And some places have hurricanes, tornadoes, hail the size of baseballs, sink holes, known foundation problems, harsh heat in the summer and severe cold in the winter - all increasing maintenance costs.

Winter came early and with force - 4' of snow before the end of December {half of which has been rained away in an uncharacteristic "tropical oasis" the past 2-weeks}.Though SFHs are typically on their own, we did send our snow removal service around to our student houses to clear the drives and, in some cases, the roofs, before the students returned from the holidays.

Do you have a clause in your lease that the tenant must maintain reasonable heat in the winter?

One of the things on that sign is not to turn the heat below 55 degrees in the winter ever.

Brutal winters yikes:)Our cash flow situations are pretty tight.

Because it is bank owned and winterized, we cannot turn on the water.

Do it for estate planning reasons and avoid the issue. :)

Your leases will be up in mid summer instead of winter (PLUS!)

Turns out she had a drainage problem.None the less we kept dropping the price because it was becoming a big headache and the winter months were coming.

We lived in Irvine for awhile, and are now in Lake Forest.