All Forum Posts by: Sean OReilly

Great post Troy. I'm still learning myself, but have been wary of any of the magic formulas or rules that use X%. I think as you said, its important to understand the totality of the circumstances. 

I believe this to be true with things like operating and maintenance budgets as well - its important to understand the building, location, tenant base, etc. 

Welcome @Zachary St Laurent! I was surprised to see so many people from NH when I joined, so it's a great resource for those of us starting out. 

I think your approach of working maintenance is a great one. You should learn the ins and outs of not only building operations, but also the various ways people think and act (and how to best deal with different personalities). Until about a year ago I worked construction and service in large residential and commercial properties - the biggest things I took from that were a refined bulls**t detector, and an ability to think on my feet.

@John Newman,

There is no natural gas available in the area, but propane would be an option (provided I wanted to install lines and tanks). Electricity is split out by tenant, but domestic water is not. The main concern for me right now is the heat, although I could potentially meter the domestic water usage as well, but it would be more difficult due to the way the water lines are installed. 

The heating system is relatively new, with the boiler being somewhere around 10 years old. It's been serviced recently, and the service tag shows it's a yearly occurance. I could add two boilers, additional fuel tanks and split things up that way, however the cost to implement that would be somewhere around $8,000, while metering the heating will cost me about $1,500 and a day of my time.

@Troy Zsofka I agree there's some balance to be had when it comes to utility costs, but I think people could view it as an opportunity to lower their costs. If I reduce rent by $75 a unit per month, while reducing costs by $100 per unit per month, human nature would be to do everything they can to keep their heating costs below that $75 that I just put back into their pocket. The other piece here is that I become less concerned with fuel costs when it comes to setting rent, so if fuel costs do increase, the tenant can elect to turn their thermostat down, take shorter showers, etc to defray the costs (much like when I tell my wife to go grab a sweatshirt in the middle of January, versus turning the heat up to 70).

@Troy Zsofka - My plan would be to lower the rents to compensate for the utilities no longer included. Limiting the thermostats (or installing fixed set point thermostats) is another option, but I really don't want to have to worry about the volatility of fuel costs. A building that has a $4,000 fuel bill with oil at $2.10 a gallon becomes a completely different animal when fuel jumps to $4.10 a gallon.

 I'm not sure if truer words have ever been spoken.

I've been looking at a lot of multi family buildings here in NH, and since many of them are older homes that have been converted into apartments (2-4 units), many of which have common heating systems, so the rent includes heat.

With a background in (commercial) energy management and utility billing systems, these seem like they can be good opportunities for me to go in, lower rent and recover utility costs (subject to existing leases of course). NH is fairly lenient on sub metering and billing, so it should be fairly straightforward.

I see systems for larger apartment complexes, but I don't see a lot of low-cost systems in place to accurately measure and recover costs to heat a unit in a small multi-family dwelling. I know it can be done at a pretty reasonable price by modifying some commercial technologies to meet this need, but it seems like no one has done this. Am I re-inventing the wheel here, or is there really no cost-effective system to do this in these smaller properties?

Thanks @Ann Bellamy and @Marcia Maynard both for your responses. Pretty much what I expected to hear. I'll make some calls tomorrow and get some input, but at least now I know that I'm going to need to take care of this.

I had never given the fire escape a thought, but I really should have. I know one of the 2nd floor units has a front and rear stairwell, but I don't believe the other unit has a 2nd means of egress, so I'll take a look at that if and when we get to the point of inspections.

I'm looking at a 3 family building, older home which was converted many years ago. In walking through, one thing that stuck out to me was the absence of hard-wired smoke detectors. The building has no house panel, so installation is going to be expensive any way you look at it.

My question here is are the older battery powered detectors "grandfathered", or will I need to upgrade the detectors immediately. I know the right thing to do is to upgrade the system, but I'm predicting that this could be one of a number of points to be raised during negotiating, and if I say "I'm going to have to install hard-wired smoke detectors with interconnection between units" I want to make sure I'm right.

Gas forced air works well, and will most certainly take the chill off, but installing ductwork, gas lines, etc seems like a lot of work (cost) that I would avoid if I could. Is this a new problem, or has it been a constant struggle

As an "energy guy", I wonder if you've looked at making sure you're keeping the energy you're putting in the building in the building?  Checking insulation, windows and doors are the major ones. You'd be surprised how much caulking and weather stripping can degrade in even a year. Also, making sure that the baseboard heat that's already installed isn't obstructed by furniture is critical. If there are pets, keeping the "fins" inside clean is also important. Often utilities will offer a low cost / no cost energy audit (and will sometimes assist with remediation costs), depending on your situation.

As @Ashley St. Gelais mentioned, Mitsubishi (among others) makes some nice "split unit" heating/AC units, although  typical heat pumps generally start losing their ability to effectively heat somewhere between 20-30 degrees outside. Some of the more expensive units will operate well at -5 or so. We have a more basic heat pump in our home, and it's great in the fall and spring, but in the winter, it takes the gas heat or the wood stove to keep the house warm without spending a fortune. 

@Jennifer N. - Welcome! I'm also new at this, although like @Helen Rolls I haven't jumped in yet. Best of luck though!