All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

Hello, all!

The city of Independence, Missouri (a large suburb on the east side of Kansas City) is proposing mandatory inspections for rental properties.  The landlord would be required to hire an inspector, at the landlord's expense, and submit the inspection report to the city before the property can be rented.  The inspection would be good for two years, and then need to be re-done. For four-plex and smaller properties, all units would have to be inspected.  For larger properties, only 10% of the units would have to be inspected.

The cover sheet for the proposed law is here http://agendas.indepmo.org/Coversheet.aspx?itemid=... and the actual text of the proposed law is here http://agendas.indepmo.org/AttachmentViewer.ashx?A... . It is known as the "Rental Ready Program".

The bill had its first reading at the City Council meeting on 15 August 2016.  I think it will have a second reading at the next City Council meeting on 6 September 2016, and then the council will vote on it.  The public can attend City Council meetings in person, and they are also broadcast online at http://www.ci.independence.mo.us/City7/VideoEvents , but I don't think there is a way for people to ask questions remotely.

I found out about this from MAREI, a local real estate investment group that I am a member of. They got the information from another group, the Landlords Association of Eastern Jackson County. I care about it because the SFR I currently own is in Independence.

Matt Roberds

edit: added name of proposal

Hello all!

I recently bought my very first single-family rental, and I'm in the process of getting it fixed up now.  There are still hammers to swing and paintbrushes to wield, but I am starting to look ahead at getting it rented out.

There is a light industrial plant (food and ingredients) that is very close to the house... their property line is about 8 houses away from mine, and the house front door is about a quarter-mile walk from the front door of the plant.

Even better, the company just expanded the plant with a second building, and have billboards up around town saying "We're hiring!"  The starting pay they list on the billboard even fits nicely to where I think the rent for the house should be.  My pitch to potential tenants would be simple... walk to work and save money! 

So... how do I tell all these new employees, with wads of cash in their pockets, about my house?

I've come up with two ideas so far.

1.  Create a small ad flyer for the house.  Write a letter to the HR director, asking them to post the flyer on the employee bulletin board, and snail-mail the letter and flyer to them.

Pros: In theory, HR would like to know about housing options near their plant, because employees need a place to live.

Cons: HR may get a lot of this kind of stuff already and might be used to tossing it in the trash.

2.  I think I've identified a couple of the employee "smoke holes", from driving by at various times of day.  They are close to the sidewalk; I could walk up and talk to the employees without having to go through a gate or anything.  Create a flyer as above, then walk up to an employee, ask them to post it on the bulletin board, and maybe offer them a little cash if that ad rents the house.

Pros: Everybody likes cash.  Avoids dealing with the "gatekeepers".

Cons: Finding an employee who is willing to do it.  The company may not like third-party ads on the board.

Are there other things that have worked for you?

This isn't the *only* way I plan to advertise this house - I will list it online as well (many sites via Postlets, my own web site, etc).  I just figure my odds might be a little better with the employees of this plant.

Thanks!

Matt R.

Disclaimer: I am not a professional HVAC guy.

Check with your HVAC/furnace guy before doing this.  It sounds like @Shawn Underwood might be dealing with a newer 90+% efficient furnace; these often have air intakes from the outside of the house... usually something like a 3" or 4" piece of PVC pipe sticking through the side of the house. (The exhaust will be a similar piece of PVC pipe.)

The problem with putting a fine screen (like window screen) on these is that the combustion air blower in the furnace is usually sucking quite a bit of air through the intake pipe.  If you put a screen on the pipe, and it's cold out, moisture in the air can start to freeze when it hits the screen, which eventually will block the flow of air.  The furnace can tell that this is happening and safely shut down, but then you have no heat until you thaw out the screen and reset the furnace.

If the pipes come out really close to the ground, it may be possible to put some elbows and more pipe on them to move them further up, so they don't suck up stuff on the ground as readily.  You have to check the installation manual for the furnace for this; there is a limit to how many elbows and how long of a pipe you can use.

Some manufacturers have an outside vent cap (example:http://www.myhvacparts.com/store/media/products/ba... ) that has sort of a coarse screen or some bars over the pipe opening, but not so fine that they're likely to freeze.

There is another style, called a "concentric vent", that has one pipe running inside the other, so you only need one hole in the wall.  Usually there are a few bars that may keep huge things from being sucked in.  Example: https://www.nachi.org/forum/attachments/f20/45191d...

For either of these vent options, you probably want your HVAC/furnace guy to make sure they won't be too restrictive for your particular furnace.

Again, I don't do this for a living... this is just what I've gathered from having these furnaces installed on a couple of houses.  I am not affiliated with any companies mentioned.

