All Forum Posts by: James Hamling

@Kyle Fitch ok, I will touch on (IMO) the top 4. 

1st: When we talk about "investing" the vast majority of time were looking at a total time-line of decades, several or many decades, right, before were mulch. Are you aware that over 80% of Wall Street / Stock market companies DONT last that long?     Think on that, a person has an 80%+ chance of there "pick" not just loosing, but possibly going to $0..... 

Ok, now, conversely with real estate, that is simply not possible. '08' was the biggest hit to real estate in our life times, of EVERYONE alive at the time of it, right. And that showed that all one had to do to NOT loose a dime was, wait up-to 7yrs to sell. And you can do other things, rent, sell on terms, etc etc etc.. Point is, (a) it's all but impossible for the investment to go to $0 and (b) you have direct, impactful CONTROL of outcome. 

2nd: Back to the CONTROL aspect. Sure, you can diversify on the stock market, but what does that mean? It means instead of having one or a few things that you have NO control of what so ever, you now have several things you have NO control of what so ever. Unless your Warren from Omaha you have zero control over how good or bad those companies are run. Kodak was a industry "beast", a definitive "safe" investment, until it wasn't, and it went to trash in a flash.    Sears, same story, go back some years and ask a "stock expert" the risks of investing in Sears and they'd laugh at you for such a "dumb question".....    So in reality you are ALWAYS gambling in the stock market, yes, even with those big names that seem inconceivable to every drop and ESPECIALLY with those because most are so shocked and in disbelief when it occurs that it's only realized after your left with pennies on the dollar because you waited out a recovery that was never coming. 

3rd: MATH and leverage.     The maximum leverage I have ever seen in trading accounts is 50%, and that's very limited and select. This is known as "margin". So, in theory one could get a 2:1 leverage, earning the rewards on $2 for every $1 capital spent out of pocket.     

BUT, and this is a very big but..... WHEN (yes I mean WHEN not if because over 30+yrs it happens many times) when the market has a drop for whatever reason be it a bad election, war tensions, someone sneezed on there terminal and HFT's went bazerk selling, whatever the cause, WHEN the market drops you get a "Margin CALL" and next thing ya know there not just selling off those leveraged positions BUT there selling em off in the drop, at the lowest price, amplifying losses, all those returns going out the window in moments.     

Now, not to mention the interest rate on margin is always a lot more than a mortgage rate. So % vs % on borrowed funds for investing, trading on margin is much more expensive, WAY higher risk, AND now even MORE loss of control because when these things out of your control happen you have no control for the status of those "assets". 

VS Real Estate, nobody controls or makes a forced sale of your assets because there "fearful" what may happen. The bank can not do a "precautionary foreclosure" on you. No, only after missing significant payments then you could suffer a forced sale.     And back to '08', what do you do, DONT SELL, lease it instead. What happens in a market "crash" when people are loosing there homes? They become renters, MASS increase of renters. So, you just lease. 

And the math, in real estate you can get 4:1 leverage ratio readily, earning on $4 for every $1 you invest. And that's the most conservative side of things, using many prevailing things out there such as house hacking or using FHA and annual/bi-annual move you can get a 20:1 leverage, earning on $20 for every $1 you invest. And, with other strategies 50:1, 100:1, 10,000:1 is all realistic.

4th and final: Tax advantages left right and center in real estate. In stock market, the best you can do is hopefully take some sting out of your tax bill. 

In real estate, you can very realistically completely remove ANY bite, at least for a time, but also you get to make $ on what would be a tax payment (1031). You get to take depreciation on an appreciating asset, you can even get tax credits for various projects and actions which depending the level your at equals a pay-day. 

In Summary: 

Wall Street and the stock market is handing other people your money, hoping after you let them make a ton on it no matter which way it goes, that end of day you will be left with what you put in and profit to make it worth it's while. And why? Because Wall Street has told everyone that's what they should do, give them all your money and in the future they will give it back with a profit, maybe, possibly, for some, sometimes, maybe, we will see, if if if. 

Real Estate is investing. You are invested, you are investing, you have control, direction, a say, impact, choices. In one of the 3 fundamental human needs (food, water, shelter). Which is also one of the 3 fundamental needs of a business most often (customers, product/service, place of operation). 

Ok, so here is some data on mortgage rates today. Curious if anyone can say what this math is telling us? No, I am not asking, I know, I am curious how many others know, and thoughts on it. 

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

@Nadir M. it's not too much TP. 

