Real Estate Investor · Kirkland, WA · Member since 2011 · 15 posts · 4 votes
It sounds like in general most owners are paying water&sewer for their multi units in Las Vegas, which ends up being quite a large cash flow drain.
From reading older threads, it sounds like even if I were to submeter, if most of the other competing units are not charging for water, I would potentially have higher vacancy issues as tenants would simply go elsewhere.
I'm sure this is a common issue that other owners have thought about, does anyone have any guidance/suggestions?
Commercial Real Estate Broker · Scottsdale, AZ · Member since 2013 · 36 posts · 11 votes
13y
Technically if you submeter you could lower your rents if the tenants are paying for water so assuming your comps are similar now you'd be "lower" than other properties where they build the water costs into the rent.
Submetering is the future and IMO much more preferable than RUBS especially from the tenant side. RUBS just (no pun intended here) can often rub some people the wrong way. Submetering allows people can see a correlation on their bills when they change their habits.
Residential Landlord · Greenfield, WI · Member since 2013 · 299 posts · 126 votes
13y
I would do it in a heartbeat, we are getting killed by the water bill in our four family. I was told years ago that submetering wasn't allowed in Milwaukee...maybe I should check into it again.
Rental Property Investor · Upstate, NY · Member since 2012 · 3k+ posts · 3k+ votes
13y
On duplexes we can put in a second meter. The city charges us $283 for the meter & billing transmitter & we do the hookups.
BUT
landlord is still on the hook for any & all arrears.