplank, insulation.  They are friendly enough.  Stock varies.  I got a truckload of hardi backerboard for $5 a sheet.  French doors for $400.  

I was able to pull my own permits in Durham, NC without much difficulty.    It was just a form stating I was acting as general contractor on the job.   I also pulled permits for electrical and plumbing.  In order to do my own electrical and plumbing work I had to take a test for each one.  The tests were not hard but you have to know all the terminology.     This was for a large 3 car garage with an apartment above.    

I do have to say they probably gave me a much harder time on the inspections than regular GC's would have had.    They failed me on some bizarre things for sure.  Some of the subs were annoyed by having to come back and do things they had never had to do before.  I must have gone through 30 cans of fireblock foam before the insulation inspector left me alone.  

That is awhile and things get grungy... especially in the bathrooms.  Kitchens can get totally coated in surface grease in 2 years if someone fries food at all.   The surface of the paint gets harder and harder to clean over time as it ages and the gloss looses it's sheen.  I am a lady though so I notice that stuff more (no offense :-) .    Base boards that have been sprayed and not brushed get incredibly dirty and are a pain to clean. Popcorn ceilings accumulate grunge too.

My guess if it is 10+ years old is that it is Navajo White or something in the yellow/beige family?  That can tend to look sort of dirty just by virtue of association with old things.  I have some in my house and notice it looks like someone smoked a pack a day in there with the wrong light bulbs.   Bright white builder grade paint can also look dirty due to poor coverage.  

 You would probably be doing yourself a favor to at least paint the living areas a modern 'greige' to make it look newer.  I recommend BM 'Revere Pewter' or something in that family.  Walls only (no trim) is a pretty cheap investment.  

She's actually offering to paint it herself which indicates she understands it might be nitpicky on her part.  I wouldn't let a tenant paint though, only bad things come of that.  You could also offer to paint some rooms for a modest increase in rent.

It may not be that bad... I rent to a lot of people visiting from other countries who seem to ask more questions like these but those tenants are often my better ones.   Some folks are just more worried about contracts in general or consider it more of a negotiation.   I don't think I would pass someone over who wanted to clarify... maybe just check their references really well.  A fastidious renter is way better than the alternatives.

Renting and moving are stressful, and there is a certain amount of faith involved.  This person doesn't know you are an honest, upstanding person.  This is a great opportunity to set expectations and let them know it is a business for you (I have failed at this in the past and been taken advantage of).  If you have a waiting list of 10 people, tell them.  You set the rent based on the current condition... improving the condition may increase the rent. People just don't see it this way until they have to choose between better condition or lower rent.

For the cleanliness issue... some folks just have different standards which you can probably never live up to (like my mother dusting my ceiling fans every visit).  My new procedure is to tell them I have $150 budgeted for cleaning and they can either (a) accept the cleaning crew I normally use (b) keep the money or (c) hire their own.  They are then in control of the scope of the cleaning and if my cleaner isn't good enough then it was their choice.  On move out I also give tenants the option of paying for the same service so they don't have to clean.  They often take this offer.  This saves money because the tenants never do a good enough job and I have to hire someone anyway.  

I do something similar for carpet cleaning... some folks want them cleaned and some folks don't even notice.  They are white carpets and always look a darker in traffic areas like the stairs.  If I pay for it I ask them to pay for the same service when they move out.  People seem to think this is ok. 

For painting, if it is a 5+ year old paint job or has rooms with weird colors I tell them that I will paint 1 room of their choice in my choice of matching neutral color.  I have a guy that will paint any room for $100...   Usually this makes them happy and allows them to ignore all the other banged up walls, helps keep my house nice, and is way cheaper than painting the whole thing.   

I'm seriously regretting the 3 year lease I have with some overly demanding tenants.   Sure, I don't have to look for new tenants but finding tenants wasn't all that hard.  Usually people only want that if they are concerned about being asked to move or have had rent increases in the past.     If I needed to sell the house or there was a major repair or tax increase I would have no flexibility with a 5-year lease.

I had this problem with a poorly built house... it had vinyl siding and they had gotten the drip caps wrong around the tops of the windows and doors and also forgotten the spray foam.  You never saw the water but it would puddle on the floor depending on the direction of the rain.  Sometimes the puddle would appear the next day.  It was basically sitting in the cavities around the doors/windows and eventually trickling in under trim and window sills.  It's probably $100 to have a handyman pull off all the trim, reflash the door, install new drip cap, caulk the crap out of it and put back the trim. You'll eliminate 90% of problems that way.   It could also be an adjacent window or other opening.  Look for exterior penetrations like outlets or ducts where the siding doesn't overlap that were maybe flashed wrong.  Or a window sill that looks bad.  The problem could be anywhere within 5ft of the door (it can seep behind the trim). Pulling off the interior trim can also help locate it.