All Forum Posts by: Jessica Long

Thanks @Brian Mineau! Only a few more systems to go and we've got a "brand new' house ha! 

@Bjorn Ahlblad thank you for that perspective. I am ready to be in this for the long haul but also want to be smart. Thank you for your reply!

@Nicole Heasley Beitenman Thanks! We allocate the same percentage to CapEx monthly and have a reserve. We were able to pay for it, just wanted to know if this is pretty common. I know stuff breaks, just seemed like a lot all at once and was wondering if it seemed like an unstable property. We had the home inspected when we moved in 10 years before but not again since. Sounds like something we should schedule now. That's a great tip, thanks!

@Theresa Harris, actually I guess it was more like 30 feet of the sewage line that had to be replaced due to damage. It does not appear that the tenants had anything to do with it. Just a freak thing. We do have a high water table and I believe the extra snow this year added to the water in the ground causing the pipes to sag more-the plumber had to build scaffold and add gravel etc...to support the pipes, there was so much natural water in the ground when they dug. 

The saddest part (or maybe makes it easier) is that our tenants are so lovely and I do not believe they will rent from us again in the future :( I will be sad to lose them. We have been speedy to respond and very attentive but I don't know how they can overlook the huge issues our house has had. 

@Benjamin Aaker It was probably brewing for a long time and also did not seem to be the cause of the tenants. We never even had so much as a clogged toilet or any indication that there was anything wrong with the sewage (lived there 11 years before that) so it really seemed random to us. We had two sewage backups occur and flood the basement 2 weeks apart. The plumber was able to pull up a clog the first time (the tenants were not there long enough to have made this, we don't believe) and the second time we had it scoped with a camera to reveal some corrosion and damage to the sewage line...We were prepared for cap ex and have a cash reserve but still sucks ha! It happened so soon after starting. 

Hello all!

We are small time landlords in the DMV area. We decided to turn our home into a rental because we pay very little on it and it seemed like a good investment to keep. We renovated it -mostly cosmetic but also a new roof etc…

Within the first month we had to replace the entire sewage system (out of pocket since it wasn’t covered) and basically lost our first year’s income. 

It’s an older home (‘73) but has not given us any chronic problems in the 11 years we’ve lived there.

Is this just beginners bad luck or typical of owning a rental and just “part of the business?” 

Not looking for a pick-me-up just honestly want to know if this just happens sometimes and we shouldn’t get spooked or is it time to consider an exit strategy. I know it’s not all rainbows and sunshine in this business but wondering how common this is? 

@Russell Brazil it's in the 20706 zip code. There are a lot of homes that do it here though not sure if they are allowed. The area is an unincorporated city. 

@Russell Brazil How would I find out if converting to a duplex is legal in my area?

@Joshua Messinger and @Taylor J McGuire thank you so much! Your help is invaluable. I am learning something new everyday about this business. If I am doing this correctly, my research shows that our area has a projected employment growth rate of 34% over the next 10 years (I checked here for this info: Economy, bestplaces.net - are there better ways to find this out?). We have a variety of job industries in the area (hospital, NASA, lots of government jobs), short metro ride to downtown Washington DC, lots of parks and convenient shopping, otherwise, our area is a pretty typical suburb neighborhood. This would be a LTR but are open to STR for the basement unit. It is pretty hard to find SF rentals in our exact area (like under 10 in our zip code)- not a whole lot of options for bigger homes especially so we might have the advantage in that for now. Thanks again! I will look closer at the numbers. I think if it were a SF rather than a duplex we would have no trouble filling it. We are at the crossroads now-to renovate or leave as is. It's about an $800 difference in cash flow so pretty significant. For our investment plan to cash flow it works best as two units (but only if we can fill both barring the 5% vacancy rate for our area).