All Forum Posts by: Austin Tam

Also, try to look for one with a newer roof.  A lot of the properties have there have older roofs so try to either look for one with a newer roof or bake it into your calculations.  They're 6-7k for duplexes which basically crushes any projection numbers if you don't bake it into your analysis. If there's multiple layers of old roof and rotting wood, you're looking at over 10-13k to replace. 

Another thing - grass cutting was something I didn't account for when I purchased mine. Add another 30/mo for slow months and 60/mo for the fast months. 

Youre not factoring water/sewer which can range from $110-$200/mo depending on the tenants and your fixtures. It's not the norm to have duplex tenants paying for sewer/water since they're not separately metered. 

Good to know - Thanks James.

 Thanks for the confirming my suspicions. I actually thought about requesting the eviction docs, but I weighed the consequences...  Requesting the docs will just confirm the PM was lying about when the eviction was filed which doesn't necessarily do me any good. It'll just sour my relationship with them and make things awkward.  

I figure my best course of action is to learn from this and stay on top of things a little better myself. The tenant hasn't paid rent since July and that was a half payment. The eviction wasn't filed until September (allegedly). In hindsight I should've requested the eviction to be filed in July since they weren't good tenants to begin with.

Something I've learned in the past 6 months through my own experience and reading others is that Cleveland PM's do need to be micro-managed. There seems to be too many rental properties for the number of property managers to stay on top of. 

 It was my understanding that Cleveland evictions are a little more cut and dry than Jack's story. 

I'm in the process of evicting a tenant and am suspecting my property manager is giving me the run-around and dragging their feet. I hope I'm wrong, but the timeline seems suspicious...

Everything I've read online has stated 3 weeks for court date after 3-day eviction notice, and then 3-7 days after the court date to vacate.  It should take about 5 weeks. 

Here's my timeline.

-Sept 12 - Property manager claims the eviction has been filed. 

-Oct 16th - Property manager claims this is the court date.

-Nov 6th - Property manager claims this is the move out date.

Everything I've read states 3-7 days move out after the court date.  In my instance the property manager is claiming that the court allowed a 3-week move out.  Is this common or am I paranoid? 

Thanks for the info James. For clarification, are you saying Nov - April only require 1 cut/mo? (depending on weather)

 Sorry, yes, I could've sworn I posted this in the local Cleveland forum. 

How often is everyone getting their grass cut in the warm and cold months?  My property manager recommended once a week in the warm months and twice a month in the colder months.  That comes out to $120/mo and $60/mo respectively and which is a pretty substantial cost. Once a week seems excessive to me since 8" is the max height. Am I wrong here? 

It'll vary vastly depending the tenants, how many people live in each unit, whether or not they're employed, and whether your fixtures are water efficient. 

I have two duplexes with one unit occupied in each at the moment and the bills are vastly different...

I have one unit occupied by a working brother/sister/baby.  I imagine the sister's boyfriend is there once and a while also.  They use about 0.38 MCF/mo.  If you had four of them, it would put you at $242/mo for water and sewer

In my other duplex, I inherited a terrible tenant with a unemployed daughter and deadbeat boyfriend. They're home all day so I see water usage at all hours of the day. That unit uses about 0.8 MCF/mo.  If you had four of them, it would put you at $466.65/mo for water/sewer

You should also take into account lawn maintenance.  The city will fine you if your lawn grows out of hand.  My property manager recommended 4x mowing in the summer (not sure if that's excessive) which comes out to $120/mo