All Forum Posts by: Mike Palmer

You mentioned if they would notify you that you would come and pick up the sign. 2 thoughts on this: wouldn't it cost you as much in gas and time as the sign is worth to go and pick it up? And if you are expecting a call from them, why not be more pro-active and call them in the first place and ask for permission?

@Dev Horn: You mention more traditional and legal forms of paid marketing. Outside of webuyhouses, can you give us some general ideas what you are referring to? Is it mostly direct mail?

Ok, so here is the latest on this never ending nightmare sage. I had someone come and pull the toilet and run a camera. They said the camera went all the way to the city line and beyond. Said everything looked great. There was one small root, but they said it was at the top of the line and was not interfering, and that it was beyond my line in the city.

Come to find out the toilet did not have a flange. There was a wax ring and it seemed to be fine, and the toilet was bolted directly to the concrete floor. I am not sure if this would be the cause of allowing the bubbles to come up through the toilet, but a flange was installed.

After giving it a clean bill of health and saying everything was good to go (and charging me about twice what I was expecting), they left and I thought we were good. Well then this morning I get the call and the floor drain in the utility room has backed up. Water all over the floor, and seeping to other rooms.

So, now what? What could this be? There is small food particles in the water around the drain, and that drain is downline of the upstairs kitchen. They did not camera the internal lines because they said they were too small for their camera. Could I have a blockage on a line inside the house (and maybe from the upstairs tenant? How would I check this?

What to do about the carpet--would a regular carpet cleaner be able to clean them and extract the water at the same time, or does this require a restoration company? Can this wait until tomorrow at this point (it would be much easier and cheaper to get someone out tomorrow), or does this need attended to NOW?

Any further help/insight MUCH appreciated, and I am completely stumped and frustrated at this point. This is the kind of stuff that gets people out of the business. I would like to persevere and clear this up and hopefully carry on, but I am now over $2,500 and nearly 2 years into this and don't have a solution (or even a clue what the problem is). It is driving me nuts!!!

Yes, thank you.

Hopefully this will also help the original poster and is not hijacking this thread, but how do you set up keyword alert 'for your market'? I am also looking for a mentor and actually have a keyword alert set up for 'mentor', which is how I was alerted to this thread, but how does one dial this in for their market to receive relevant posts from your area?

Good advice, thank you. If I had to guess I think it is roots. There are several large trees on the property, and that would seem to explain why it is reappearing after working fine for a while.

Assuming that is the case, are the blasting and lining pipes from the inside (without trenching/digging up) a good reliable fix, or do I just need to bite the bullet and dig it up and replace the entire line?

Hey Dave:

Is the Wellworth the one with the Flushmate pressure assisted flush? Also, how does the Gerber Avalance compare to the Gerber Viper? My plumber has a special on the Viper for $200 installed that seems like a good deal. And how do all these options compare to the Toto Drake that I hear is one of the more popular toilets?

Thanks for the help.

I guess where I am confused is that a deposit is not income, where the rent would have been. So rather than receive a deposit that I basically hold in escrow and give back, I had to put up the deposit myself, creating an expense. Since I did not want to come up with the funds for this expense, I had them not pay rent. This cancelled out the income, but rather than receiving the income, paying taxes on it, and keeping what is left, there was no income due to the expense. Maybe I am just going in circles, it just seems that there would be a tax angle on this. I got screwed either way, but if there was a tax benefit I guess I would just feel better about it:).

The problem is the seller (and their agent) hid the fact that they were renting out the house and receiving income from it. The bank requirements also stated that the seller could not receive any proceeds from the home, of which they received the deposit and a partial month's rent outside of settlement. The seller was also sent a 1099 or something from the bank after settlement, but it did not show any of the rental income. I kind of want to report it to the IRS as tax fraud and evasion, but I don't have faith they would actually pursue it (when they can just audit those of us trying to do things right) and have come to grips that it is probably better to just let it go and move on.

