All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

Did you get an inspection when you bought the house?  Sometimes the inspector's report will have the model and serial numbers on it.

Did you look all over for the data plate?  Get a really bright light and look.  It might be down in the corner by where the Freon lines come in, right next to the ground.  Sometimes it's a sticker and it really did fall off, or the print on it faded, but sometimes it's stamped and you can still make out the numbers, or put a piece of paper against it and rub a pencil on the paper, or similar.

If none of that works, SHUT OFF THE POWER, and then open up that curved panel on the side (on the right in the second photo - closest to the flowers).  There is often a wiring diagram pasted to the inside of that panel or folded up in an envelope stuck to that panel.  Usually the wiring diagram has the model number on it, or a range of model numbers it applies to.  If it's a range, you have to do a little detective work to figure out which one is yours - sometimes, the model number will be like "AC4567__00", where the "__" is "12" for a one-ton unit, "24" for a two-ton unit, etc.  This is important, because the outside housings for the different cooling capacities are probably different sizes.

Once you have a model number, hit up Google.  For some brands, you can find a parts diagram with part numbers; other brands keep these secret.  Once you have a part number, Google that, and see if anyone will sell you one.  The newer the A/C is, the more luck you will have.

If you can't find a new part online, you might be able to get one off of an old unit.  The trouble here is that most of the old units are owned by HVAC companies, and they'd much rather sell you a $2,000 new A/C than a $20 part off of an old one.  :)  Don't ask the HVAC company that has billboards all over town and a fleet of brand-new trucks; they won't be able to help you.  Ask the smaller ones.  Look on Craigslist.  If there is a used appliance store around, see if they deal in A/C or furnace parts.

If none of that works... then you've got to sand and paint, as has been discussed.  If you take it apart for this, expect some of those rusty screws to strip out or break.  99% of the time, you can replace these with hardware-store parts - use stainless steel, if you're feeling really generous.  :)  Sanding the side grill and the top fan grill will be somewhat of a pain in the butt... maybe ask around to see if any auto body shops or powder-coating shops would be willing to sandblast everything and paint or powder-coat it grey. (Or, ask them to just sand-blast it, and paint it yourself with spray cans.)  You have to take all of the electrical parts off of anything that you want to get sandblasted or painted or powder-coated; they won't do it for you.

Sometimes the local school district will have an "adult education" program that has relevant classes - this is more likely if the district still has a vocational-technical school.  If your local district doesn't have one, look around at nearby districts.  Usually there is a tuition fee for this, which your GI Bill might cover.

In many areas, the various trade unions operate a school and apprenticeship system.  As far as I know, you usually have to pick one and stay with it... you can't sign up with the electricians' union and the plumbers' union at the same time.  There is a defined period of time that you have to work on jobs as an apprentice before you "graduate" to the next level up.  You do get paid, though.

It costs time and not money, but another option is volunteering for somebody like Habitat for Humanity.  Their builds are designed so that people who don't have experience can work on them, under the supervision of people that do have experience.  You won't be able to follow the electrician or the plumber around and ask them a million questions, but you can sure watch what they do and maybe Google it later.  In Michigan, especially, the end of their building season might be coming up relatively soon - you might have to wait until next spring.

I'm going to add my voice to @Kenny Dahill and @Mark S. - go there in person.  Meet the people you will be working with, and if you've identified specific buildings or neighborhoods that you're interested in, drive there and check them out.

If you can possibly do it while you're still in the target city, drive back to the properties on your own. Drive a few blocks in all directions from the property and scope out the neighborhood. (Sellers are good at driving down the street past the renovated homes to get to their property, and not showing you the local crack house and burnt-out shells that are on the next block over.) If you can, visit the properties both in the daytime and at night.

Disclaimer: I only have one property so far. I am not affiliated with any sites mentioned.

I use Cozy.co for background checks and collecting rent. I don't use the other features they offer (application, maintenance requests, document sharing, listing syndication). I wrote a detailed post about it here:

https://www.biggerpockets.com/...

Disclaimer: I am not a professional electrician.

If this is the building from 1890 you've talked about in your other posts, and the electrical system was overhauled before approximately the 1960s, it may have started out with fuses everywhere - the box in the photo that you still have, and fuse sub-panels in all of the units.  Then, if a unit was re-done more recently, the owner might have switched to a breaker panel in the unit.

It's possible for somebody to do something in a unit that would pop these fuses, but not pop the circuit breaker in the unit.Circuit breakers will allow a lot more current than they're rated for to flow for a short time - a 15 amp breaker might allow 30+ amps to flow for a second or two without tripping.  The reason for this is that when some things (like motors) start up, they draw a very high current at first, and then settle down to a much lower current.  Some kinds of fuses will blow pretty quick under that kind of load, but you can also get "time-delay" or "lag" fuses that behave a little more like a circuit breaker.

One advantage to circuit breakers over fuses is that if a breaker trips, and you have a pretty good idea why it tripped (like, you shouldn't have tried to dual-wield hair dryers), all you have to do is turn it off and back on and you're back in business.  With a fuse, you have to replace the fuse.  That size fuse is probably available at most hardware stores, but maybe not at Wally World.  If you keep the fuse box, it's probably a good idea to get some spare fuses ahead of time, and keep them at the property somewhere.

You might also ask your insurance agent if they have any requirements about replacing fuses with breakers, or if they offer discounts for doing so.

