Disclaimer: I am not a professional HVAC person. I have fixed the ones on my own residence and bought a couple of complete systems before.
The furnace, inside air conditioner coil (A-coil), and outside air conditioner should all have stickers on them somewhere that give a model and serial number. The stickers are usually on the outside of the A-coil and outside unit, and on the inside of the furnace - take the front panels off like you were going to change the filter to see it. Usually there is a number or two in the serial number that tells you the year the unit was built - Google the brand, like, "Lennox serial numbers" or "Trane serial numbers" or similar to see how to read it. Taking a photo of the sticker for later reference sometimes works, but zoom into the photo right after you take it and make sure you can read everything... the furnace sticker is sometimes in a dark corner and the outside sticker sometimes gets faded in the sun. This doesn't immediately affect anything, but if the units turn out to be older than you think, maybe that will help you make a decision.
The model number will also usually tell you the capacity of the furnace (in BTU/hr) and the air conditioner (sometimes tons, sometimes BTU/hr). You may have to Google to learn how to read the model number - for instance, a 60,000 BTU furnace might have "060" or "06" in the model number at a certain spot. For that size house in New Orleans, you might have a 60,000 or 80,000 BTU/hr furnace. I am less sure about the air conditioner - 3 tons or 36,000 BTU/hr maybe? Knowing the capacity will help an HVAC company give you a ballpark estimate for the equipment. If you're taking photos, also stand back a bit from the furnace and take a photo of the whole thing, including the ducts going in and out. This will tell an HVAC company if the furnace flows up, down, sideways, or what. They have furnaces for all of those setups but they need to know which one to bid.
The air conditioner stickers will also tell you what refrigerant (Freon) they use. R-22 was the old standard that is going away, R-410A is probably the current standard. This basically tells you if your previous service tech was telling tales or not.
It is possible to replace just the air conditioner if you want (the outside part and the coil above the furnace). The HVAC salescritter will probably try to talk you into replacing the whole thing, but you don't have to.
The houses I have lived in and owned, in Missouri and Oklahoma, have had Lennox, Carrier, and Trane systems in them, and they have all seemed to work OK. The Carrier A/C on one of those houses had the same Freon in it from the day it was installed in about 1969 until the day it was replaced in about 1995. It still worked, but the owner wanted to replace the 30-year-old Lennox furnace and get a more efficient A/C at the same time. The Freon system is made up of copper tubes that are soldered together into a sealed system when the A/C is installed - if the installer puts the right amount of Freon in at the beginning, it stays there for the life of the system. It's not like a car radiator, where some of the coolant can evaporate out over time.
The Trane system I had installed at my residence was really slick - the installer put a specified amount of Freon in it by hand, plugged an electric valve on his Freon bottle into the outside A/C unit, and pushed a "fill yourself up" button on the outside A/C unit. The A/C opened the valve and ran itself until it had as much Freon as it wanted, closed the valve, and blinked an LED to tell the installer to unplug his bottle. (The tech was also watching it with the pressure gauges they usually use, and he commented that it closed the valve right at the pressure he was expecting.)
The maintenance things I have had to do with them include: replacing the igniter on a gas furnace (about every 6-10 years, $30 for the part), replacing the run capacitor on the outside unit (once in about 15 years, about $30 for the part), replacing a fuse (once in about 10 years, about $5 for the fuse). For a tech to do these things, it would have been probably $100 for the truck roll each time, and $50, $50, and $10 for the parts, respectively.
Every year or two, I also cut the power to the outside A/C unit and hose out the coils with a garden hose. They get dirt, cottonwood seeds, and other junk in them, which makes them less efficient. I let it dry for a few hours and then turn the power back on.
I also change the filters. The $1 fiberglass filters are good for a month and the $3 pleated ones are good for 2 or 3 months. (Try to find a local store that sells a box of 10 or 12 filters, if you can - cheaper that way.) If the tenant has cats or dogs, use the pleated ones and change them every 1 or 2 months.
@Andy Gostisha 's advice about checking for rebates and deals is right on the money. It looks like Entergy is both the electric and the gas company, but if not, make sure to check with the gas company too if you have a gas furnace. Note that sometimes for the rebates, you have to have someone check the old system first - either testing its performance or looking at the model numbers - in order to get the rebate.
I hope this helps!
Go to the website of a big paint company like Sherwin-Williams or Benjamin-Moore. They will have photos of rooms with sample color combinations and a list of what colors they used. Some of them let you pick a photo of a room that looks like what you have now and then pick different color schemes to update the photo. When you find something you like, make a note of the colors. You can buy the paint from them, or see if another supplier can cross-reference the numbers.