Yeah, I get it, you had "a" plumber out and he said blah blah blah, I get it. Look, that plumber was not into getting into things and he gave you and tenant the brush off, that's the reality of it. 

Toilet paper will NOT do that of it's own, it just won't. The ONLY way TP alone would be the issue, you'd have to throw like literally half a roll at a time down and do that repeatedly, multiple times, in rapid succession. 

But what COULD do it; tenant could have put something else down, dang flushable wipes especially. And before turn in line, it makes a kind of catch. So now your 3" line is more like a 1.5" line. 

This will build up n build up, and then yes, clog up with small amount of TP and make it hard to fix via plunger. 

And you said just did a bunch of work. Well, any chance any of those guys used jobsite hand cleaners and flushed em? Which are basically flushable wipes? Yeah, that commonly happen. If I catch guys on jobsite doing that I fine em cost to have drain guys come out and run the lines, because that's literally what ya gotta do. 

Cast iron lines especially are notorious for this. 

Look, people are jumping to assumptions that your a cheap slumlord, and your not enjoying that right. Well, how about ya extend the same courtesy to tenant of not jumping on an assumption to them. 

Call a drain professional, not a plumber. Can have em scope it first. I assure you will find something. 

If I scope it and find flushable isn’t that on the tenant as well? 

Depends. 

Personally, if it's 1st time, I scold them and let them know of the "fine" for such, but at end I waive it if there otherwise decent tenants so now it's left in a positive manner and they know they will be paying if done again. 

Legally speaking, unless they confess to it you can't prove it was from them. And unless you know for fact, you don't really know either. As mentioned, could be these tenants, previous vendors, or previous tenants, depends. 

We should be talking a couple too few hundred bucks, this isn't some giant cost worth creating a bad relation with tenant. 

And you need to stop with the knee jerk reaction that things are tenant with no evidence to such. 

It’s the second occurrence within a couple months. I was nice the first time and told them I’ll take care of the bill but please make sure you use less TP and supervise your kids since they’re still very young. When it happened the second time that’s when I realized it may be an ongoing issue. They need to pay for it which will ultimately result in a feud I feel like…which I tend to always try to prevent. 

 Wrong dead wrong. 

If it's let's say flushable wipes in there from the vendors, it's definitively not there fault. It's NOT too much TP, stop with that BS excuse, nobody in the know is buying this BS excuse, that literally is NOT possible period end of story full-stop. If you had any clue about plumbing you'd understand why. 

To say they use too much TP is a DEFECT of property as it's NOT working in standard order and you WILL loose in court. Because it's legally required your property be up to NORMAL working standard measure. 

FYI; now you are starting to act like a slumlord. Cut the sh_t out. IF it's the tenant making such happen from abuse of any kind, yes THEN accountability but you don't know jack, cut it out, get facts not opinions and assumptions. 

 So it’s a plumbing issue if it’s happening to one toilet and everything is operating fine? I guess I’m confused to why another toilet, that’s smaller and older, is having no issues (which is also the master bedroom) while the hallway bathroom is. I don’t understand why way too much toilet paper couldn’t be the issue…some TP doesn’t dissolve like certain other brands. To also say that’s it’s happened with them twice while not happening to any other tenant is also potentially saying too much TP. 

Look, I don't understand why space-x can land rockets and others can't, my lack of knowledge or understanding does not change the facts of things. 

Any and ALL normal operating toilets and toilet plumbing will NOT be incapable of handling TP, come on man, it's kind of obvious common sense, it is. 

A normal clog is handled with a plunger. You're not having normal clogs are you, because your not calling out a plumber to simply take 3min with a plunger, right. It's what we call an IMPACTION. 

Trade school for plumbing is 2-4yrs, I'm not gonna take you from 0 knowledge to full comprehension on a web forum. 

You have a requirement for standard normal operation. When you got called out for BS you said it was unfair, but here you are obsessing with ignoring things and just searching for how to blame tenant for anything/everything and defer any responsibility at all including discovery of the actual root cause.     Your making yourself look like a slumlord more n more. 

I told ya, get a drain professional out there. Plumbers are not drain guys, or I should say very rarely are they. Sure plumbers can do it, but it's not what they really do, so call a drain guy. If the stool was the issue that is a plumber thing and you said he cleared that already, ok, so it's a drain line issue. So, bring out a the pro's for that and find out what's wrong. It's just that simple. 

i already said 2/3 times that I give it 80%+ odd's it's some form of flushable wipes down there that have made a near blockage.     So what if it was fine before, that's how literally everything works on a home. The roof is fine until it leaks, decks are fine until they are not, things wear out, line blockages don't happen overnight they most often are buildups over time until the result IS seen overnight. 

