All Forum Posts by: Kirana Rao

@robertcalabro. True submeter is not in Cincy, but the meters and modems and instructions come from them and I used my handyman to install them. You send them one months bills so they can calculate water and sewer charges ( and trash if you charge the tenants for it and they email you a monthly bill that you send to the tenants. 

@pattitobertson. I am in Cincinnati. I can’t charge anything above and beyond the utilities. Of course, I can charge what it cost me. We are a very small operation and this is a small 4 unit. I have friends that charge 50$+_/ apartment- that usually works for larger operations. My water bill is  over 400$/mo and one unit may have 40$, one person that works and another unit with 2  people plus taking care of 3 grandchildren during daytime. 

I guess whatever works for each one. For me submetering seemed like the most fair and leasr headache for me. Tenant pay what they use and we are done! 

@remingtonlyman. I apologize I haven’t posted an update here in a while. I used my handyman who is good but any plumber can do it. It is a pretty simple cut the pipes, add the new ones and meters and put it all together. I know in cincinnati Zins plumbing was willing to do it, but I have a great handyman who did it for cheaper. I can give you his contact if you PM me. It might be worth your time to pay him to drive and back. It took him 2 days to finish the work. 
True submeters gives you written instructions on how to do that. So all the plumbers are doing is following those instructions.

True submeters sends you an email for each apartment every month with the water cost and I just forward it to the tenants with a deadline to pay it. I make the tenants write the checks in the name of the utility and either add it to their rent online or they can send me a check. I directly send it to the utility company.

As landlords, we are not allowed to charge for utilities, so I basically make them write the check out to the utility company, consolidate the checks and send it out. 

True submeters can also include sewer and trash removal costs if you charge those to the tenants. They send you a modem that is all set up. All you have to do is plug it in and it is ready to go. I think they could improve their customer service just a little bit, but very easy to work with.

I think it has been worth it for me to sub metering it. I get separate water， seeer and trash bills and don’t have to figure that out. I basically have to put the bill together every month and send it to the utility company. At least I know all of them are paid every month! 

The whole thing cost me less than 4,000. I will see the returns in less than a year and tenants will be more considerate about their water use. If you are thinking about it, I highly recommend. The only con is that I am hounding the tenants to pay up every month, but here in Cincinnati, I am responsible for water( not tenants) and anyways it is my responsibility even if the tenant doesn’t pay. 

Please let me know if you have any other questions. 

Jeff Bosaw: I wish our utility would just charge tenants directly but they don’t and landlords are responsible foe any unpaid bills. I have one tenant who has racked up about 700$ in water bills and with the moratorium in place.... I don’t want to be policing my tenants for utilities.

Update: As of February 10th, still waiting on a water bill (2 months after property acquisition) in order to get the sub meters. I have called the local water utility company and they bill was sent to me Dec 31 st, but USPS has been slow. Talk about snail mail😀. So no updates yet. 

Ok, will start with a little history.

We acquired a 4 unit about 3 weeks ago in a blue collar area of cincinnati. The owner lived in one unit and 3 units have been unoccupied for the last 17 -18 months. No history prior to that. WhenI called the energy company, I was told average 160$ for a month for the unit that was occupied. I was blown away. I was thinking even with base charges considered, I would look at 400-500$ per month, which would kill any profit. 

So started looking at submetering- nobody does small units. Minimum is 10 units or more. Called at least 4-5 companies. From previous discussions here on BP- called “True sub metering company”. They will send you the meters and you will have to do your own installation. But they will read it and bill tenants for additional 5$ per month per unit( which I intend to pass back to the tenant). True submeters also does a great job of sending instructions on how to install. 

After that had to call about 10 plumbers and most of them had never heard of submetering. But one plumber was willing to look at instructions and said it was possible. They gave me a rate of 475$ per meter. 

The big thing with submetering is that you want to make sure water lines are separated in to each unit. Mine was, so I needed a total of 8 meters ( one for each hot and cold line). If water line is not separated, you can still do it in the apartment- but that might need 6-8 submeters for each unit. Meters are nit that expensive- about 75$ per meter and about 175 per modem, so depending on how many you need, it can start to add up. You can do the calculations.

I figured if I sub meter, I would get return on investment in about 8-10 months, which is totally worth it for me! It has been a huge learning process. Waiting for meters now. Will post soon about how Installation and actual reading goes. 
Thabk you

Hi everyone: I am currently in the process of sub metering a 4 unit in Cincinnati. I know there is a lot of confusion and questions about what and how things are done. I am happy to provide information and resources if there is interest. Please reply and I will make a longer post with the step by step process as I am doing it.

Thank you

You are welcome. I own a Single Family Home, not a safe 😂

Hi Jon: I own a safe in St. Bernard. I use equity  group and am happy with them. PM me if you are looking for a  name and number.!

Lots of good areas. Gaslight Clifton, CUF (University area),  Avondale and Evanston ( both up and coming, but a little iffy), walnut hills, Hyde park (very expensive), downtown, Northside. All within a 10 minute drive and great places to buy property and easy to rent. Good luck