Or, go to the bookstore, general store, or even the library, and find the magazine rack. There should be some magazines like Better Homes and Gardens, Sunset, and Southern Living... flip through those and see if you like any of the color schemes in the photos. Sometimes the article will list what colors were used, and sometimes not... if they don't list the colors, just get as close as you can.
I am not affiliated with any companies mentioned.
> For the vinyl windows, are you saying the replacement windows will not come with the flange?
I think some do and some don't - that's the difference between "new construction" and "remodel". I think. You can buy them either way.
I agree with everyone's suggestion to talk to an attorney. His belongings are part of his estate, which might affect what you can do with them.
If it gets to the point where the stuff is yours, free and clear... I would go through the stuff, and either donate or sell usable items like clothing and furniture. If you find anything really personal - like photos, or jewelry, or letters to a sweetheart - put those in a box and keep them. His family might not be interested in that stuff now, but maybe a few years down the line they would like to have it. If you don't hear from them for, say, 10 years, then respectfully dispose of those things. That's just me, though.
You might also ask the attorney what the law is about disclosing the death to future tenants or buyers. I think if you sell the property in the future, you may have to disclose it to the buyers, but I'm not sure what you have to do for future tenants.
Disclaimer: I have zero experience in a market like yours. All the houses I've ever bought were either in Tulsa or the Kansas City area.
I have three suggestions.
1. Park all of your daily drivers outside for the next three snowstorms. See how much you enjoy cleaning off the car before you have to go to work. If you can handle it, great! If not, maybe a garage is a good thing.
2. Go back and look at what happened to the value of this property from, say, 2006 to 2010. I know some places stayed nuts, but I suspect you'll find the value went down at least a little over that period. Then figure out if the deal still makes sense if the value drops that much (by percentage) the day after you buy it, or 2 years after you buy it, or 5 years after you buy it, or whatever.
3. If you get really serious, hire your own good home inspector to go over it. Not one of the guys that takes kickbacks from the agents to ignore the structural paint and say "it's fine, LOL" - somebody independent that you pay. A lot of weird things can happen in 120 years. Worst case, you spend $400 and avoid a disaster; best case, you spend $400 and come up with some stuff that's not too important but that you can use to beat down the price.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional plumber. I've had to replace a water heater before, though.
Check with your local Home Depot or Lowe's for a price on a water heater in the size you need (gallons), gas or electric, with a 9 or 12 year warranty. That's probably about what a good one is worth. The one the plumber sells will cost him less than that, and he may try to talk it up as better than the "big box" ones, but it's probably about the same.
Add maybe $50 to that for parts - like a new temperature/pressure relief valve if the new one doesn't come with one, maybe new flexible water lines if it's not plumbed in directly, maybe a new shutoff valve. New gas flex line if it's gas and not plumbed directly, *maybe* a few feet of new cable for an electric (but often you can reuse the old cable).
If you want to add a drain pan, price that out at the big-box store too - maybe $20 for the pan and $10 for some PVC drain pipe. If the heater is someplace like a garage that is lower than the house and not over the basement, you probably don't need a drain pan. If it's in an attic, the drain pan may be required by code. If it's someplace like the laundry room in a single-story house on a slab, the pan may not be required by code, but the pan directing a leak to a floor drain might save the nearby carpet/flooring some day.
Add $100-$200 to that for labor. Maybe towards the lower end if the plumber can just walk in the basement door with the new one and take the old one out the same way, and towards the higher end if the thing is in the attic, or has to get carted down 2 flights of stairs, or similar.
Also figure out how you are going to get rid of the old one. A plumber may offer to haul the old one away for you - free is a good price for that. The local trash company may charge you. In many neighborhoods, if you put the old one out on the curb either the day before trash day or on the weekend, a scrapper will grab it at no cost to you. The old one might be worth $5 at the scrap yard - if you have a truck, that's probably not enough money to take it there by yourself, but if you have a place to keep the old one until you have a truck full, then it might make sense.
I hope this helps!
I live in tornado country, so I don't know about hurricanes. Tornadoes are relatively localized and short compared to hurricanes, so most people don't worry about them that much.
In my experience, the Habitat ReStores are good for cheap used materials, but don't always have much in the way of cheap new materials. It varies a lot, though. I have put light bulbs (new), a set of keyed-alike door locks (used), and solid wood crown molding (new - about $16 for 40 feet!) from ReStore in my rental. I also added four fluorescent fixtures (used) from ReStore to my garage at home - about $32 total, including tubes and spare tubes.