If there is some way to shut off the power ahead of this box (short of removing the meter), then I would guess that getting this one box replaced might cost a few hundred dollars.  The work is basically to shut off the power, disconnect the wires from this box, remove the box, hang a new box with a circuit breaker in it, reconnect the wires, and turn the power back on.

If you need to remove the meter to shut off the power, or get the power company to pull a fuse on their side of the transformer, then it will cost more and take longer.  An electrician can handle dealing with the power company for you.  Doing this level of work may also need an inspection from the city, and might trigger a requirement for you to update other things in the electrical system.  Ask your electrician, but it also wouldn't hurt to ask the city building codes / inspections people what the requirements are.

I've lived in Missouri most of my life and I had to look up where Salisbury is.  :)  It's a tiny town.  Per the US Census, its population peaked in 1980, at 1,975 people.  The 2016 Census estimate is 1,544 people.  In 2010, there were 698 households; whoever bought this building would instantly control about 1.1% of the housing in town.  The closest Wal-Mart is about 22 miles east, in Moberly, which says to me there's probably not a lot of economic activity in Salisbury.  There are grocery stores in Salisbury, but they close at 7 PM during the week...

If you're looking at doing this from another state, it would be interesting to find out how many property managers there are in Salisbury - I suspect not many.  You might end up with the same person who's doing it now, or possibly trying to convince somebody to come over from Moberly, or up from their lucrative student rentals in Columbia.  You (or the PM) will probably also have a somewhat limited set of contractors for any emergency repairs.

Just looking at the photos on Zillow, the outside air conditioners look like they might be original to the building, in 1980.  At least some of them probably still run (or the seller was smart enough to take the window A/C units out of the windows for the pictures), but you might end up buying some A/C units soon.

I agree with what's been posted; the inspector's contract probably limits their liability.

The inspector I've hired a couple of times in the Kansas City area told me that he kept track of water heater failures, and that they last, on average, 16 to 17 years here.  So if yours really is from 1998, it might be time for a new one.  Did the inspection report list the year of the water heater?  If it lists the serial number, sometimes you can tell from that - Google, like, "Rheem water heater serial numbers" or "State water heater serial numbers" to see how to read the serial number.

The water heater in my house, and the one at my rental, have a clear date on the label.  The one here says "Mfg. Date" with the month and the year, and the one at the rental says "Build Date" with the month, day, and year.

What does the PM say is wrong with the water heater?  The number one complaint is that they start leaking.  If they're leaking out the bottom, they're usually all done, and it's time for a new one.  Sometimes either the drain valve (on the side near the bottom) or the temperature/pressure relief valve (either on the top, or on the side near the top) starts leaking, and $20 at the hardware store solves that problem.

If it doesn't leak, but doesn't get hot: if it's gas, and has a pilot light, sometimes the thermocouple burns out; this is a $20 part at the hardware store.  If it's electric, sometimes the heating elements or thermostats burn out; they cost a little more but all the hardware stores have them.

I agree with @Patricia Steiner 's ideas for marketing the heck out of it.  You might also see if there's a university housing office that keeps a list of rental properties in town.  This may be less common, now, as more universities try to profit from the dorms/housing that they own, but it's at least worth looking into.

For the next week or two, it's still possible to get fall semester students that are starting late.  At a big enough university, there will also be some students that want to start in the spring semester instead (in January), so you might be able to salvage part of this year.

Disclaimer: I haven't done AirBnB as an investor, myself.

Check to see if the city, county, or state has any regulations, or proposed regulations, on vacation rentals.  If there's a homeowners association, check with them, too.  Over the past few years, some areas have created regulations, or are working on it.  Sometimes they are due to legit complaints from neighbors who don't like loud parties next door every night; sometimes it's the local hotel industry trying to drive up costs for vacation rentals.  (If you're being told you need full fire sprinklers in a 3 bed/1 bath/1400 sq ft house, then it's the latter...)

I have stayed in some vacation rentals in Ohio - cabins in the Hocking Hills area, southeast of Columbus.  The market there is apparently good enough to support new builds of relatively large cabins (sleeping 20-30 people) for vacation rentals.  I don't know what the costs are, but just from staying in them, I'd assume the construction cost is several hundred thousand dollars.  The rent goes up in the summer and down in the winter.  The cabins I've stayed in are mostly built like a large residence, but they've had a few "commercial building" touches, like EXIT signs, fire alarms, and a big commercial-kitchen vent hood.

I put replaceable-cylinder locks from landlordlocks.com in my rental.  They cost more up front, but I can re-key the whole house myself in 20 minutes or so - you order (or buy ahead of time) a new set of cylinders, and use a tool you get with the new locks that removes the cylinder and installs the new one.  They will also set up a master key / tenant key system for you, so you can have one key that gets you into all of your properties, but each tenant's key only gets them into their unit.

A couple of the locks took me a little longer to install in the door than "regular" Kwikset/Schlage/etc locks from the hardware store, but that's because I decided to install a couple of extra screws that the "regular" locks don't usually have.  You should only have to do that work one time, though.  One of the locks got a little stiff after I used it for a while during rehab; a local locksmith recommended and sold me a can of "Tri Flow" spray lubricant, and that cleared it up.

Most hardware stores won't duplicate the keys for commercial locks like this.  A local locksmith might, but you might have to show some proof that you're the owner of the property.

I am not affiliated with Landlord Locks, except as a customer.