All Forum Posts by: JD Martin

 Coming from what pipes? If it is sewer gas, I would first check that all P-traps are filled with water - sometimes poor venting can cause a P-trap to get sucked dry little by little, especially if the fixture is hardly used. Run some water at every fixture, make sure nothing visible is leaking, and see if that fixes the problem. If it doesn't, you may have a cracked pipe or a leaking P-trap; sometimes that comes from a cleanout plug, so that's another thing to check. I wouldn't smoke test until exhausting other options first; sewer pipes rarely crack inside a house unless someone has damaged it, because they're not under pressure. Outside is a different story, as tree roots or shifts in the earth can crack a sewer line.

If the smell is coming from the water lines, first thing to do is have the water tested for chlorine level. High levels, and low levels, of chlorine will both produce strong odors. 

Based on the fact that your plumber wants to do a smoke test, it sounds like they are complaining about sewer gas. 

 Personally I think they are not worth the paper they're printed on. Worst case scenario is probably changing out the entire compressor/outside unit, so it is not like you have to run a complete install in the house. I realize you use AC more in Houston than we do here, but for comparison purposes I am still on the original AC unit (Rheem) in my central heat/air house, and I've owned this house for 21 years and the house was 2 years old when I bought it. It is not at all unusual for a unit to last 20 years or more with maintenance.

The video idea is a great one! I will have to adopt that for my own properties. 

One thing you may consider is a declining rent scale, especially if you own the property outright or otherwise have very strong cash flow out of the property. Even if you only lowered the rent $5 per month per year, when coupled with the inevitable inflation of the rest of your market, your place will really start being impressive (financially) against the competition. I know most people here would say that's a crazy idea, but one month between tenants easily wipes out the difference. It really all depends on how badly you want to keep the tenants. 

Aside from checking with other firms for a cost estimate, fair ends up being what you're willing to pay rather than do it yourself. Those numbers don't sound outwardly outrageous to me for paid service, though it is one reason I am thankful to be able to do all of that work myself.

I also prefer flat paint. Any paint with a sheen in it is going to be more difficult to spot-touch than flat. If you have long-term tenants, you should plan on painting between tenants anyway, at least the lower areas, and if you have really high turnover, I would ask myself why the turnover was so high rather than what sheen of paint to use. 

All of the professional, corporate-managed apartment and condo complexes around here use flat white paint for their walls. I doubt I know a whole lot more about economy of scale than a multi-million dollar corporate entity managing 100k units. 

PS: In my experience people do not value utilities that they don't pay for directly. If you include $300 for heat they will use $400 in oil; doors will be open for smoking, everyone will be walking around in shorts, and humidity will be bleeding from the walls. You see this with water all the time; as soon as the trailer park around here submeter, the park's water bill goes down by a third.

Why not just craft the lease such that you state that oil will be checked X times, filled as necessary at $X, subject to change, and that actual charges will be added to the rent? Or that tenant is responsible directly for payment of oil, and that actual oil needed will be a mandatory refill? For the little bit of money for tax write off, it sounds like a lot of trouble and liability for you.

How about seed and straw instead of sod? You can seed/straw an entire yard yourself for probably less than $100. It has to be watered whether it is sod or seed, so that's not really an issue. If it is a timeliness thing, you can use an annual ryegrass or other landscaping mix that comes up fairly quickly, mixed with more long-term grass seed for your area. Contact your local municipality on what they use for water/sewer line repairs or street work; that mix is usually pretty hardy and comes up rather quickly. 

Hand digging 100 SF of property is going to get old really quick. You need to rent a bobcat if nothing else. 

I can't see painting the ceiling black. That sound quite trendy. 

PS: houses with significant HOA fees are hard to make positive cash flow unless rents are booming, you get the house for a song, and you finance little to none of the deal. If your 75k townhouse can rent for $750, and you are not financing the deal, the rough numbers in my head sounds like it could work, but if you lop $100 off the rent and add some financing, you are going to be running some lean figures.

I try to evaluate properties by figuring out the widest appeal to the most people. For me, in my area, that means 2-4 bedroom houses, 800-2000 SF, $500-$1000 in rent, in the city limits because of the school district (the county schools are much, much worse around here) and the close proximity to the biggest employers - the college, the hospital system, the VA. Anything outside these parameters narrows the window down considerably regarding the ease of renting the property. I also go for properties that have sound basics but may need considerable cosmetics. It is amazing to me how lazy owners are, that cannot do basic things, like paint a hot pink room white, to appeal to the most buyers, but that works in my favor because anything I look at ends up marked down because of these things. I won't get into anything that needs a new foundation, significant structural element repair/replace (rotted joists, collapsing walls), full-bore electrical rewiring, or has other issues that cannot be easily remedied - shared driveways without dedicated easements, located next to a housing project or landfill, etc.

Will you absorb the HOA fees as part of the rent or have the tenant pay it directly? Is development moving in the direction of the rural house, or is it marooned in a no-growth area?