All Forum Posts by: Len P.

Hi, I've had a chance to work in the connected water field for a couple years, although not directly in leak detection. There are several companies that have products that may be interesting for what you are looking for. I have not actually used or tested any myself but have read through online reviews and articles. These are some I've seen.

Flo by Moen - Moen led a $28M investment in Flo in January. Flo has leak detection and a shutoff valve in a unit that you place on the inline pipe coming into the house.

LeakSmart - owned by Waxman. LeakSmart has leak detectors that you put on the floor around potential leak spots such as the washing machine or boiler. They connect to a Wifi hub, and LeakSmart also has a shutoff valve that you connect to the inline pipe and also integrates with the Wifi hub.

Phyn - owned by Belkin and Uponor. Similar to Flow, has a single system that you install on the inline pipe for leak detection and automatic shut off.

Streamlabs - has 2 products; one is an inline leak detector and the other is an inline leak detector + shutoff valve

Flume - this is a really unique product. You strap Flume on your existing water meter and it then monitors the water usage to detect leaks. The device connects to a Wifi hub. There is no shutoff option.

All of the leak detection + shutoff valve systems will cost $500+ and may require a subscription. They'll also require a plumber for installation. Flume is around $200 and is DYI, although it doesn't have a shutoff option.

One question for you all - all of these systems require a connection to Wifi. How would you connect the leak detector to Wifi in a rental? Would you setup your own Wifi network or would you connect it to a tenant's Wifi?

Thanks,

Len

Hi Corey, this sounds like a very good exciting opportunity! One potential thing to do would be to do an appraisal now before closing in order to verify that the appraisal will be high enough. The obvious downside is that you’ll have to pay for 2 appraisals but doing one now may help give the seller comfort since the risk will be lower. Good luck!

Hi all, in seller financing, are interest payments calculated the same way as in a mortgage (where a high portion of the initial monthly payments are for interest and a smaller portion initially for principal payments)?

Or can you set up the interest as fixed? For example, a $100K seller financing; 5% annual interest; 20-year term. Can we do a fixed payment for all 20 years of $10K per year = $5K interest + $5K principal? (Of course, the payments would be monthly; I listed annual to keep the math simple.)

Thanks!

Hi everyone!

BP is amazing and this is my first time posting. Nice to e-meet you all!

I'm looking at a 5-unit with each unit as an identical 3BR townhouse. The current owners have gutted each unit and already rehabbed 3 of the units. They are about to start on the 4th unit, but are also open to selling now. They seem to be motivated sellers.

The deal seems very strong from the numbers and location along with the current tenants in the 3 units.

There are a couple options of how to structure the offer that I can think of:

1. Current owner rehabs 4th unit and I rehab the 5th

2. Current owner rehabs the 4th and 5th units

What do you think makes the most sense? 

I'm inclined to go with the current owner rehabbing both units since they have already done the first 3 units with the same crew. If they do, then I think my main challenge of the rehab would be ensuring that the 4th and 5th units get rehabbed to the quality of the first 3 units (which were done very well).

I'm an out-of-state investor and my parents live about 30 minutes away from the property. I also have a trusted realtor locally and will be working with a PM, and they would both review the rehabs.

Thank you so much!

Len