Regarding home owners that are current on their mortgages, I don't know if I agree that the resulting mortgage payment savings will result in a dollar for dollar increase in consumption.

We're in Portland, Oregon and very few cases can you hit the 1% "rule", and if you do you have to be creative.I wanted to share a win today that has been in the making for the past 10 months because I think it is a good example of what a low cap environment looks like and what a solid base hit looks like for those that want to invest in small multifamily deals.Here are the details on the property:9-units in an up-and-coming neighborhood Purchase price: $1,550,000Cap rate: 4.5%Average rent was ~$995 and Owner was paying for garbage and water/sewerWhen we took over we immediately had a couple units turn over, which was great because we wanted to get in there to do some upgrades (we do a lot on the sustainability side that include reducing hazardous building materials, energy efficiency upgrades, bike storage, decreasing utility consumption, etc).

This ordinance is coming out because we have some slum lords who have property which have utility consumption that should be for homes twice the size of the property.If anyone knows of a city with a similar ordinance please share.

America is aging, and as a result we are experiencing a decline in the number of workers that provide tax revenues and, more importantly, consumption.

I guess this is just been wonderful from 08 through 11.Let me just point out a couple of things about Greece Italy and the United States for your consumption.

On an average our water consumption is about 3000 gallons a month.

@Bradley Bogdan Thank you. good adviceGrowing here for personal consumption and distribution as a caregiver is legal within the state and the rules are so complicated and ever-changing that not even the government here can keep up with the rule changes.

And if you're paying retail prices, you're likely leaving a good bit of money on the table (if there's any money on the table at all :-).In Atlanta, I imagine most investors are building at well below half of RS Means pricing...It sounds like you are reporting RS means is for consumption by the general public and includes a mark-up from wholesale to retail pricing.

Things like the smart vents from Keen Home (http://www.keenhome.io/smart-vent), predictive analytics applied to energy consumption in commercial buildings, etc.

Texas should replace the property tax system with an appropriate consumption tax equivalent.