Just Renovated. Prospects freq ask if pre-wired for wifi & cable
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@Jon S. I get asked about WiFi on some of my units. I do see more and more apartments being offered with free WiFi, as one account provides the WiFi for the entire building. That is likely what your perspective tenants are asking about.
As for Cable, the installers now charge for anything but a basic connection to the house. I always pre-wire my houses for cable. Otherwise you never know what some donkey cable installer will do, like drilling a million holes or running all kinds of wires everywhere.
I can't see either as being a deal killer, but I guess it depends on the class of tenants. My guess your new tenants could be looking at $100-150 cost from the installer to run all the wiring for cable. Not sure about the WiFi.
21 Replies
- Real Estate Agent · Nashville, TN · Member since 2015 · 2k+ posts · 2k+ votes10y
I'm not sure but I think what they are asking is if the building itself has the wiring needed for wifi. All the vendors use the same wires in the structure, but with different equipment/signals. I could be wrong because the only provider in my area is comcast and I don't have another choice.
- Real Estate Agent · Washington, D.C. · Member since 2012 · 17k+ posts · 30k+ votes10y
What is the market telling you? If prospective buyers are asking...is it because they are seeing in other flips that they are prewiring for these things? (Also hard do you prewire wifi? Its wireless). Do a little digging and see what other flippers are doing.
District Invest Group545 Reviews @Jon S. I get asked about WiFi on some of my units. I do see more and more apartments being offered with free WiFi, as one account provides the WiFi for the entire building. That is likely what your perspective tenants are asking about.
As for Cable, the installers now charge for anything but a basic connection to the house. I always pre-wire my houses for cable. Otherwise you never know what some donkey cable installer will do, like drilling a million holes or running all kinds of wires everywhere.
I can't see either as being a deal killer, but I guess it depends on the class of tenants. My guess your new tenants could be looking at $100-150 cost from the installer to run all the wiring for cable. Not sure about the WiFi.
Who does your pre-wiring for cable? What do they charge you to pre-wire? Thanks
- Software Developer · Vidor, TX · Member since 2015 · 922 posts · 639 votes10y
Most places have a cable outlet. And if you have a cable outlet, you can have a cable modem which you can connect to a wireless router. Also most places have phone jacks for dsl and etc. Maybe they were talking about ethernet ports which is too fancy for a rental? We did put a wall outlet in our newest rental by the bar in the kitchen that has an electrical socket and two usb charging ports for phones and the like, pretty neat.
@Mike Wood donkey cable installer, haha.
@Jon S. I personally do my own Cable and Cat5 wiring, again if you cant tell, I dont think the cable installers know what they are doing. Around me they are lazy and dumb. I actually use a central distribution panel in the house and run all the cable and Cat5 wiring to it, then pull cable and Cat 5 from that panel to an outside connection box.
On my new construction duplexes it costs me less $500 total, and takes me less than 8hrs to rough in and terminate.
For what is worth, nowadays between 25-50% of my tenants never connect Cable or Satellite TV. The younger tenants only watch TV over the internet. To me it seems so strange, but that is how they like to watch stuff.
@Justin Fox Do I have stories about installers.... They are so lazy around me.
I like the idea of the USB charging port, just have not put them in my rentals. I have them in my own house, but completely forgot about it in my new rentals. Next time I will. Great idea.
- Software Developer · Vidor, TX · Member since 2015 · 922 posts · 639 votes10y
Yeah my wife had the idea, I didn't even know they existed.
On my new construction rental I decided against a 'Smart Box'. When you say distribution panel, do you mean a switch? Where do you typically put it? What does the Cat5 connect to in the outside box?
Yeah I was thinking about doing the cable/phone drops myself, but the electrician only charged me a flat fee for the square footage which isn't normal. So I decided to let him do it.
@Justin Fox I use Leviton Structure Media Enclosures. They are cheap and easy to rough in. In my last house I only pulled Coax and Cat5 to each outlet (phone lines are dying). This allows each wire to have a dedicated run from the panel to the outlet (no buried cable splitters). I also include outlets everywhere I think someone might put a TV, so I dont have to worry about a cable installer messing up my walls/floors.
For me, I get a better layout for the same cost as if I paid someone. On my last house, the electrician wanted $500 to wire for cable only, I spent less on the materials to get what I wanted.
