All Forum Posts by: Matt R.

Take a look at Rentometer.  You tell it how many bedrooms and the address, and it gives you the high/low/average rentals, based on "for rent" ads within a certain distance of that address over the past several months.  It will also draw a map, showing you the locations of the properties it is including in its figures.

Zillow will also have a "rent Zestimate" for most properties.  They don't tell you how they arrive at their number, but it's another data point.

You can also look for "for rent" listings in your neighborhood, on Craigslist, Zillow/Trulia, Facebook, etc.  This is more variable, but it can give you an idea.  If the listing has good pictures, you can compare the interior finish to what you have (or want to have), to see how that affects the rent.

Sometimes people seal off the chimney like that because the chimney has a problem and they didn't want to fix it, but sometimes the chimney is fine and they just don't want to use the fireplace anymore for some reason - cheaper insurance if they remove it, or it used to be a rental and the owner didn't want the risk, etc.

Did the home inspector look at the chimney when you bought the house, beyond "it's sealed"?  If not, you can get a home inspector again to look at it in more detail.  Some chimney sweeps also offer chimney inspection and repair.  If the structure of the chimney is OK, but the lining is bad, you can get metal pipe that can be run inside the chimney; that way you don't have to rebuild the whole chimney.  (No, dryer vent won't work.)

If you get the chimney working, you can install gas logs, or burn wood in the fireplace, whichever you want.

The pipe is most likely gas.  Even if the fireplace previously burned wood, it's not unusual to have a gas "starter" in the fireplace - load in the wood, turn on the gas, light the gas with a match, and let the gas light the wood.  Once the wood is burning well, you can turn off the gas.  If you can follow the pipe into the basement or similar, you can verify if it's connected to a gas line.

One thing to watch out for on "ventless" gas anything: if you use it a lot, you'll put a lot of water vapor / humidity into the house.  If you only run the fireplace once every few weeks, it might be OK, but if you're trying to use it all the time to heat the house, you may have problems.  I haven't experienced it myself, but I've been told of people installing ventless gas heaters in their house, and then pulling them out later due to the high humidity inside the house.

Edit: information on chimney

The Federal Trade Commission has some helpful information: https://www.consumer.ftc.gov/a...

You might already know this, but: do the dishwasher drain hoses go up from the dishwasher, to either an air gap or the underside of the counter, before going back down to the sink drain or Disposall connection?

If this is not the case, sometimes whatever's going down the sink drain can run down into the sump in the bottom of the dishwasher.  This is especially true when you're cleaning up plates in the sink, and chunks of food are sitting in the Disposall grinder, but you haven't turned it on yet; the water piles up in the grinder and then runs down the dishwasher drain connection.

If whatever is going down the sink already smells funky, then the funk will transfer to the dishwasher; if it's something like a chunk of fat or meat that works its way into the dishwasher, it might smell OK now, but get funky after it sits for a while.  It might not be obvious to people that what's been going on in the sink has an effect on the dishwasher.

I associate this problem with funky smells more than leaks.  I guess it's possible that if the sink is really backed up, enough water could run down into the dishwasher to totally fill the bottom of the tub, and make it leak at the bottom of the door.  (When the dishwasher is running, there's a float switch that keeps the tub from filling that far with fresh water, but that doesn't help if the water is coming in through the drain hose.)  But I feel like you'd have to keep the sink fairly full of water for quite a while (several minutes) to make this happen.

From what I've seen, having the drain hose routed incorrectly is a little more common if the house is old enough to not have been born with a dishwasher (which is about the early 1980s, around here).  In those houses, the dishwasher install was often DIY'd later, and not always done right.  The newer the house is, the more likely the house is to have an air gap - a little chrome or plastic vent, either sticking through the counter top or in the wall behind the counter top - that the dishwasher drain hose is plumbed to.  The hose goes from the dishwasher up to the air gap, and then another hose goes down from the air gap to the sink drain.

The quickest fix is to use a pipe strap or similar to hold the dishwasher drain hose up as high as you can inside the cabinet; this can either be right behind the dishwasher, or under the sink.  The fancy way is to install an air gap - the big-box store store sells them, either in the plumbing aisle, or with the dishwashers.  You need to drill a relatively large hole in the counter top to install an air gap, though.

I had a plumber replace the shower valve in my residence a little over 10 years ago.  He asked me if I had a preference (cheap as possible, name brand).  I asked him which name brand he fixed the least of.  :)  He specifically mentioned Delta and Moen, but said that when a Delta breaks, you can usually get parts for it at the hardware store, but because of Moen's guarantee, not as many stores stocked Moen parts.  So I had him put in a Delta, and it's been fine since he installed it.