I don't have a company to recommend; I live here and I'm doing it myself, at least with my first buy-and-hold.

The only advice I have is to actually visit Kansas City and look at some properties in person.  For extra credit, after somebody shows you some of their properties on a sunny afternoon, drive back there at night, and drive a few blocks around the property.  I have seen one or two listings that in my opinion were being less than forthcoming about the quality of the neighborhood.

I've used one that was shaped like this before, even though it wasn't that exact model.  It worked OK for controlling an incandescent floodlight, and later a compact fluorescent floodlight.

In my application, I could mount it on the same cover as the lamp socket; it was one of those cast aluminum outdoor covers with 3 holes in it.  One hole had a plug, one hole had the lamp socket, and one hole had the photocell.

There is another one that's designed to poke through a single hole in the middle of a box cover plate; a plastic nut screws down to hold it in.  I've never used one like this, but I've seen them at the store.

Note that all of these need a neutral; they can't be used in a switch loop.  In other words, if the power comes to the lamps first, and then to the switch (inside), it's not going to work (unless you wire the switch loop with 3-wire cable, instead of the common 2-wire).  If the power comes to the switch (inside) first, you're in better shape.

I did something different on my previous house, where the front door was in a kind of alcove.  If I had put a photocell anywhere close to the front door, it would have always "seen" the reflected light from the porch light, and made the light blink on and off.  I used an earlier version of a timer like this to replace the wall switch inside the front door.  It has a "astronomic" feature, which means you program it with your approximate latitude, and then it "knows" when sunrise and sunset are, and turns the lights off and on appropriately.  There's also a manual switch on the front that you can push whenever you want.  It won't come on by itself if there is a thunderstorm or some other reason for it to be dark before sunset.  This timer does not need a neutral, but it does use a battery; on the one I had 10+ years ago, it took one AAA, which would last about a year.

I am not affiliated with any companies mentioned.

I grew up in Independence, and now I live in Blue Springs - both eastern suburbs of Kansas City, MO. I am in the process of buying my first rental SFR in Independence, but not as a turn-key.

The most important suggestion I have for you is to drive up to Ronkonkoma and buy a ticket to Kansas City from the friendly people at the Southwest Airlines counter.  Fly out here and drive around and *look* at the different properties that are being offered.  You should be able to figure out which turn-key providers have reasonable deals and which ones are telling stories.

@Account Closed

Thanks!
@Colleen F.

@Colleen F.

The house is 2 miles from Lowe's and Wal-Mart, 3 miles from Home Depot, and 3.5 miles from another Wal-Mart.  So maybe I can get away with this "just-in-time" thing that's popular these days.  :)

@Travis Lloyd

I hear you on the tools.  Luckily I have a pretty decent collection from working on my own house and cars.  Although I still sometimes wander through the tool aisle at Home Depot or Sears and dream.

Are your units mostly single-family, duplexes, multi-family...?  Just curious.

On the roof thing, I've never actually had to nail down a tarp.  That includes about 10 years of personal experience in Oklahoma and about 50 years of combined experience (me and my parents) in Missouri.  Realistically, I would probably only be contemplating nailing down a tarp if either a big tree branch or trunk fell on it (in which case I'm probably in for a new roof anyway, or at least major repairs), or we had a tornado or really strong winds (again, new roof is likely).

The only roof problem I've ever had on my personal residence is when I first bought this house; part of it had been re-roofed on a DIY basis.  All 3 roofers I had out to bid on it pointed out that the place where the new roofing joined the old had been done wrong, and they had to bid a little extra material and time to fix.  I believed them, because of the location of the water stains on the living room ceiling.  Since I had it fixed... no more stains.

All that is a long way to say that maybe I worry too much.  :)

Thanks!

From the proposed text, I think it's 30 days or less:

---

88-805-04-O. LODGING
Provision of lodging services on a temporary basis of not more than 30 days, with incidental food, drink and other sales and services intended for the convenience of guests. The following are lodging use types:

[...]
2. SHORT TERM STAY
A dwelling unit that is leased to overnight guests by the owner of the dwelling unit who is not on premise during the stay.

---

Thanks for posting back with how it worked out!  It helps everybody calibrate their advice to the next person.

I'm not sure that installing it over the carpet like that was even legal (building code), but there you go.  It looks like pulling it out exposed some more bad drywall over to the right side of where the fireplace was... or is that just dirt?

You might check with a roofer about removing both flues/chimneys completely and patching the roof.  Fewer holes in roof = fewer opportunities for leaks.  The shingles might not match exactly, but that may not be such a big deal.

Also, be sure to tell your insurance agent that the fireplace is gone.  That will probably help out your rates somewhat.