All Forum Posts by: Tom Carmody

@Michael King haha. I hear ya! I’m getting it all fixed the right way now. Almost done actually. Sucked that it happened and I guess I was letting my anxiety get the best of me. Once I relaxed a little and listened to everyone here, I was ok. Tenants are happy now that I took a bit off of rent and getting it all fixed. Big thanks to everyone here. But, I’ll hit you up if ever decide to sell, haha.

@Dennis M. Thanks. Yeah, just dealing with it and taking it as a learning lesson. Thanks Dennis.

@Jonathan Klemm understood and thanks. My apologies.... the furnace was fixed in 1 day but the ongoing issue was due to the pipe breaking so I meant 3 total days without either heat and/or plumbing. Found out that the HVAC condensation tube was running to the outside gutter drain (previous owner did this) and unsure why this didn’t show on my inspection report... so, the pipe froze and backed up moisture causing the electric pilot to burnout. That’s corrected but now have to drill a hole to run the drip to an inside drain. Not super pricey with my guy luckily. Plumbing is fixed but working to get it all properly insulated now. It all could’ve been much worse but got the water shut off really fast luckily!

@Brian Boyd very good points and that’s what I will do. Really appreciate your response.

@Chris Myers very great point and thank you. I guess when the mess was happening, I didn’t think of it that way and then I heard it happened twice last winter and freaked me out. I have some guys looking at it now and figured where to insulate everything. I guess it costs money to make money. Thanks again.

@Nathan G. I am lucky and it is actually flowing $960 before I take out for capex. I actually have an account where I touch nothing but I should probably account for more to be safe. I’ve had a similar issue when I was renting and received a break so I will probably return the favor and have a heart. Really appreciate the info and everyone talking me off he ledge. I hoping that scraped my knee early in the game and will take it as a learning lesson. Again, thanks to all who took the time to comment!

@Theresa Harris thanks and that’s what I am going to do! Appreciate it

@Amy Barriault thanks for your input! I am setting aside money and will give them a break. I luckily have plumbers and a contractor coming over today. I am trying to get everything dried up as well so I don’t get mold. This is very helpful and thanks again.

@Karl B. Thanks for your reply and I’ll be sure to look into all of this. Good news is I have some good people around me and plumbers on the way today (less than 24 hours) and hope to the tenants back to normal ASAP.

So, I closed on my first property in Chicago in August. It is a 2-flat remodeled in 2016. Long story short, the heat went out on the first floor last night (was about 12-15 degrees). Tenants were fine luckily but fast forward to today, a water pipe burst in the wall where the bathrooms are connected. Water shut off.

I just found out front the tenant on the top floor that this apparently happened twice last winter to the lower floor and why the last tenants moved out.

Two questions:

1. As a landlord, should I consider giving them a break on rent for days lost to this (currently 3 days)?

2. Would you dump money in to attempt to correct it permanently or cut losses and try to sell? It flows about $800/m ($400/door).

New investor here so happy to hear your thoughts. Thank you.