@Greg O'BrienAs a business owner I can expense an allowed amount each year of furnishings, office equipment, tools, machinery,equipment.Of course, I know the cost of the furnishings since I purchased them.

And as noted, even if you supply the labor, which is a big savings, there is still cost to rent equipment, new PVC, tie-ins fees, permit fees, etc.  

Los Angeles is almost identical to San Francisco in their eviction laws.

Their current building is not renewing leases for whatever reason and so now my client who just gained citizenship last year and his wife, a victim of identity fraud, are in the market competing for a new lease.One thing I've noticed is that landlords want 700+ credit scores or else it's a futile effort submitting applications.In the perfect world for a landlord, when they put their property on the market, they may get 10 people to submit applications, and likely out of those there will be at least one who checks all of the boxes - great!

It does create a small hum but nothing major to replace equipment. 

If you consider using standard equipment and including the cost into the rent, you have the potential to lose control...and lose money.

They are paying $1,450/mo (3 year lease) while I rented out an identical place on the same street for $2,000/mo last august.

Plumber installs a new toilet but failed to snake the drain with his equipment.  

.#5- A decent hand held infra-red thermal imager, to simplify following leaks and checking for hotspots in electrical panels and equipment.

Aloha,On one hand, getting 14 years out of any appliance is unusual these days, I would recommend to my Client to simply replace it.On the other hand, it COULD be something simple, like the power cord chewed through or getting pulled loose from its terminals (not the plug end, the connection at the equipment).