All Forum Posts by: Steven Westlake

@Nathan Gesner - FYI, she was an inherited tenant when i acquired the building and had always paid rent. Albeit paid her share of the rent, as metropolitan housing paid about 80% for her.

I should have been more proactive, but money was coming in, so I figured i had bigger fish to fry.

@JD Martin - FYI, she was an inherited tenant when i acquired the building and had always paid rent. Albeit paid her share of the rent, as metropolitan housing paid about 80% for her.

I should have been more proactive, but money was coming in, so I figured i had bigger fish to fry.

@Bruce Woodruff - update - non renewal of lease, she left early February, left a mess, took 3 x 10 dumpsters.

See pics below.

Had an entrance with several Mismatched materials so i am covering all of it with pallet wood.

@Bjorn Ahlblad - i contacted the insurance company and ask how i could get my rates, one building was knob and tube wiring, I installed 3 x 200 amp SquareD panels my self. So thanks for reminding me it might have more to do with the fact that it was built around 1860, county records show it as 1900, but that is as far back as the records go. The gas light pipe in the walls says 1860 to me, knob and tube replaced that in early 1900’s I suppose .

@JD Martin-half (1 triplex) are all cash, owe like 59k on other triplex, both buildings are over 100 years old and still standing.

If i could find some reasonable disaster coverage with maybe a 10 or 20k deductible, i would be okay with that.

With this last round of insurance increases we are paying almost $50 per month per apartment. I am considering how hard it is to collect anything when theres a problem. how much the deductible is means I’m already covering all the smaller items. Then every little claim means my rate climbs again. Not to mention the paperwork pain involved with each claim

Any thoughts on just not having any insurance at all, or just some sort of liability and really high deductible ?

With 6 apartments were at $3600 per year

Bad water smell suddenly 

Our water started smelling really bad, good one day, bad the next. Turned to be a busted water filter.

Finishing 45 degree corners

Trim is nearly impossible to find for 45. So I just reversed standard molding.

Drywall over laying.

We bought a building which was drywalled as a shell only, then interior walls were added. Then ceilings were partially stomp textured.

The issue is as we’re moving things around we can not match the stomping texture, normally you would just add a layer of new drywall over the old ceiling with longer screws. However as the interior walls were added later there is often nothing but drywall at the walls edge to screw to.

So what we did was put the new drywall up and add screws where there were joist at, then just push lumber up along the edge very tightly, then screw that to the wall studs, supporting the drywall near the wall.

This can later be painted as a trim detail, or covered with crown molding, or a combination of both.