All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

If you plan to put new blinds in this rental, or if you have similar blinds in your other rentals, maybe save some of the hardware from the broken blinds before you toss them - particularly the tilt rod (the long plastic thing you spin to tilt the slats), the plastic cones or pulls on the ends of the operating strings, and maybe the buttons or plugs on the bottom of the bottom bar that hold the lift strings to the bottom.

When I bought my rental, it had blinds everywhere that were mostly in OK shape, but some of them were missing the above items, and I couldn't source them locally as individual parts.  You can get the parts online, but it bugged me to pay $3 for the parts and $7+ for shipping.  What I finally did was go into a dollar store that had some new blinds on closeout, buy a couple random sizes for like $2 or $3 each, and then cannibalize the parts from them.  (They didn't have any sizes that matched what I needed - I looked.)

The mounting brackets that go on the ends are usually available at the hardware store or even Wally World.  Sometimes you can get the pulls/cones locally too.  The other stuff is hard to find locally, at least in my experience.

I just have one rental. I don't charge an extra deposit for pets, but I do charge pet rent of $25/month/pet, with a limit of 3 pets - dog, cat, bird, lizard, snake, whatever. The base rent is $900/mo, in a B-class neighborhood. I don't mind taking pets because it's a SFR with a decent-sized yard and a chain link fence, and it has hardwood, vinyl, or laminate floors everywhere.

The language I have in the lease about this says I get to meet the pets before they move in, states the pet rent fee, and also mentions that the city has breed-specific legislation for dogs (no pit bulls).  I'm not sure if I agree with that law, but I'm not going to help the tenants break it, either.

I don't pull the pet's credit report.  :D

I would give the tenants at least two ways to get in.  If the smart lock battery dies, or the tenant loses the mechanical key to the smart lock, or the PIN on the smart lock is smarter than the tenant is at 2:30 AM on Saturday or Sunday morning, or the smart lock manufacturer pushes a bad firmware update, or the local bad guys push a bad firmware update, then the tenant can still use a mechanical key on the side door or back door and get in the house.

For the lowest cost, you might have the smart lock on the main/front door with mechanical key A, a mechanical lock on the back/side door that they will probably use most often with mechanical key B, and then three keyed-alike mechanical locks on the other three doors that have mechanical key C.  Give the tenant keys A and B, but keep key C to yourself.

Another option for the mechanical locks is to install the kind where you can swap just the cylinder from the front with a special key.  They cost more up front, but once you have them, it only takes a couple of minutes per door to swap cylinders.  When you order the doorknobs, you can order two sets of cylinders, and then either leave the second set with your PM/handyman, or keep the second set and then FedEx them to a local service tech when you have a lost key or a tenant turnover.

Disclaimer: My rental and my experience are on the Missouri side of the KC metro.  I don't know a lot about how it goes in the Dotte.

I was going to balk at the $1,350 rent if it was a single-family (you've probably got to be in Johnson County to get a SFR rent like that), then like everybody else, I figured out it was a duplex.

Have you checked your rent numbers against Rentometer and Zillow?  Of the two, I like Rentometer a little better, because (it claims) it pulls data from actual "for rent" ads near your property, whereas Zillow's seems to be more automated and involve more guesses/assumptions.  Without knowing anything else, I feel like getting $950/mo for one side of a duplex in KCK might be kind of a stretch.  If it's out west, then maybe, but then the house would be selling for more than $85K.  If it's closer to downtown KCK, I don't think the $950 is realistic.

You might try to get a quote or two from an electrician on the second-meter idea. Besides whatever BPU wants, you also may get to rewire a lot of the house to split up the two sides, especially since it used to be an SFR. In Kansas, my understanding is that you have to have an electrician to tie anything into the breaker box, so you can't DIY much, if any, of this job.  My uncalibrated estimate is that you're probably looking at least $2,000 or so just to get a second service drop, second meter, and second breaker panel - and then you get to wire half of the house to that new second breaker panel.