As I said, get the drain pro's out there, scope the line, find out what it is, then have em clear the line. They wont just snake it which doesn't necessarily clear a line, they will clear it. That is unless it's something that can't be cleared like say a cast iron hunk jutting out, rare but it can happen. 

But blaming this on toilet paper in childish, and getting real old. Go to the home supply shop and look at a 3" line, just look at one, you tell me how much TP a person would need to put down to make a clog a plunger couldn't clear. Repetitively. 

it's OBVIOUS that something happened and my bet is exiting tenant, vendors who were in, or this new tenant but your NOT gonna know who or what until you get it scoped and find out what the impaction/build-up is and from visual a guesstimate of how long it's been down there. 

I had a similar issue, we scoped it and saw faces looking back at us, lol. Pulled almost half a dozen action figures and small dolls out of there. Current tenants had no kids. Tenants who just left did.     

Previous tenants had no kids this one does so I will do a scope  

Are they young kids still in diapers? Using wipes? If flushing those wipes, oh-yeah, that'll do it. That'll do it real fast. 

Quote from @Ben Stanley:

How do people invest in real estate while working a full time job?

.... They hire me. 

Yeah, it's just that simple. You time leverage, knowledge leverage, experience leverage, execution leverage, better known as hiring the best. 

Quote from @Don Konipol:

Based on 45 years in real estate, I’ve experienced these types and I believe they are the biggest time suckers to be avoided as quickly as possible 

Types of Customers to Avoid

1. The customer who places no monetary value on your time. They’ll ask you for an endless number of quotes. They’ll ask you to review a never ending merry go round of deals they’re “considering”. They’ll ask you for referrals to your best vendors. What they won’t do is agree to pay you for your work. And when they finally do a deal they’ll leave you for the lowest cost option.

2. The customer who will never do a deal. They’ll look at properties all day long. They’ll do in-depth analysis with pro forma statements projected out 20 years. They may even engage in intense, detailed negotiations. What the WON’T do however is complete a. transaction.

3. The customer who is never satisfied. This one is controversial because they will do a deal, and you may collect a fee. However, at some point you’ll come to know that when considering the time, aggravation, and damage to your reputation, it just wasn’t worth it.  You’ll know this type because they’ll call you at 7 AM to discuss an irrelevant matter. They’ll demand answers to ridiculous irrelevant questions like what’s the viscosity of the
heating oil in the tank. They’ll probe the motivation of the opposing side and NEVER belief any answer. Engage with at your risk

4. The customer who lacks authority to make the ultimate decision. Their parents need to approve the purchase. Their “silent” money partner needs to be convinced. Their wife’s trust fund is the “real” buyer.

5. The customer with “legal issues”. They’re being sued. They’re under investigation for fraud. They’re involved with money laundering. And they want to drag you into their troubled world.

Quote from @Joe S.:

Quote from @Walter Moneypenny:

In addition to educating your tenant, make sure that if it is not already in the lease, then an addendum is done to add something about tenant inflicted damage. Our lease has two specific areas where the Tenants are held responsible for repairs that they cause. Specifically regarding plumbing you could add (depending on your State or Local Laws) "... unless determined by repair person that such blockage occurred during the time Tenant controlled the Premises and due to some fault or negligence of Tenant, specifically excluding blockages caused by roots or backups from the street..."

Would you mind sharing the extra language that you put in your lease?

CONDITION OF PREMISES. Tenant stipulates, represents, and warrants that Tenant has visually examined the Premises, and that it is, at the time of this Lease, in good order, repair, and in a safe, clean, and habitable condition. Furthermore, by signing this Lease, Tenant acknowledges and agrees that it has taken the Premises “As-Is” unless otherwise noted in this Lease. Tenant also agrees to the following:
-All drains, waste pipes, and plumbing are accepted as clear by Tenant at the time of occupancy, and any material blocking them after occupancy shall be repaired at Landlord’s cost, unless determined by repair person that such blockage occurred during the time Tenant controlled the Premises and due to some fault or negligence

