All Forum Posts by: Albert Johnson

@Albert Johnson I recently did an “upgrade” ($10,000ish) for an extremely vocal tenant. My expectation as a landlord of 5 years and a tenant years in the past was that this would make this tenant a happier tenant.

This has not occurred and as such I will now have second thoughts before doing any further expensive upgrades for an existing tenant.

If the flooring is bad you should pay to replace it if for nothing else to keep bookkeeping records simple. You get the write off for the repairs and still collect 100% of the rent so there’s no question down the road about gat happened to the missing rent.

I never trade with tenants.

We never let tenants make repairs like this on our property.  We absolutely never allow them to pay the costs and then "just take it out of rent" later!  (I won't go into the many reasons that is a very bad idea.)

Have you checked the flooring yourself?  Either your flooring company did a bad job installing it, in which case you should ask them to fix it, or the tenant is doing something to destroy the flooring.  In the latter case, you must have a very different conversation and correct your tenant's bad behavior.

The least likely scenario is neither of the above, but the flooring still needs to be replaced.  In that case, we would pick the flooring, hire the contractor, and pay for the installation. The only thing the tenant would need to do is be ready when the contractors come.

Absolutely not.  Have the flooring company that did the install go by and look at it. Did the installer do a bad job or as Greg suggested, did the tenants do something to mess it up? If it was installed properly just over a year ago, the company who installed it should be willing to fix it unless it is the tenant's fault.  Have you gone over to look at the flooring and did you have photos from before the tenant moved in?

On one of my units the property has shared electric with another unit I own. One of the units has a submeter and the other doesn't. 

The tenant that receives the electric bill is the tenant that does not have a submeter. They moved in 2 months ago. This tenant complains that the bill is extremely high. 

The tenant that has a submeter moved in this month. The submeter is accurate and tracks usage of anything powered on in the unit. 

Does anyone have experience with tenants on shared electric?

How did you handle this with one tenant complaining there electric is high?

We keep our house at 72 year-round. We expect the same for our rental properties. Your AC is either broken (running low on coolant) or your house lacks insulation.

We buy a lot of 1960s ranches and if the attic insulation is poor we blow in a foot. Cheap fix and makes the house so much more comfy year round -> lower turn over rate, and an average turn over costs us about 5k, so well worth to invest in your tenant's comfort.

80 is to hot. I keep mine at 68. I have had it that way for 20+ years everywhere I live. I would check your air filter, then check your outside unit. Look at the coils and see if there is build up. It will look like a dryer vent covered with lint. Those coils need to breathe. They can be cleaned in about 1/2 hour and 15$. Any hvac guy that tells you the system can’t handle below 80 is a crook. 

80 is an extremely high temperature to keep a home at. Not sure where your located but I cannot see anyone being okay with renting a property that cannot go below 80 degrees. It is surprising that the unit is only 3 years old though. I have seen some units be repaired for very cheap depending on the problem. My advice would be to just have a trusted tech come out and take a look at it. If it is affordable just pay to have it fixed and keep the tenant happy. If it is to expensive you can always get a window unit for a around $100-$150.

An AC that isn't cooling below 80 is broken. I keep mine set to 68/69. Get your AC fixed.