All Forum Posts by: Zach Schwarzmiller

I especially loved rule #1 & #2 in How to Be a Landlord: Ten Tips for Success

Yes, that I could do. I was looking for a "value add" long-term fix that would transfer owner to owner. The problem I see with choosing a fixed price is it's sort of like raising rents. You want to raise rents but your stuck in a lease and currently the price of utilities has been increasing at a rate which is higher than the rising rental rate. I'd rather hedge this problem and unknown price increase with passing along this expense to the tenants so I do not have to worry about it at all and do not have to work this into my expense pro formas. Good thought though and if I can't figure out another solution it's what I will be doing.

Great information, Thank You, Brandon. I will check out all of those items and look forward to future meetups.

Nice! Go Snohomish County!

woohoo Washington State!

Greetings,

I came across this form today. Great resource! I initially had a question regarding water meter separation which I posted in another area of these forms.

I live in Snohomish, Washington and focus on commercial brokerage (helping buyers and sellers buy and sell commercial/multifamily real estate). I am currently buying a triplex to owner-occupy and one next door as an investment. I've helped several people buy/sell/manage their rentals but never have purchased my own until now!

I am also currently working to develop some smaller apartment buildings in South Snohomish County.

I am here to learn and share.

Thank You,

Zach Schwarzmiller

I work on the brokerage end of things with multifamily units, and our equity fund has implemented RUBS programs with larger buildings they have purchased, but it seems to me it would be hard to gain the economies of scale associated with the costs of implementing a RUBS program without doing this to a 30-35+ unit building. Hmm... A tricky one indeed! I will update this form as I learn more and figure out what I am going to do.

I will be closing on a Triplex in two weeks and had a question regarding the separation of metered water. Currently the owner is paying the WSG which totals about $1,200-$1,400 every 2 months. This is a large expense for 3 units! Instead of raising rents I am going to convert tenants to paying me back for their water usage. I do not want them to pay their water separately, but for me to pay it all and have separate meters which I can then bill them their share of usage. I had a client tell me Badger Meters does this but he had never used them. Does anyone have experience with doing this and/or recommendations?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated. Thank You!