COVENANTS OF LANDLORD. Pursuant to applicable State Law, Landlord covenants and
agrees as follows:
1. The Premises and all common areas are fit for the use intended by Tenant;
2. To keep the Premises in reasonable repair during the term of the Lease. If the disrepair has been caused by the willful, malicious, or irresponsible conduct of the Tenant or a person under the direction or control of the Tenant, then the cost of repairs will be charged to the Tenant; and
3. To maintain the Premises in compliance with the applicable health and safety laws of the state, and of the local units of government where the Premises are located during the term of the Lease. If the violation of the health and safety laws has been caused by the willful, malicious, or irresponsible conduct of Tenant or a person

and in a later rather long term to lease under maintenance we have the sub term of: 
h. Keep all lavatories, sinks, toilets, disposals, pump systems, and all other water and plumbing apparatus in good order and repair and shall use same only for the purposes for which they were constructed. Tenant shall not allow any sweepings, rubbish, sand, rags, ashes, bones, grease, or other substances to be thrown or deposited therein. Any damage to any such apparatus and the cost of clearing stopped plumbing resulting from misuse shall be borne by Tenant;

BUT BUT BUT...... Our lease is 29 pages. This above is the tiniest snippet of the "golden nuggets" we have developed into our "gold standard" lease. We have gotten here with over 400k tenant placements / leasing's done, and the Mt Everest of education that's provided in experience. 

So, if 'weak" on your lease, don't feel bad about buying a template from one better refined, or using a TP service from a provider who has one to level like mine and then, well, you'll have that in hand for all actions going forward, right. 

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

@Nadir M. it's not too much TP. 

Yeah, I get it, you had "a" plumber out and he said blah blah blah, I get it. Look, that plumber was not into getting into things and he gave you and tenant the brush off, that's the reality of it. 

Toilet paper will NOT do that of it's own, it just won't. The ONLY way TP alone would be the issue, you'd have to throw like literally half a roll at a time down and do that repeatedly, multiple times, in rapid succession. 

But what COULD do it; tenant could have put something else down, dang flushable wipes especially. And before turn in line, it makes a kind of catch. So now your 3" line is more like a 1.5" line. 

This will build up n build up, and then yes, clog up with small amount of TP and make it hard to fix via plunger. 

And you said just did a bunch of work. Well, any chance any of those guys used jobsite hand cleaners and flushed em? Which are basically flushable wipes? Yeah, that commonly happen. If I catch guys on jobsite doing that I fine em cost to have drain guys come out and run the lines, because that's literally what ya gotta do. 

Cast iron lines especially are notorious for this. 

Look, people are jumping to assumptions that your a cheap slumlord, and your not enjoying that right. Well, how about ya extend the same courtesy to tenant of not jumping on an assumption to them. 

Call a drain professional, not a plumber. Can have em scope it first. I assure you will find something. 

If I scope it and find flushable isn’t that on the tenant as well? 

Depends. 

Personally, if it's 1st time, I scold them and let them know of the "fine" for such, but at end I waive it if there otherwise decent tenants so now it's left in a positive manner and they know they will be paying if done again. 

Legally speaking, unless they confess to it you can't prove it was from them. And unless you know for fact, you don't really know either. As mentioned, could be these tenants, previous vendors, or previous tenants, depends. 

We should be talking a couple too few hundred bucks, this isn't some giant cost worth creating a bad relation with tenant. 

And you need to stop with the knee jerk reaction that things are tenant with no evidence to such. 

It’s the second occurrence within a couple months. I was nice the first time and told them I’ll take care of the bill but please make sure you use less TP and supervise your kids since they’re still very young. When it happened the second time that’s when I realized it may be an ongoing issue. They need to pay for it which will ultimately result in a feud I feel like…which I tend to always try to prevent. 

 Wrong dead wrong. 

If it's let's say flushable wipes in there from the vendors, it's definitively not there fault. It's NOT too much TP, stop with that BS excuse, nobody in the know is buying this BS excuse, that literally is NOT possible period end of story full-stop. If you had any clue about plumbing you'd understand why. 

To say they use too much TP is a DEFECT of property as it's NOT working in standard order and you WILL loose in court. Because it's legally required your property be up to NORMAL working standard measure. 

FYI; now you are starting to act like a slumlord. Cut the sh_t out. IF it's the tenant making such happen from abuse of any kind, yes THEN accountability but you don't know jack, cut it out, get facts not opinions and assumptions. 

