All Forum Posts by: Sylvia B.

Not knowing where your rental is located, I can't say for sure, but I highly doubt that you are required by law to replace the toilet. As Galen said, call your local housing office and ask them.

$750-1000 for a toilet? What are you putting in, gold? As others have told you, 17" toilets are widely available for $100, and if your plumber or handyman wants more than $150-200 to install it, get a new plumber. And there is no reason at all to change it back to a lower height, so once it's done you're good.

I understand how a tenant demanding something makes you want to refuse, but just do this, and save your no for later.

Our situation is a little different from most. We have no debt, so we don't have to worry about setting aside money to cover loan payments. Our property taxes are lower than many areas, so $8500 a year will cover that expense for 11 houses. Insurance is a little less than that, probably $7000. Every month I move $1500 into the reserve account to be sure those are covered. (Actually just a bookkeeping entry.)

Major systems are usually replaced before we rent out a house, so we rarely have big repair bills. We always have at least $20k in reserve, so we can cover anything that does come up. We expect to be out of the landlord business in 10-15 years, but you never know.

If for some weird reason all of our houses were vacant for a year, we'd be fine.

Saw this on Facebook today:

"Looking for 3 to 4 bed

I don't have good credit im looking for a second chance we have plenty of income . Felon friendly have a service dog for seizures and a yorkie very well trained both of them . Have my daughter and her fiance and their baby and my mom and our friend that helps me that will be staying with us , i have Parkinson's any price range from 600 to 1200 i also get Rental assistance from burrel we have been homeless since November would like a place to call home. Around Springfield, rolla, mt. Grove, a bunch of other plaes as well . Prefer 2 bathroom if possible and not a whole lot of steps"

The photos in the post included two people who looked like meth addicts, several with excessive(10 or more) face piercings, and someone holding a baby in their lap in the front seat of a moving vehicle.

Well, that depends....

It sounds like the property slopes front front to back, with the road as the high point and the creek as the low point, but you give no details. How big is the parcel? What is the distance from the house to the creek? How steep is the slope? How big is the creek?

A gentle slope 20 feet from the house to a large creek has a different set of concerns than a steep slope 500 feet from the house to a little ankle-deep creek.

That's why CPVC is used for hot water lines. 

I would estimate that 75-80% of the homes in my area are plumbed with PVC/CPVC. Yes, in the walls. (Or basement or crawl space) It really doesn't matter if you or @Will Barnard believe it, it is a fact. My own home is plumbed with PVC & CPVC.

@JD Martin This is one of those times that I wish I could vote for a post more than once. You wrote pretty much everything I was thinking.

Hubby and I have been self employed since 1989, so our transition was different than most people's. We sold our business 5 years ago to "retire" into real estate. Flexibility is the greatest benefit. We pretty much work on what we want when we want, though of course there are urgent issues that come up from time to time.

When we aren't rehabbing a new acquisition or dealing with a turnover there is usually very little that needs to be done. Probably 4 hours/month dealing with bookkeeping/paperwork. Maintenance/repair issues average maybe 1/month for all 10 of our houses (not each). Most of those only require us to call the company that will take care of the problem for us, and then pay the bill. Of course occasionally there will be a bigger problem that requires more time and effort, but those are pretty rare.

Perhaps in your area . . .

Most of the houses we buy are completely plumbed with PVC and CPVC.

It makes sense for us. We currently own 10 SFR, and the purchase prices ranged from $15k to $83k, with total investment ranging from $40k to $102k. Once we finish renovations, these are good, solid, B class homes in our small town.

But our situation is not yours, so what works for us is very unlikely to work for you.

Edited to add: Please note that "total investment" is not the same as current market value. We acquired these properties over the last 10 years and our RE market has gone bananas in the last 18 months.