(My guess is the age of the equipment/lines, connections.)I have learned that if it's going to fail it will always be the most inconvenient time, under the most inclement weather conditions & you are usually away on vacation.Another reason I take the hit & switch out old furnaces, HW tanks & upgrade elect panels.good luck...

I know a real estate developer and a Vice President of a Property Management company so I think I have a pretty good head start with people who can help me with the tons of things I don't know.Anyway that's me, I look forward to learning from the collective wisdom of the BP Community

My actual rentals will sit in a separate LLC that will elect as a partnership.

If the tenant elects this option, we execute a separate agreement as a Schedule to the lease which establishes a monthly utilities prepayment to be made by the tenant.

Either way, the creation of an LLC will not stop you from electing to be taxed as an s corp.In PA this will allow you to offset personal income with business expenses.

That was my biggest concern because I knew I was going to redo electical and plumbing.I just did a vacant house that was really in bad shape.

While I was reading your original post yesterday, I received an e-mail from a group of four graduate students who asked to be put on a waiting list for either of these properties in the event the incumbent tenants elect not to renew when their lease comes due in August 2014.I sent the ring leader of the group a copy of our application form and two have already responded with completed applications.

Not having a lease renewal to push for a big increase, we elected to gradually bring the tenant to market rent ... in hind sight, I would do the same even if we had a lease renewal.

If for any reason your S election becomes terminated you are looking at SERIOUS consequences for the RE.

would that require a French version to comply with the Canadian import requirements & Spanish to comply with CA TX etc etc :) Nous pourrions enseigner @J Scott à parler français ... he couldn't do any worse than President Obama when he visited :-) [Josh: Apparently I've found another internationalization challenge for BP :-) ]