The NOT SO PRETTY moments of real estate

[Brian Ellis]

Had an eventful Sunday evening.

New England saw temperatures below 0 for a couple of days. I knew this was going to be fun for my rentals.

I sent out texts and called all my tenants to remind them that it was important to crank the heat a little higher, and leave hot and cold taps drizzling.

Here in New England we have a lot of non-insulated crawl spaces, and that can be a recipe for disaster with extremely cold weather.

So I set out for my day, and made some calls. All tenants said everything was fine, but I had this inclination just to swing by a couple spots to double check. First house, no problems. As im on my way to the second, I realize im cutting a couple appointments close on time. But I convinced myself to check anyway and let a client know I would be a couple minutes behind. I turn the corner to the bulkhead and I hear a sound. It resembled the sound of a furnace firing... except it was a burst pipe spewing out water. I go down the stairs and its an absolute disaster. About 12" of water in the basement, and a furnace that was underwater.

Keep in mind im in some nicer clothes, there is no way for me to get to the water main without getting dirty. So I took off my boots and did what I had to do. Then I carried on to my afternoon appointments, with cobwebs and dirt scattered all over me.

Luckily, my trusted HVAC guy was able to salvage the furnace with some new parts, and the water drained relatively quickly. He repaired a good amount of pipe. He came to the conclusion that the oil line got plugged and the heat shut off completely. The tenant must have taken off for a day or two.

Now my initial reaction was to be upset with the tenant, but what's done is done and the only solution was to fix the problem ASAP and move on. What could have been a $7500 problem, ended up being a $1000 problem. 

As time goes on, these things sting less and less. Because they do happen. And I am prepared for it, although I will admit I was naive when I first started out. What are some of your experiences?