All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

I pretty much agree with what's been said already - it's probably leaking somewhere in the drain plumbing.

There's a chance it could be leaking from the fresh water (hot and cold water) plumbing somewhere.  @JD Martin 's suggested test of filling up a pot (or a bucket) somewhere else in the house, and then dumping the water down the tub drain, will help in finding that.  Try to put at least a couple of gallons down the tub drain if you do that; if you have two people, it may help to have one person dumping water down the tub drain, and you on the other side of the wall watching the pipes.  If you see water leaking out of the drain pipes when doing this, then it's definitely the drain.

You can also test it the other way if you have a bucket - hopefully at least a 2 gallon bucket, and 5 if it will fit under the tub spout.  Put the bucket under the tub spout and turn on the water - the bucket will catch the water so it doesn't go down the tub drain.  Then go watch the pipes.  If you see leaking water, then the supply pipes are leaking.  If it's OK when running the tub spout, dump the bucket someplace else in the house (like the kitchen), and then put the bucket under the shower head.  A stepladder might help, and remember that if you have a 5-gallon bucket, it will weigh about 40 pounds when full of water.  Turn on the shower, let it spray into the bucket, and go watch the pipes some more.  Again, if you see leaking water, then the supply pipes are leaking.

The reason I mention the supply pipe side is because I've seen it a couple of times.  Once was with a tub/shower with a single-handle faucet, and it was leaking out of the body of the faucet; the fix in that case was that a plumber replaced the faucet.  The other was in a tub/shower where the owner had installed one of those hand shower heads on the end of a flexible hose, with a T piece connecting the flexible hose to the existing shower head and pipe.  The tub was over the garage - one day the owner took a shower right before going somewhere in the car, and noticed water on the garage floor.  I went over, fearing expensive things, but discovered that the T-piece for the hand shower was leaking like mad.  When the shower was on, water was squirting out of the T-piece, hitting the tile inside the shower, running down the wall, through the holes in the tile and wall for the hot, cold, and diverter knobs, dripping down the inside of the wall, coming out around the opening in the floor for the drain plumbing, and dripping into the garage.  A new hand shower head with hose and T-piece fixed it for $20.

Whether it's the supply or the drain, get mentally ready for having a hole in the wall somewhere, or a bigger hole than the access panel that is there now - probably in the bedroom that you mentioned is behind the tub.  You can get ready-made plastic access panels to cover up the hole, or roll your own with a piece of drywall.  Maybe you always wanted one of those full-length mirrors in that spot on the bedroom wall, so you can cover up the access panel later.  :)

As far as staying or backing out, that kind of depends on what the plumber says.  If it's a few hundred bucks, smile and pay the plumber nicely to fix it and enjoy your new house.  If it's a few thousand bucks or more, then you may want to have a conversation with the seller.  In between, it's up to you.

(I'm here because @Jim K. pinged me.  "I told you never to call me on this wall!  It's an unlisted wall."  :D )

@Bill B. @Ashish Acharya @Eamonn McElroy Thanks for the advice!

One of the reasons I'm not advertising it right away is that I'm already having uncertainty around contractor schedules.  I don't want to advertise something I may not be able to deliver on time.  Once one big thing and a couple of the smaller things I have to fix are at least in progress, I will have more confidence in the end date.

Matt R.

Hello all!

I own a SFR that the current tenants are moving out of. I plan to do some repairs and rent it out again. Do I need to advertise the house for rent before I do the repairs in order for those repairs to be tax-deductible?

I think I know that when you first buy the house, anything you fix before you advertise it for rent goes into the basis and gets depreciated.  But I'm not sure what happens between tenants, when I've already owned the house for a few years.  Is the fact that it was recently rented out enough, or do I need the ad to prove that it's still a rental?

(The main thing that's driving this is that I have to fix something expensive, so I want to deduct it, if that's possible.)

Thanks!

Matt R.

You may have done this already, but check to see if the city (or county, if it's outside of town) has any breed-specific legislation on the books.  Some do, some don't.

The city my rental is in does.  When prospects asked about a dog, I mentioned it to them, and I also put it in the lease.

I have been visiting on the same schedule, for regular maintenance visits.

I did add some words to my standard "I'd like to come over" email, to the effect of "if you feel sick, let me know, even if it's right before I'm supposed to come over, and we can do it another time".

If you can easily disconnect the drain pipe at the furnace, and you have access to an air compressor: disconnect the drain pipe, have an accomplice plug a blow gun into the air compressor, and then blow air into the pipe - the same direction the water flows now.  Then snoop around downstairs, inside and outside, to see if you can hear the hissing sound where the air is coming out.  This might help you figure out where the other end of the pipe is.  NOTE: If the drain pipe does just dump into the old ash pit, you might have ashes from 1895 blowing around when you do this.

I am not a plumber, but I'm not sure you can run PVC on an exterior.  Also, since a 95% gas furnace will make water in the winter, consider what happens to an exterior condensate drain - if the outside pipe freezes, it could back up into the furnace or otherwise spill into the house where you don't want it.