New Renovation just completed. The property was empty and dilapidated. There were no salvageable pre-existing cable jacks, phone jacks, etc. So this is from scratch, just to provide basic services. College students will be the primary tenants, so I'm guessing wifi is the essential. I doubt any of them would buy landlines. However, Verizon Fios requires that you have a phone jack installed.
I called Verizon FIOS, they said that new account activation fee is $80 when you order new service, and that includes coming out and installing a phone jack so that they can provide FIOS. They said that even if I pay to have Verizon come out and pre-wire the place for FIOS, they will still charge each tenant the same $80 installation fee. Yes, this is more evidence that we need more competition in the internet businesses but instead they are all merging and doing outrageous pricing. So if it's not going to save tenants any money, then there is no reason for me to prewire for FIOS. Thoughts? Am I seeing the whole picture?
- Software Developer · Vidor, TX · Member since 2015 · 922 posts · 639 votes10y
At this point I would just let the tenant schedule installation and let the company run the cables necessary. Your tenant will have to pay an activation fee regardless if the line is there or not. So really your units are going to be wired for future use, for free.
Originally posted by @Mike Wood:
@Justin Fox I use Leviton Structure Media Enclosures. They are cheap and easy to rough in. In my last house I only pulled Coax and Cat5 to each outlet (phone lines are dying). This allows each wire to have a dedicated run from the panel to the outlet (no buried cable splitters). I also include outlets everywhere I think someone might put a TV, so I dont have to worry about a cable installer messing up my walls/floors.
For me, I get a better layout for the same cost as if I paid someone. On my last house, the electrician wanted $500 to wire for cable only, I spent less on the materials to get what I wanted.
This sounds like a good plan for my next renovation. Leviton Structure Media Enclosures. What do you include inside? Do you put one in every room? http://www.leviton.com/OA_HTML/SectionDisplay.jsp?...
I've worked in network for decades and there's lots of issues here.
For the owner, you could provide a subscription service for each tenant & deny all other access, BUT
if all tenants connect to your modem or router, you create a security risk for everyone.
Pre-wiring would require a setup like:
- ISP==modem--router--- to units and this generates access from one unit to the other.
for a more secure layout you need an extra router for each unit and someone to set a unique address for each router - - and this isolates each unit from the others.
In either case, notice there's only one ISP so everyone has the same level of service and you'll need a big bandwidth to support multiple units. One guy wants Nascar, other the sportsnet - - it just gets messy
On my 6-units, I let the tenants create the ISP account and they subscribe to whatever lights their fire - - also totally isolated so there's no security risk.
One pre-wired option is an Internet closet for the ISP, modem + router and run the internet & tv inputs to wall jacks in each room - - that's the professional technique.
But to you, can you sacrifice a portion of a closet and is that big enough to hold the three boxes?
- Rental Property Investor · Rockford, IL · Member since 2014 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes10y
I'd be interested in knowing more about Verizon FIOS: Fibre to the customer premises.
I'm sure there's some kind of medium conversion at the demarc from fiber to POTS / Cat-3, not sure about from the demarc to TV/media or to internet.
We don't have that service here, but I'd still like to know more about it - I'm kind of a tech geek.
David J Dachtera
"Success is not a destination. Failure is not an event. Success is a process, failure is a choice."
- DJ Benedict @Jon S. Just one enclosure per apartment/unit. I typically just leave the Coax cables with end terminals inside the enclosure (the cable guys always use a different splitter than I supply) and I punch down the Cat 5 on a distribution panel, so the tenant can use a router of their choosing. Not thing super fancy, pretty basic. I do make sure I have an outlet near by so they can plug in their modems, routers, etc.
Originally posted by @Jeff B.:
I've worked in network for decades and there's lots of issues here.
For the owner, you could provide a subscription service for each tenant & deny all other access, BUT
if all tenants connect to your modem or router, you create a security risk for everyone.
Pre-wiring would require a setup like:
- ISP==modem--router--- to units and this generates access from one unit to the other.
for a more secure layout you need an extra router for each unit and someone to set a unique address for each router - - and this isolates each unit from the others.
In either case, notice there's only one ISP so everyone has the same level of service and you'll need a big bandwidth to support multiple units. One guy wants Nascar, other the sportsnet - - it just gets messy
On my 6-units, I let the tenants create the ISP account and they subscribe to whatever lights their fire - - also totally isolated so there's no security risk.