You might also ask a couple of plumbers about the "laundry in the garage" idea.  Getting electric and cold water out there isn't too big of a deal.  Depending on how far away the garage is from the house, it might not be nuts to run hot water from the house to the garage - but then again, it may be a better idea to put a water heater in the garage just for the laundry, which means you get to run a gas line or heavier electric out there.  Sometimes it freezes in the winter in KCK [citation needed], so you also get to install some kind of heater in the garage - whether that is electric, or gas, or even a radiator coming off of the water heater.  The big deal, there, is probably the sewer connection.  You can probably tie into the house sewer, but depending on where the existing sewer line goes from the house to the street, you might get to run your new line halfway around the house to tie in.  You might also find that the existing line is super ancient pipe, and you might have to replace at least part of it so you can tie in to it.

Good luck!  

Depending on how the system was installed, it's possible to swap out the furnace without touching the evaporator coil.  On an upflow furnace, I have seen an installer (from an authorized dealer for the furnace brand involved) leave the evaporator coil attached to the refrigerant lines and the supply ductwork above the furnace, disconnect the old furnace, slide it out from under the evaporator coil, slide the new furnace under the evaporator coil, and hook up the new furnace.  He never had to open the refrigerant system at all.

In my experience, it's hard to think clearly about the labor involved in HVAC stuff, because the quotes you get don't break it down that far.  (This may be different in other parts of the country.)  I know that having one or two guys come out and work on it for half a day, their tools, plus a truck full of bits and pieces they might need to finish the install, isn't free.  I don't know, though, if I'm paying $4000 for the equipment and $1000 for the labor, or $3000 for the equipment and $2000 for the labor, or what.  For most brands, the pricing of the equipment itself is kept secret from the home owner, so you can't work backwards from that to figure out how to break down the quote.

> Also, always change the evaporator coil (indoor coil) when installing the new condensing unit (outdoor unit)

This part I agree with, especially if you're replacing either of those because they have failed of old age, or if they were very old (20+ years) and suffered some external trauma, which are probably the most common conditions.

If somebody steals the outdoor unit for the metal, or a car skids through the yard and takes out the outdoor unit, or someone tries to use a 12" long drill bit to hang a picture and puts a hole in the evaporator coil, that's IMHO a little different.  If it's only been a few years since the system was new, you can probably still get the same part from the same manufacturer and just replace one of them.  If it's been a while, the manufacturer may not make exactly the same part.  The manufacturer may be willing to say "it's OK to use the current XZ-1300 coil to replace the XZ-1100 coil that we don't make anymore", but I would try to get it in writing from the manufacturer, or at least hear it from some better authority than the installing dealer or the local warehouse.

Something like a GE Zoneline, maybe?  The kind of AC/heater that is under the window and next to the room door in a budget motel, like a Super 8 or Motel 6.  The generic term is apparently "packaged terminal air conditioner".

If that's what it is, you can clean the condenser a little more thoroughly if you want to, because you can slide the "guts" into the room and out of the sheet metal "box".  That would also make it a lot easier to see if any of the drain holes in the box are plugged up.  You might need two people, though, because it's kind of heavy and unwieldy.

So, like a window air conditioner, but installed in the wall instead of a window?

Normally these are meant to slope towards the outside a little bit, so condensation will head for the outside.  The water from the evaporator (inside coil) normally drips into a tray, or a channel stamped into the steel on the bottom of the housing.  It then runs towards the condenser (outside coil).  On many models, the condenser fan is designed to dip into the water at the bottom, which tends to fling the water at the condenser, helping cool it off and work better.  If there's too much water to get rid of that way, it's meant to drip from one of the outside corners, sometimes from a drain hole in the sheet metal.