Thanks for all the input everyone. I still don't think I get it, but everyone is in agreement and I am not a tax professional so I am probably in the wrong. It was an expensive lesson, but I am learning new things all the time.

Yes I was present. They snaked from upstream. At the time it seems like he said it was a soft blockage and the snake went through it and did not clear it. Seems he was thinking it was some kind of a goo type substance, like maybe food/grease. He said the jetter should take care of it, which it seemed to do for the time. The jetter was also done from upstream, passed by/through whatever was blocking, and pulled back out while jetting on the way back as well.

So it sounds like the consensus is that a camera inspection would be worth the cost at this point. Does it sound urgent, or something that I can coordinate and schedule when I can be there (possibly a few weeks out)? Is it worth having the city inspect their end first or is this basically for sure on my end? Is it something that likely an annual maintenance snake/jetting will keep things working and save the expense of the camera and applicable repair? If so, can I buy a jetter and do this myself? I tried looking online and didn't find my except industrial jetters. The one they used just hooked to the garden hose, and it seems I could run something like that myself annually and probably save a bunch of money and be able to use it at other properties periodically as a maintenance item. Any idea where to get the right equipment in that case?

That was my point. This was money out of my pocket. It seems there is usually a beneficial tax advantage for this type of scenario. Why is it that hospitals are able to 'write off' the cost of services they don't collect for, and that banks can write off the bad debt they take off the books when they sell short or lose money on a foreclosure? Is this any different in theory?

So it sounds like the deposit issue is a wash, and I can depreciate half the roof now (even though I live upstairs in an up/down unit where the roof fully covers my residence), and the other half if/when I move out and rent the top unit out?

It was snaked and jetted without a camera. The place that jetted it was a new plumber, and I actually called them out to do the camera. He got there and checked everything out and wanted to snake it first to see what he found, and said due to the way things went he felt jetting it would do the job without the cost of the camera. This is after 3 previous places had all snaked it and said they 'hit dirt' and that there was a broken pipe under the house and that it needed to be dug up and fixed. This was when things were really brewing and water was backing up out of the sink and going everywhere and something had to be done, so after getting 3 opinions I had them dig it up to replace the broken pipe. Personally I don't think they found anything, but they say there was a plastic p-trap in a random spot on the floor that was broken. I don't believe them, or I think they struck it with their shovel and broke it themselves when they didn't find what they thought they would. The problem was back the next day and they came and snaked it again, and again the problem came back. That is when I called the last place to come and do a camera. I tried to fight the other guy about it but he refused to give a refund or do any further work...

Anyway, that was a little over a year ago, maybe even as much as a year and a half ago now. It has not caused a problem since, so I figured (hoped) the jetting did the trick. Now they have sent me the pictures of the bubbling toilet (that they said happened 4-6 months ago as well, but they didn't think anything of it after finding out the upstairs had taken a bubble bath), and they report that they have randomly heard the kitchen sink gurgle.

It was built in '59, but has basically all been remodeled since. The basement was finished at a later date as well, so I think some of the plumbing is newer. Most of the original was cast, and now there is a mix of cast, copper, and a little pex (mostly copper now I think). The lot is fairly flat in front with a slight slope in the back (so one side of the house the upstairs unit walks out to ground level, and the other end of the house the basement walks out to ground level, with a small/gradual slope between). There are several very large trees on the lot. The trees are all located at the perimeter of the lot (as far from the house as they can be), but they are large trees and even with that some of them are within maybe 10-15 feet of the house and I know roots could possibly travel that far. I have only owned the building for about 3 years. Did not have a problem the first year and a half, then things kind of exploded and within about 3 months we went from the first report of gurgling sink to things totally backing up.

Property is in Salt Lake area, so we experience all 4 seasons, but fairly mild winters since I have owned it.

I can't think of any other pertinent info, so hopefully that gives a good idea. I know this post (and now thread) is long, so if you are still with me I thank you for sticking with it and for all the helpful thoughts and ideas. Keep them coming if you have any more, but at this point I think it might be worth just doing the camera to get this over with and see exactly what is going on...