All Forum Posts by: Liam Goble

I always prefer to sand/refinish flooring rather than carpet or vinyl tile. It's a little more expensive, but I prefer the look of hard wood and I can usually get a little more rent for hardwood floors. I have my flooring refinisher use a water based polyurethane that is also used on basketball floors...maybe a little glossy for some, but it stands up to significant wear and tear.

@Elizabeth S. - Depending on your specific situation, DO NOT use a natural draft gas appliance. When you begin moving heating equipment and have improper draft to begin with, natural draft will not work.

If the house has a combined water heater/boiler, look for a high efficiency replacement. The specific terminology you want to see is: "95%+ AFUE modulating, condensing boiler (or furnace)." I've had good luck with the Burnham Alpine boiler (just personal preference). Price would be a deterrent here. A swap would cost $10k - $14k, but would eliminate all chimney problems as well as most health and safety issues now and in the future.

If you are only looking to replace your water heater, you could consider a heat pump water heater. They are a little pricier on the front end, but would translate into utility savings for you or your tenants, which should translate into increased rent for you.

If you must stick w/ a gas water heater, and you either have a water softener, or don't have hard water, consider an 'on-demand' water heater. Rinnai and Bosch make good models.

All of the above gas models I described all vent through the side of the building, so your problem with the chimney would be (sort of) solved.

@Kristopher K - Don't get me wrong, if it is possible to separate heating utilities using either separately metered gas or switching to heat pumps of some sort would be most ideal (heat pumps being most ideal because of the added cooling benefit). Currently, for my day job, I evaluate energy efficiency in SFRs and MF properties. The MF properties are generally 10+ units, but most of the thoughts and theories apply to smaller MF properties. (Because of my focus on energy efficiency, strip heaters are never included in our calculations)

Right around 4 units is where I am seeing the cost/benefit break-even when considering a switch to separate utilities by unit. When I consider a 2 - 4 unit MF property with a centralized heating plant, I first determine the cost to switch to separate heating/cooling per unit. If that is impossible or prohibitively expensive, I then evaluate a switch to much more efficient heating equipment coupled with a fuel swap (eg: 80%AFUE oil to 96%AFUE gas). Savings can be in the neighborhood of 50% of heating costs with some of those swaps and the specific situation.

@Duncan Banks - Mass. has a really good home performance program. Most of the home performance programs around the country will allow up to 4-units. It may be worthwhile seeing if you can locate a BPI or RESNET home contractor to look at the property with you and suggest ways to improve the energy efficiency (which would translate to cash flow). I generally include an 'energy audit' or 'energy inspection' when I submit my offer. I've never had anyone question or request I remove that inspection.

There is very little available in my market here in Central PA. One year ago, there were too many deals to deal with (no pun intended). Now, it's difficult to find one or two stellar properties. I missed out on one stellar deal because I couldn't find enough interested investors for a fix-and-flip.

Heating may consume more of the monthly cash than you expect. Given the age of the house and the fact the owner pays heat, I would guess there is a central system, either a boiler or furnace. One, maybe two thermostats (who gets to determine how warm to keep the units?). Also, given the location/age, I would assume the system is oil fired. Oil is extremely expensive right now.

If you do move forward with this property, look closely at the heating system and try to determine if there is a way to zone the system (individual control per unit), or see about improving the heating system. There are 90%+ efficient oil boilers and furnaces available on the market now.

All of my units are held in an LLC. I'm being quoted 5/5/5 ARMS with 25% down at 6.06% right now. My LLC is a little over one year old at this point. All my loans are with one medium sized regional bank.