The ReStore does sometimes have new windows and doors that were overstocks, or a special order that somebody didn't go through with, or things like that. Bring your tape measure and a list of what you need when you're shopping there. Also, if there's more than one in your area, make sure you check all of them, at least the first time, so you can get a feel for what they stock. One of them here in Kansas City has a much bigger store than the rest, so they stock a lot more doors and windows. They also tend to have the stuff that comes out of houses in the neighborhood around them - for a 1920s house, shop the one that's closer to the 1920s neighborhoods.
One thing I think I know about vinyl windows is that they come in both "new construction" and "remodeling" flavors. I think the difference is how they attach to the rough opening, and maybe if they come with a flange/lip/trim to cover up the gap between the side of the house and the new window. It is probably a good idea to look at one of each kind, so you can tell them apart while shopping.
If you think that any of the windows have been leaking (often around the bottom), you might be prepared to replace rotten framing after you take the old window out. This can be as simple as having a 2x4, a saw, and some nails or screws handy, and as complex as taking the drywall or whatever off of the inside wall so you can re-do a lot of the frame.
If it's just you working on it, you might think about having a piece of plywood, a couple of 2x4s, and some real long carriage bolts available. That way, if you take an old window out and discover it's a bigger job than you thought, and you need to go for more parts, you can temporarily board up the opening while you go to the store.
You should also use some kind of insulation between the replacement window and the rough opening when you install it. Opinion seems to vary between using expanding foam, and cutting strips of fiberglass insulation and putting them in there. Make sure you know how much the foam will expand... if you squirt a bunch of it in there, it can actually distort the frame and cause the window to bind up when you try to open it.
If you're going to buy most or all of the windows at once, you might see if your favorite big-box store has a "pro" program. Home Depot has one called Pro Xtra. I don't think you can join it on your own - I was a member because it was included with my membership in a local REIA. When you spend over a certain amount in a year ($5,000, I think), you get a rebate at the end of the year. Also, when you have a big enough order (over $2,000, maybe), they will send it to the "contractor desk" in the store and possibly get you better pricing on the materials.
I hope this helps!
Disclaimers: I don't work for, or otherwise get money from, Cozy. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
I used Cozy to do the background checks on my first rental, and I'm currently using it to collect rent on that rental. So far I've been happy with the results.
Before I even advertised the house, I created an account for me at Cozy (free) and created an entry for that house (free). I also tied it to my bank account so I could collect rent (free).
I didn't use Cozy's online application. I did go in and play with building an application on their site - it has some standard questions already on it (name, address, previous addresses, etc), plus you can select from some "canned" questions to add to it, but at the time I tried it (summer 2017), I don't think it let you put in your own free-form questions. I opted to type up my own application in my favorite word processor, and I asked prospective tenants to fill it out on paper. I did not charge an application fee.
Once I had some applications in hand, I did the initial screening myself - comparing the rent to their stated income, calling their previous landlords, etc. This filtered out a few prospects.
Once I had a couple of applications I was ready to go further with, I logged in to Cozy, selected the house, and then selected the "ask for a credit/background check" option. That asks me for the prospective tenant(s) email address(es), and then sends the tenants an email with a link in it. They click on that link and it takes them to a page at Cozy where they can enter their details and pay the $40 fee. Once the checks run, I got a notification, and I could see the results at Cozy.
I ended up declining the first prospective tenant based on information in those reports. When you do that, you have to send them an "adverse action letter", which basically says that you turned them down based on something in their credit report, who you got the credit report from, and offer to give them a copy of that credit report. Cozy doesn't generate this letter for you - you have to do it yourself. I did ask Cozy support a question about something I needed to put in that letter and they responded promptly.
After I declined the first prospective tenant, I repeated the process for the second prospective tenant: go to Cozy again, selected the "ask for credit/background checks", and put in the email address of the second prospective tenant. They got an email from Cozy with a link, clicked on it, put in their details and paid the fee, and I got the reports when they were ready. I ended up accepting that tenant.
The next step is setting up the payments. Basically, I selected the entry for the house I was renting on Cozy and filled in the start date, rent due date, rent amount, and lease term. It didn't ask me for a copy of the signed lease. I then told it that John Doe, who just had a background check done, was my tenant for that house. I collected the first month's rent from the tenant in person, and made a manual entry on Cozy to show that it had been paid. If your tenant(s) are going to pay with a bank account, they need to set that up with Cozy, and I think I got a notification that the tenant had successfully set up their bank account. After that, Cozy sends the tenant an email before the rent is due each month, saying either "you need to make a payment" (if the tenant wants to authorize the payment each month) or "remember, Cozy will deduct your rent from your account on (date)" (if the tenant set up automatic payments).
