All Forum Posts by: Jason Alexander

I am interested in getting a drone to use to do inspections on our building roofs. We have several large commercial buildings and I am interested in doing annual roof inspections. Does anyone else use drones in their real estate business and if so what kind would be good to get?

Great advice. We installed the LVP flooring in 780 sq foot apartment Cost around $1500.00 (included luan). Went down easy. Looks great.Just worried that the $2.59 a square foot was to high. I am going to look into the cost of hard wood. 

Wondering what price per square foot people are paying for their hard surface flooring. Started replacing all our carpet in living areas and wondered if I was paying to much for the product I chose. I am paying $2.59 a square foot for the material. 

Daniel, Great tip on the miter shears. I have never seen those before. One tool I think I couldn't live without is of course an oscillating saw. One tool that I used this week that I don't use a lot but that was super helpful was a kit that I put together for resetting toilets. It has 2 deep sockets in it that fit the 2 standard size Johnny bolts as well as the tank to toilet bolts. These sockets fit on an extension that I use with my impact drill to pull and reset toilets. I think those shears will be my next purchase. 

We have 87 units. We used to rely on tenants to replace furnace filters. So many of our multifamily units have furnaces that are in the basement or somewhere that is not easily accessible to the tenant so we decided that we would start changing them..we also have issues with several of our units have 14' ceilings and we don't expect our tenants in those units to change the smoke batteries and lightbulbs as they require a large ladder. Because of these multiple factors we decided to go out 3 times a year and service all filters (tall smokes and bulbs)..we thought we would be able to also do inspections during this time, but we couldn't seem to finish out the processing of the inspection reports..It also doubled our filter change time. If you guys do inspections, how do you do them? Is it just having your inspectors note the things that need attention in each unit and then turn in a notepad, or do you use an inspection app? Also, how do you process the reports and know what to fix and what to let the tenant fix? We used the same app we use on our MI & MO inspections- Happy Inspector App that syncs with Builbium. Thanks so much for sharing your inspection process. 

Great advice! So we have attempted to do inspections when we do filter changes 3 times a year. What has happened is we have found it difficult to process so many apartment inspections. It also turns our 2 day filter change into a 3 day filter change. Then to sit through and review all of the pictures and inspections would take another day not to mention all of the repairs...Then analyzing what to fix what not to fix and contacting all the tenants seems like so much work. If you do periodic inspections what does your process look like?

Dan, thanks so much for letting me know that. So anytime a tenant has damaged that is caused by them do you fix the damage immediately, add the charges to their account and have them pay it off? Or do you let it stay that way till they vacate the property, then fix it and take it out of the Security Deposit?

We have talked about the option of taking it directly out of their security deposit and then having them pay that back over time. Has anyone ever done that before. Taking money out of a security deposit before the tenant vacates?

Hud Recertification is up on one of our apartments. Tenant brought in a list prior to the HUD Inspection. The list includes: replace 2 light globes she says she broke while changing the lights. a couple holes in the back room, drawers in the kitchen need put back on?, toilet handle is broken. In the past we would go over and get these items fixed so that the HUD inspection would pass and we would have a seamless recertification process. However, this time I am thinking, Why should we have to pay to fix the damages the tenant caused? HUD tenants have little income and most can't afford extra expenses....How have you guys handled these issues in the past? Should I just fix the small things and forget about it or should I add the cost to the tenants ledger and try to talk her into paying it off over time?