More recently, I went through this with my American Standard kitchen faucet at home.  The big nut under the handle that holds the cartridge in broke, and I couldn't readily find one locally.  (I also noticed that even the cartridges were a little bit hard to find.)  I went through American Standard's warranty for it, and it took about a week to get the part.  I bought a $10 plastic bathroom faucet, new, and installed it in the kitchen sink, just so I had a faucet, until I could fix and reinstall the real one.  (I wouldn't do that to a tenant, but in my house, I can be cheap.)

If you have a lot of properties, and similar fixtures in each one: if a kitchen or bathroom faucet breaks, you could buy another faucet today and install it, so the tenant is happy.  Then, pursue the warranty parts or replacement on the broken faucet on your own time - when the parts get there, install the parts, test the faucet at home, and then put it on the shelf as a spare.

Also, read the fine print on the warranty.  I think I've read one that had language about it only applying to the owner's residence, or limiting the terms of the warranty for "commercial" use, or similar.  I don't know if they consider rental properties "commercial" or not.  I kind of suspect that as long as you only ask for free parts every few years, they don't care, but if you're asking for parts every month, they decide it's commercial.

I agree with the idea that the "address doesn't match" thing isn't a very big deal.

When it first became possible for you to pull your own credit report, for free, in the mid-00s, I pulled mine.  They had an address for me that was about 6 years out of date, and job information that was about 4 years out of date.  The stuff about which credit cards and loans I had was accurate.  The address and job information has gotten a little newer since then, but it's still not unusual for it to lag reality by a couple of years.

For Section 8, as has been said, you have to have somebody from the local housing authority come out and inspect your property, before it can be approved for Section 8.  I don't think you are required to have this done, unless you want to rent to people who will pay with Section 8. 

I am not a lawyer and this is not legal advice: In some places, you are not allowed to discriminate based on the source of funds, so saying "I don't rent to Section 8" might get you in trouble.  I think this is where the advice to say "I haven't had the property inspected/qualified for Section 8" comes from.

I think the foam/mudjacking idea is good to start with.

Have you been able to look at this area of the house when it's raining hard, preferably during the day?  Maybe cleaning out a gutter, or adding a gutter where there isn't one now, can help.  Something had to wash away all that dirt.

This might be what you're already talking about, but hHow about building a short retaining wall along both edges of the patio?  From the column at the left, to the corner of the patio, around the corner, and back to where the ground rises up again at the right.  If you decide to do that, make sure you talk about it with the foam people.

It looks like the city owns the water department there.  In that case, water rate increases usually have to be approved by the city council, board of aldermen, or equal.  If you dig through the meeting minutes from this year and last year, maybe you can find where they approved a rate increase.

http://www.cityofpearl.com/201...

http://www.cityofpearl.com/201...

You might also get in touch with the local newspapers; maybe they have a city-government reporter who is familiar with the rate increase, and/or who would like to write a story about it:  https://www.rankincn.com https://www.swrankinnews.com/

The previous owners of my rent house put in a rather nice glass-top stainless range that was only about 2 years old when I bought the house, so I kept it, and I haven't had any trouble with it so far in a bit over 2 years of it being rented.  I see it about once every 3 months and I haven't noticed any cracks or major damage.

When the tenant moved in, I gave them a bottle of the cleaner (Cerama Bryte), scraper, and scrubby pads that are supposed to be used to clean the top.

Do any of the tenants have leases now?  If so, see if you can get a copy of the leases from your grandfather, and read over them.  If they used to have a lease, and are now month-to-month, see if you can get a copy of the last lease they had before going month-to-month, because sometimes the law is that the payment dates, late fees, etc are the same as whatever was specified in the lease.

If they do have leases, you have to follow what the lease says, until the end date of the lease.  If you don't want to renew the lease, you have to tell the tenants that before the end of the lease.  The lease, or local law, may tell you how long before the end of the lease you have to give that notice - something around 30 to 60 days is probably typical.

One thing you may hear about is "cash for keys".  This is where you go to the tenants and agree with them that they will move out by a certain date, usually within a couple of months.  They meet you at the property, after they move out, and you both look over the property to make sure it's not trashed.  If the property is OK, they give you back the keys, and you give them some cash.  Yes, you're paying them, even though they owe money.  The idea is that sometimes, doing this is cheaper and faster than going through an eviction.

Don't try to turn off the electricity, water, gas, etc to the tenants that aren't paying rent.  Don't go and take the furnace or front door off of the house for "repairs" and not bring it back.  That is called a "self-help eviction", and it's illegal.

I also agree with @Bjorn Ahlblad ; find the local landlord's association or real estate investment group in Virgina, and join it.  Looking at where Radford is, the group might be based out of Roanoke, Lynchburg, or maybe even Richmond.  This will help put you in touch with other local landlords, attorneys, contractors, etc, that may be helpful to you.

There is also a Richmond, VA forum here on BiggerPockets that you might read or post to. It doesn't get a lot of activity, but the people there should be closer to your property. https://www.biggerpockets.com/...