You might look around the edges of the unit, inside the house, for the mounting screws / clamps and make sure those are tight. If it sits on a brace or bracket or stilt outside, you might make sure that it allows the unit to slope away from
the house.  If you can reach it from the outside, you might (gently) poke a toothpick into any small holes near the bottom corners; sometimes they get plugged up with mineral deposits from the evaporated water, or leaves, bugs, mud, etc.  Or, apply a vacuum cleaner to those holes to see if you can suck out the crud.  Don't use a screwdriver or anything real sharp to poke with - you want to avoid poking a hole in the refrigerant (Freon) lines, which will be close by.

Other than that, clean the filter!  Often it won't be a replaceable filter like a whole-house furnace would have, but a piece of wire or plastic mesh that you slide out of the front of the unit, wash, dry, and reinstall.

If you get funky, musty smells, unplug it, and take the entire plastic front off of it.  You will see the evaporator coil taking up most of the front.  Put a plastic trash bag on the floor underneath it, and then hose the coil down well with your favorite multi-purpose cleaner (Windex, 409, Fantastik, Spic n Span, or equal), and maybe use a sponge or a wad of paper towels, gently, to wipe it down.  Don't bend or crush any of the thin aluminum fins on the front - just wipe it gently to get off any surface crud.  Let it dry, put it back together, and run it.  It will smell like the cleaner for a bit, and then it should smell better in general.

You can kind of do the same thing for the condenser, but it's usually harder to get to, because it's behind the outside sheet metal.  You can use a vacuum against the outside to get a little bit of dirt, leaves, bugs, etc out of it, which will help some.

If it has a cord and plug - it's not hard-wired - crank down the thermostat so it comes on and stays on for a while.  After 5 or 10 minutes of running, feel the plug and along the cord.  A little warm is OK but if it's really hot, replace either the outlet (if the plug is hot) or the cord (if it's hot along the cord somewhere).

I haven't done this before, but as I understand it, there are basically three options.

1) Get the utility companies to install separate meters outside for both gas and electricity.

This is probably the most expensive option.  You will have to pay for the new plumbing to the new water meter.  You will also have to pay for the new electric meter socket, wire to the transformer, and electrical panel inside the house.

You may have to re-do the plumbing in the house to split up the two sides of the house so they can be on separate meters.  You will very likely have to re-do the wiring in the house to split up the two sides of the house so they can be on separate meters.

Unless you are very lucky with how the house is already plumbed and wired, this will probably cost you several thousand dollars.

2) Install your own meters inside the house.

You pay the bill to the water and electricity company, and then your tenants pay you for water and electricity according to the meters inside the house.

You will have to pay for the new meters inside the house.  You may have to pay for new plumbing and new wiring inside the house.  Also, some utilities and cities will not let you do this.  Ask the utility and the city to be sure.

This is still likely to be at least a few thousand dollars, but less than option 1.

3) Do a Ratio Utility Billing system (RUB or RUBs).

This is where you split the utilities according to how many people are in each part of the house, or how many square feet are in each part of the house.  For instance, if 3 people live in one side, and 2 people live in the other, then the 3 people pay 60% of the water and electric bills, and the 2 people pay 40% of the water and electric bills.  Or, if one side is 1,200 square feet, and the other side is 900 square feet, then the 1,200 square foot side pays 57% of the water and electric bills, and the 900 square foot side pays 43% of the water and electric bills.

You pay the bill to the water and electricity company, and then your tenants pay you for water and electricity according the ratio.  Again, some utilities and cities will not let you do this, or they have rules about how you have to do it. Ask the utility and the city to be sure.

This way doesn't cost any money for meters or plumbing or wiring, but does require you to pay the bill, do the calculations every month, and get the money from the tenants.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional HVAC person.  I've bought new furnaces and A/Cs for houses before.  :)

Find out what size the furnace and A/C are.  The furnace will be rated in BTU/hr - probably something between 60,000 and 130,000 or so.  The A/C will either be rated in tons or BTU/hr - something between 1.5 to 4 tons, or 18,000 to 48,000 BTU/hr.  There will also be an efficiency rating, which will be something between 10 and 14 SEER for the A/C, and 80% to 95% for the furnace.  These don't have anything to do with the sizing, but they do affect the price, and they may affect the rebates you can get from the local utilities for upgrading.  The home inspector may have put the model numbers on their report; you can determine the size from those, and with a little Googling, you can probably come up with the SEER and furnace efficiency.