One pre-wired option is an Internet closet for the ISP, modem + router and run the internet & tv inputs to wall jacks in each room - - that's the professional technique.
But to you, can you sacrifice a portion of a closet and is that big enough to hold the three boxes?
I might have an adequate closet space, but then it would be in one unit, and there are 3 units to provide for. I'd hate for neighbors to be knocking on the neighbors door at 3am asking them to reboot the internet modems. I can just see that happening too! lol I don't think I want to be the 3rd party for internet service. People get very anxious about their internet not working, especially at 3am. I'd rather they subscribe individually to the internet provider. :)
Originally posted by @Mike Wood:
@Jon S. Just one enclosure per apartment/unit. I typically just leave the Coax cables with end terminals inside the enclosure (the cable guys always use a different splitter than I supply) and I punch down the Cat 5 on a distribution panel, so the tenant can use a router of their choosing. Not thing super fancy, pretty basic. I do make sure I have an outlet near by so they can plug in their modems, routers, etc.
Thank you. The lingo is still a little over my head, but I will catch on, I'll do some inquiring on this the next house I renovate. I'm wondering, is this something you have to do when you are in renovation mode, or can these be added after everything is done? Thank you Mike
Originally posted by @David Dachtera:
I'd be interested in knowing more about Verizon FIOS: Fibre to the customer premises.
I'm sure there's some kind of medium conversion at the demarc from fiber to POTS / Cat-3, not sure about from the demarc to TV/media or to internet.
We don't have that service here, but I'd still like to know more about it - I'm kind of a tech geek.
David J Dachtera
"Success is not a destination. Failure is not an event. Success is a process, failure is a choice."
- DJ BenedictI'll follow up on this thread once I figure out how this all works David. :)
Originally posted by @Jon S.:
Originally posted by @Jeff B.:
I've worked in network for decades and there's lots of issues here.
For the owner, you could provide a subscription service for each tenant & deny all other access, BUT
if all tenants connect to your modem or router, you create a security risk for everyone.
Pre-wiring would require a setup like:
- ISP==modem--router--- to units and this generates access from one unit to the other.
for a more secure layout you need an extra router for each unit and someone to set a unique address for each router - - and this isolates each unit from the others.
In either case, notice there's only one ISP so everyone has the same level of service and you'll need a big bandwidth to support multiple units. One guy wants Nascar, other the sportsnet - - it just gets messy
On my 6-units, I let the tenants create the ISP account and they subscribe to whatever lights their fire - - also totally isolated so there's no security risk.
One pre-wired option is an Internet closet for the ISP, modem + router and run the internet & tv inputs to wall jacks in each room - - that's the professional technique.
But to you, can you sacrifice a portion of a closet and is that big enough to hold the three boxes?
I might have an adequate closet space, but then it would be in one unit, and there are 3 units to provide for. I'd hate for neighbors to be knocking on the neighbors door at 3am asking them to reboot the internet modems. I can just see that happening too! lol I don't think I want to be the 3rd party for internet service. People get very anxious about their internet not working, especially at 3am. I'd rather they subscribe individually to the internet provider. :)
GOOD CHOICE :)
Originally posted by @David Dachtera:
I'd be interested in knowing more about Verizon FIOS: Fibre to the customer premises.
I'm sure there's some kind of medium conversion at the demarc from fiber to POTS / Cat-3, not sure about from the demarc to TV/media or to internet.
ALL THE MAGIC occurs in the thing known as the Modem - - A conjunction for MODulator - dEModulator. One technology comes & goes on one side while another technology goes and comes on the other. (btw: analog speakers, and record platters are modems too). For home networking the common Ethernet-RJ45 is connected to a Router, switch or directly to a PC.
The other side going to the ISP is {DSL, Fiber, Cable, Satellite or even dial-up}
TV inputs are either PAL or NTSC
The new HDMI is digital (our PCs, CDs) to NTSC
- Rental Property Investor · Rockford, IL · Member since 2014 · 4k+ posts · 2k+ votes10y
Got it - been using that technology for 38 years. Have broadband here via coax cable from Cramcost(Comcast). Split out to the TVs (cable boxes, actually) and the modem. Then from the modem to the firewall/router and in-house Cat-5 including Vonage for the LLC phone.
Just want some insight into how Verizon provides services via FiOS.
David J Dachtera
"Success is not a destination. Failure is not an event. Success is a process, failure is a choice."
- DJ Benedict
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