I get an email when the tenant has authorized the payment, and then I get another email when the money actually hits my bank account. I don't pay anything on a per-payment basis. The tenant doesn't pay anything either, if they have the rent taken out of a bank account. If they pay by credit card, Cozy charges them 2.75% on top of the rent amount.
Cozy sits on the payments for about 5 or 6 days - that's how long it is between the "tenant paid" and "it's in my account" emails. I think, but don't know, that they're doing some kind of short-term investing with the money, which is how they pay for their service. Cozy offers an option for $3 extra (to me) per unit per month that reduces this wait time to 3 days, but I don't use it.
Some hints and kinks. 1) One of my applicants was a husband and wife, and I wanted to do the check on both of them. They only gave me one email address on their paper application, but Cozy didn't know how to send two requests to the same email address. You need to either 1) ask for two separate email addresses, and create a request in Cozy for each one, or 2) create two requests in Cozy with the same email address, but two different names. (Example: "John Doe", thedoes -at- example.com, and "Jane Doe", thedoes -at- example.com.) Only the first request will go through, so the email they get will say something like "John, please click here to run the checks." John should click on that link and fill in his information. You can then look at your Cozy dashboard for pending requests, see the link it successfully mailed John, and the link it should have mailed to Jane but didn't. You can then manually send an email (or a text or whatever) to Jane with that link, so she can click on it and fill in her information.
2) Once you've sent a prospective tenant a request to do a credit and/or background check, there isn't any way for you to cancel that request yourself. If you contact Cozy support, they can do it for you. In other words, if you have more than one prospect, only send the request to the first one, and wait for some kind of disposition on that (you accept them, you decline them, they tell you they rented elsewhere or are no longer interested) before sending the request to the second one.
3) The results of their background checks and credit checks stay online for a while at Cozy, but not forever. If I remember right, they are available for something like 15 to 30 days. If you want to keep a copy of those reports, and if it's legal for you to do so, remember to download them before they are removed from Cozy.
4) Don't be afraid to email their support if you need help. They responded promptly to my requests.
Disclaimers: I don't work for, or otherwise get money from, Cozy. I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice.
Disclaimer: I am not a professional electrician.
If the local requirements mean you need more than a couple of them, you can get multi-packs of them for a little bit cheaper. I put 8 smoke alarms in my single-family rental - Lowe's sold a 6-pack of the model I used, and then I bought two more of the same model individually.
Also note that if wired detectors are required, they may not all have to be exactly the same model, but they do probably all need to be from the same manufacturer. Wired smoke detectors are usually all interconnected, so if one smells smoke, the horns on all of them go off, but the signal that makes this happen is not standardized among manufacturers. The instruction sheet will tell you which models can be interconnected, and you can often get that sheet as a PDF from the manufacturer's web site before you buy.
I've also seen a suggestion to make sure that wired smoke alarms are powered from a circuit that also has a light on it that is used relatively often - like the light over the stairs, or the front porch light, or similar. That way, if the circuit breaker for that circuit pops for some reason, someone is more likely to notice it.
I hope this helps!
It might depend on the neighborhood. In a not-so-great neighborhood in (say) Minneapolis, the tenants might trade sweating for a few days in the summer for a reduced risk of somebody pushing in the A/C and breaking in through the window the rest of the year. In almost any neighborhood in (say) Phoenix, the tenants probably won't rent it without some kind of A/C.
You may want to look into installing latches on the windows, besides the ones that are there now, so the windows can be latched from the inside with the A/C in place. Somebody that really wants to get in can still do it, but it might help provide peace of mind for tenants.
Those size A/Cs will run on a regular 120 V circuit, but you might look around to make sure there are outlets close enough to all the windows you want to put them in. If you have to use an extension cord, get one of those beefy gray 14 gauge ones that come in 3, 6, and 9 foot lengths, and use the shortest one you reasonably can.
Also, in more than one house I've seen, the outlets in a couple of the bedrooms will be on the same 15 A circuit. Two 5,000 BTUs on one circuit is probably okay (about 8 amps total) but three won't leave you with much for other things. Two 8,000 BTUs on one circuit (about 12-13 amps total) doesn't leave much for other things.
Window A/Cs have filters just like central A/Cs do. In some of them it's a fabric panel you have to replace or wash; in some of them it's more like the lint filter on a dryer (a plastic or wire mesh) that you just scrape off/wash off and reinstall. Some of them let you get the filter out from the front grille with no other disassembly or tools; some of them you have to undo a screw or take the plastic front of the A/C off to access the filter. You might look to see how easy it is to clean/change the filter, and also how easy it is to get a replacement filter if one gets lost or damaged.
I don't have any recommendation on particular brands. You might look in Consumer Reports and see if they've tested them lately.
I hope this helps!
Matt R.