Call a few local HVAC companies and see if they'll give you an estimate over the phone, for that size furnace and A/C, with equal or better efficiency to what you have now - some will quote you over the phone and some won't.  Or, Google for ads - some of them will advertise things like "80,000 BTU/hr furnace and 3 ton AC installed for $X".  Add a few hundred bucks to $X, because they leave some things out of that price, but it will at least give you an idea.  

Many HVAC companies will offer a financing option.  Often, it isn't real great - it's like a store credit card with high interest - but it might help spread out the cost a little.  You might ask your bank how long you have to own the duplex before you can get an equity line of credit on it - you might be able to finance the systems through the HVAC company, pay that note for 6 to 12 months, and then pay off the HVAC company's 18% loan with 6% money from your equity line.

Right now, every HVAC company is busy fixing and swapping air conditioners.  By October, they'll be busy fixing and swapping furnaces.  There is a lull in their business sometime around September, and if you can possibly schedule a replacement then, they will sometimes give you a discount of one or two hundred dollars a system, just to keep their techs busy.  They might also cut you a little bit of a deal for doing both of them at once, but I'm not as sure on this one, because I've never done it.

Also check with the local electric and gas company - sometimes they offer rebates for replacing old systems, or moving up to a higher-efficiency system.  Sometimes a tech has to test your old system and then test the new system for you to get the rebate; sometimes you just have to fill in a form that lists the model numbers of the old and new equipment.  The utility should tell you how it works.  The HVAC companies know about these rebates, and have adjusted their pricing accordingly, but it can still save you a little money.

If it were me, and I didn't have the money to do two furnaces and two A/Cs, I'd do the two furnaces.  If a furnace screws up bad enough, it can kill somebody.  If the A/C quits in a way that is uneconomical to repair, a couple of hundred dollars at the hardware store or general store gets you some window units that will serve until you can replace the central air.

If you just want to replace the furnace, the HVAC people will make noise about "the system will be unmatched", mostly because they want to sell you an A/C too, and a little bit because installing a new furnace with an old A/C can make the installation slightly more complicated.  (Mostly, they might have to build a little bit of duct between the new furnace and the old A/C coil, which they don't have to do if they are doing a new furnace and a new A/C coil.)  Try not to pay too much attention to that noise - it's perfectly possible to make a new furnace work with an old A/C coil.  If one HVAC company doesn't want to do it, ask another one.

If you do just the furnace, ask if they can have a tech work over the A/C while they are there for the install.  Mostly this would include cleaning out the outside unit with a hose, cleaning the inside coil before they install the new furnace, checking the refrigerant (Freon) level, and (if they're feeling really spiffy) checking the amp draw on the compressor.  Doing this stuff will help the A/C last as long as it can, and tell you a little more about what condition it is in.

It will be different in Detroit, but as some kind of reference: In the Kansas City area, with existing ductwork, I could probably get two complete, nice systems - about a 2.5 ton, 13 SEER A/C, and 100,000 BTU/hr, 90%+ furnace - installed in an average duplex for maybe $14,000 to $15,000 all in.  If I used cheaper systems I could probably get it down to around $10,000, plus or minus.

I just send them an email, saying what I am going to do for maintenance, and what I am going to inspect.  Once I get done, I send almost the same email back to them, saying what I did and what I found.   "I visited the house on July 32.  I looked under the sinks for water leaks and that was OK.  I changed the vent hood filter for a new one... (etc)."

If there is some issue I notice while I'm there, I'll talk to them about it, and then send them an email as a followup ("Please have the leaves out front raked up by April 43rd").  When I see that whatever it is has been taken care of, I'll send another email ("I drove by on April 38th, and the leaves have been raked up.  Thank you.")