You can get an electric pump that can be plumbed into the condensate drain line.  It needs 120 V, and has its own float switch to turn itself on and off.  This might be something to look into if moving the water up would help.  Like, if the furnace is in a closet on the outside wall, put the pump on the floor next to the furnace, then run a pipe up to or through the ceiling, horizontally through the ceiling or attic, and then back down into a bathroom or kitchen, where you can connect to an existing drain.  A heating and cooling contractor should be familiar with these; plumbers will probably be as well.

I just have one SFR, which is about 65 years old, and I go four times a year. Every time I'm there, I change the filter in the furnace, test the smoke detectors, test the CO detector, test the sump pump, and look under the sinks, around the water heater, and around the water meter (in the basement) for leaks. Depending on what time of year it is, I do additional things while I'm there - change all the smoke detector batteries, clean the gutters, clean the outside A/C unit, check the sump pump outlet plumbing outside, and so on.

I always schedule these visits with the tenants at least a week in advance, and sometimes they will let me know about some minor issue when I ask them about coming over.

If something important breaks in between visits, the tenants will get in touch with me via text, email, or phone.  So far I've gotten calls for a thermostat that quit working and the water heater pilot going out.

I just have one SFR, but here's some of what I do.

Whenever I buy something, I make a record on the computer (spreadsheets for me, maybe something like Quickbooks, Buildium, etc for others).  I note the date, store/vendor, a short description of what it was, and the total amount of the receipt.  The IRS has several different categories of expenses that you can write off on your taxes (supplies, tools, utilities, taxes, insurance, telephone, etc), so for each receipt, I also put the dollar amount in one of those categories on the computer.  If the receipt has stuff for more than one category, I split it up among the categories as needed (including sales tax).  At the end of the year, I total up each category, and that goes on my tax forms.

For paper receipts, I have a few different envelopes, each labeled with the year and IRS category; the paper receipt goes in its proper envelope, and the envelope goes in a file folder for the year.  I also have an envelope for paper receipts that go in more than one category.

If I buy something online, I print the order confirmation page or the emailed receipt from the website to a PDF, and save that.  I have a "receipts" subdirectory on the computer, with subdirectories by year: receipts/2019 , receipts/2020 , and so on.  I don't have further directories for the IRS categories, mostly because I don't have that many receipts.

Even if you have an accountant or tax person do your taxes, being able to give them already-categorized receipts will make their job easier.  They may review the receipts and move a few of them to another category.

Another recommendation: have backup copies of anything that's on a computer.  Google Drive, Dropbox, or similar are OK; an external hard drive or flash drive that you can hold in your hands are better, in my opinion.  Keep the backup drive somewhere separate from the computer - like, if the computer is at the property, take the backup drive home with you at night and on the weekends.  Make backups often, and test them.  Decide that you want a copy of a document from 4 months ago, get that document off of your backup, and open it in Word / Acrobat / Quickbooks / whatever.  If that doesn't work, or it's not easy to do, then work on your backup process.

Also consider what happens if the computer that you do all your work on is damaged or stolen.  It's easy to go buy a new computer, and if you have backups you should have all your data files.  You should also have a way to get a copy of all the other software you need on that computer (Quickbooks, etc.)  That might mean keeping the installation CD around, or having a copy of the license key that will let you download another copy of it from the company's Web site.

It depends on what that involves.  If the house already has a sump and no pump, and it needs a pump, then that's maybe a little high.  If it already has a sump and a pump, and the pump needs replaced, then it's high.  If the house needs a sump and a pump installed for the first time ever, then it's closer to reasonable, IMHO.

I used Foundation Recovery Systems to install a sump pump and drains in my rental house in Independence, MO. The house never had them before; it is a 3 bed 1 bath SFR, 980 square feet, built 1956, with a poured concrete full basement. This cost me about $4,400 in fall 2016. If I remember correctly, it took three men most of a day to do the work. After it was installed, I was in the house when it rained, and the basement was dry. The tenants haven't complained of water in the basement, either.

FRS is the local affiliate of a national company.  All the local affiliates sell and install the same hardware but the companies have a different name in every region.  Often the affiliate will have something like "basement authority" or "basement systems" in the name.  I could have probably got it a little cheaper from a local company, but not too much cheaper.  FRS also sometimes has coupons or percent-off offers in the local ad flyers/coupon envelopes, which might save you a few bucks, if your local property manager can grab one.

I am not affiliated with Foundation Recovery Systems in any way, and I don't get money or other compensation for posting this.

I haven't rented a property like this.

One thing I would say is to try to verify that their job really does pay on the 1st and the 15th.  There are jobs like that, but I feel like it's a little more common for jobs to pay every two weeks - 26 times a year - so the exact day the employee gets paid shifts around in the month a little.  About twice a year, they'll get paid three times in a month instead of two.  Some people can handle relating this pay schedule to rent that happens once a month or twice a month, and some can't.