 So it’s a plumbing issue if it’s happening to one toilet and everything is operating fine? I guess I’m confused to why another toilet, that’s smaller and older, is having no issues (which is also the master bedroom) while the hallway bathroom is. I don’t understand why way too much toilet paper couldn’t be the issue…some TP doesn’t dissolve like certain other brands. To also say that’s it’s happened with them twice while not happening to any other tenant is also potentially saying too much TP. 

Look, I don't understand why space-x can land rockets and others can't, my lack of knowledge or understanding does not change the facts of things. 

Any and ALL normal operating toilets and toilet plumbing will NOT be incapable of handling TP, come on man, it's kind of obvious common sense, it is. 

A normal clog is handled with a plunger. You're not having normal clogs are you, because your not calling out a plumber to simply take 3min with a plunger, right. It's what we call an IMPACTION. 

Trade school for plumbing is 2-4yrs, I'm not gonna take you from 0 knowledge to full comprehension on a web forum. 

You have a requirement for standard normal operation. When you got called out for BS you said it was unfair, but here you are obsessing with ignoring things and just searching for how to blame tenant for anything/everything and defer any responsibility at all including discovery of the actual root cause.     Your making yourself look like a slumlord more n more. 

I told ya, get a drain professional out there. Plumbers are not drain guys, or I should say very rarely are they. Sure plumbers can do it, but it's not what they really do, so call a drain guy. If the stool was the issue that is a plumber thing and you said he cleared that already, ok, so it's a drain line issue. So, bring out a the pro's for that and find out what's wrong. It's just that simple. 

i already said 2/3 times that I give it 80%+ odd's it's some form of flushable wipes down there that have made a near blockage.     So what if it was fine before, that's how literally everything works on a home. The roof is fine until it leaks, decks are fine until they are not, things wear out, line blockages don't happen overnight they most often are buildups over time until the result IS seen overnight. 

As I said, get the drain pro's out there, scope the line, find out what it is, then have em clear the line. They wont just snake it which doesn't necessarily clear a line, they will clear it. That is unless it's something that can't be cleared like say a cast iron hunk jutting out, rare but it can happen. 

But blaming this on toilet paper in childish, and getting real old. Go to the home supply shop and look at a 3" line, just look at one, you tell me how much TP a person would need to put down to make a clog a plunger couldn't clear. Repetitively. 

it's OBVIOUS that something happened and my bet is exiting tenant, vendors who were in, or this new tenant but your NOT gonna know who or what until you get it scoped and find out what the impaction/build-up is and from visual a guesstimate of how long it's been down there. 

I had a similar issue, we scoped it and saw faces looking back at us, lol. Pulled almost half a dozen action figures and small dolls out of there. Current tenants had no kids. Tenants who just left did.     

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

@Nadir M. it's not too much TP. 

Yeah, I get it, you had "a" plumber out and he said blah blah blah, I get it. Look, that plumber was not into getting into things and he gave you and tenant the brush off, that's the reality of it. 

Toilet paper will NOT do that of it's own, it just won't. The ONLY way TP alone would be the issue, you'd have to throw like literally half a roll at a time down and do that repeatedly, multiple times, in rapid succession. 

But what COULD do it; tenant could have put something else down, dang flushable wipes especially. And before turn in line, it makes a kind of catch. So now your 3" line is more like a 1.5" line. 

This will build up n build up, and then yes, clog up with small amount of TP and make it hard to fix via plunger. 

And you said just did a bunch of work. Well, any chance any of those guys used jobsite hand cleaners and flushed em? Which are basically flushable wipes? Yeah, that commonly happen. If I catch guys on jobsite doing that I fine em cost to have drain guys come out and run the lines, because that's literally what ya gotta do. 

Cast iron lines especially are notorious for this. 

Look, people are jumping to assumptions that your a cheap slumlord, and your not enjoying that right. Well, how about ya extend the same courtesy to tenant of not jumping on an assumption to them. 

Call a drain professional, not a plumber. Can have em scope it first. I assure you will find something. 

If I scope it and find flushable isn’t that on the tenant as well? 

Depends. 

Personally, if it's 1st time, I scold them and let them know of the "fine" for such, but at end I waive it if there otherwise decent tenants so now it's left in a positive manner and they know they will be paying if done again. 

Legally speaking, unless they confess to it you can't prove it was from them. And unless you know for fact, you don't really know either. As mentioned, could be these tenants, previous vendors, or previous tenants, depends. 

We should be talking a couple too few hundred bucks, this isn't some giant cost worth creating a bad relation with tenant. 

And you need to stop with the knee jerk reaction that things are tenant with no evidence to such. 

