All Forum Posts by: William Osborne

@John Sherwood reach out to Homero at HMB Remolding. His company does all our heavy lifting projects at our properties. (502) 203-9602

@Yoselin Pearce

Recommend @Eric Shadowens

I've had re-glazing work done to a number of tubs in one particular 20-unit building. It cost me $300 per tub, but an extra $300 if there is already a DIY coating on the tub (which is the case with almost every tub in this building) to remove. The results are great and the tub looks brand new without the whole tear out and replumbing process. I would not recommend re-glazing the tile shower surround if needed. The grout joints just don't seem to turn out all that well. 

The durability seems great so far. I do provide my tenants information on how to clean the tubs as you don't want them to use an abrasive pad or certain strong cleaning solutions. 

I would stay away from the DIY kits and spend a little more on a professional. That advice also depends on your tenant profile/expectations and your hold plan for the property. 

This can be one of the more frustrating issues you can deal with as a property owner.

In general, I would not recommend filing insurance claims for items and damage you can cover without too much pain. Insurance claims can raise your premiums, especially if you go out to shop for new insurance. Insurance should be reserved for the things you can't cover out of pocket (i.e. stolen HVAC condenser). 

I would keep filing police reports and making notes of the damage/thefts should you ever need them for a claim or evidence.

As far as deterring these situations:

1.) Remove the opportunity: Keep tools, materials, and other property out of sight and locked up securely. A lot of petty theft happens just because of a moment of opportunity.

2.) Lights and Cameras: Consider your lighting situation on your property. Is there constant illumination around your property at night? Do you have motion sensing lights set-up in your historically troubled areas of the property? There are a number of good hardwire and battery operated options these days for lights and cameras. Maybe consider some Ring spotlights for illumination and for a cheap video recording option. Don't forget to deduct these expenses!

3.) Keep your properties looking nice: I don't have any evidence to back this up, but vandals seem to target dumper looking properties more often in my experience. Clean yard, trimmed grass and bushes, and anything else you can do to improve the appear of the property within reason.

4.) Talk to the Neighbors: Network with you neighbors and see if they are having similar issues. They may have some suggestions and you can develop a relationship to look after each others property. 

This should almost always be an owner responsibility unless stated in the lease. Mowing a yard and/or cleaning up fall leaves might be the extent that I would trust or expect a tenant to complete. Shoddy tree trimming work from a tenant could leave you with an ugly tree for years or potentially kill it depending on the age.  

@Roy Nash I stopped using CL a couple of years ago. I found the site was not generating a lot of leads and the work involved to post and organize on the site was not worth it. I’ve been using Zillow, Zumper, and Apartments.com for years and these are the three I use today. One of them will actually post to FB Marketplace automatically for you.

I use the emails generated from each site to communicate with perspectives instead of jumping into each platform.

@Robert Kough I believe at least one other person mentioned it, but I would definitely reach out to your water provider. I work with numerous utility companies in my day job and most have a reimbursement policy around leaks. You usually just have to submit a receipt or invoice for repairs, and most, if not all, of the of the overage cost will be provide back as a billing credit. You might have to work with or through your tenant if they “own” the water account. They should at least comp you for any sewer expenses as that overage water never technically made it into the sewer. Good luck!

Hey Ray, a couple of things to look into:

1.) Check for water leaks like running toilets, dripping tub and sink faucets, as well as pipe leaks in crawl spaces and basements (areas you wouldn't normally look on a day to day basis). It's amazing how much water can be consumed by a running toilet that a tenant never cares to elevate to you (as they're not paying for it). 

2.) If you can't find anything call your water department and ask for a re-read of your meter. It's totally possible that the meter was misread and they are charging on a high usage volume. 

3.) If all else fails you may have to have a plumber inspect the property. Depending if there are individual shut-offs to the apartments he/she may be able to isolate a water leak. It's also possible that there is a leak in the service line underground between the meter and the building.

Hope you figure it out!

I put white quartz in my personal residence. I quoted Cardinal Kitchens and then Cardinal Kitchens via Lowe's and the price through Lowe's was actually a little lower. Additionally, Lowe's allowed me to use their 10% moving coupon on the purchase and I saved another +$200. They did mess up the slab twice which was frustrating, but they ended up upgrading us to a seamless piece of quartz (a $700 upgrade I believe) for the trouble. Worth it in the long run. 

Just started an Authentisign 30-day trial after testing out DocuSign. Off the bat, DocuSign seems cleaner and more intuitive, but it's decently more expensive. Only around $60/year for Authentisign. I think once I go through a few more signings I'll be fine with using the Authentisign program. I might have to try out a few of the other ones mentioned through.