It’s the second occurrence within a couple months. I was nice the first time and told them I’ll take care of the bill but please make sure you use less TP and supervise your kids since they’re still very young. When it happened the second time that’s when I realized it may be an ongoing issue. They need to pay for it which will ultimately result in a feud I feel like…which I tend to always try to prevent. 

 Wrong dead wrong. 

If it's let's say flushable wipes in there from the vendors, it's definitively not there fault. It's NOT too much TP, stop with that BS excuse, nobody in the know is buying this BS excuse, that literally is NOT possible period end of story full-stop. If you had any clue about plumbing you'd understand why. 

To say they use too much TP is a DEFECT of property as it's NOT working in standard order and you WILL loose in court. Because it's legally required your property be up to NORMAL working standard measure. 

FYI; now you are starting to act like a slumlord. Cut the sh_t out. IF it's the tenant making such happen from abuse of any kind, yes THEN accountability but you don't know jack, cut it out, get facts not opinions and assumptions. 

Quote from @Rick Bassett:

Quote from @James Hamling:

 what page of the slumlord handbook did this come out of?

After reading this, and your last post, it’s obvious that you’re uninformed and too quick to jump on the S word,

if you have ever pulled a toilet and found a giant wad of toilet paper, you would know exactly what I am talking about. Our plumber has done this at least three times this year at a cost of $250 per visit.

Sometimes Tenants will just ’wad’ up not thinking or understanding the consequences of what they are doing. That is not a wear and tear issue and that is not an issue related bad plumbing. It is a user issue.

Also, it’s pretty easy to determine if it’s a clogged pipe or if the problem is located to the toilet. If the rest of the bathroom plumbing fixtures are flowing freely then usually it’s not a clogged waste pipe.

 Blah blah blah, whatever bloviating SLUMLORD. 

No surprise the SLUMLORD responds with he's a genius, knows everything, is always right. Yup, good for you, now go kick rocks guy. 

Tell ya what, once you've hit journey in just 2 trades I will let you attempt to talk down to me. 

Yeah, so, unfortunately your assume got ya mouth in a jamb yet again. I am a building contract of decades, I have trained inspect dept's, journey in 3 trades, and over $200m in flips under the belt, mostly to pre '78' homes. 

I definitively know what I am talking about and am speaking as a licensed professional in the trade and from fact. Vs your OPINION of things as a slumlord that god forbid you ever have to fix or address anything, and all things are tenant faults. 

So yeah, as said, kick-rocks. 

Quote from @Nadir M.:

Quote from @James Hamling:

@Nadir M. it's not too much TP. 

Yeah, I get it, you had "a" plumber out and he said blah blah blah, I get it. Look, that plumber was not into getting into things and he gave you and tenant the brush off, that's the reality of it. 

Toilet paper will NOT do that of it's own, it just won't. The ONLY way TP alone would be the issue, you'd have to throw like literally half a roll at a time down and do that repeatedly, multiple times, in rapid succession. 

But what COULD do it; tenant could have put something else down, dang flushable wipes especially. And before turn in line, it makes a kind of catch. So now your 3" line is more like a 1.5" line. 

This will build up n build up, and then yes, clog up with small amount of TP and make it hard to fix via plunger. 

And you said just did a bunch of work. Well, any chance any of those guys used jobsite hand cleaners and flushed em? Which are basically flushable wipes? Yeah, that commonly happen. If I catch guys on jobsite doing that I fine em cost to have drain guys come out and run the lines, because that's literally what ya gotta do. 

Cast iron lines especially are notorious for this. 

Look, people are jumping to assumptions that your a cheap slumlord, and your not enjoying that right. Well, how about ya extend the same courtesy to tenant of not jumping on an assumption to them. 

Call a drain professional, not a plumber. Can have em scope it first. I assure you will find something. 

If I scope it and find flushable isn’t that on the tenant as well? 

Depends. 

Personally, if it's 1st time, I scold them and let them know of the "fine" for such, but at end I waive it if there otherwise decent tenants so now it's left in a positive manner and they know they will be paying if done again. 

Legally speaking, unless they confess to it you can't prove it was from them. And unless you know for fact, you don't really know either. As mentioned, could be these tenants, previous vendors, or previous tenants, depends. 

We should be talking a couple too few hundred bucks, this isn't some giant cost worth creating a bad relation with tenant. 

And you need to stop with the knee jerk reaction that things are tenant with no evidence to such.