How Do You Keep Your Utilities Down ?

Question

How do you guys keep your utilities cost down ?
Do you just write in the lease agreement tenant to keep AC unit at a certain temperature ?
Do you use solar panels ?
Smart electronics like NEST etc?
I am trying to find out how to keep my tenants from running up the electricity and water bill

Tanya F. · Answer

insulation.

John Underwood · Answer

I don't pay the tenants utilities, they do.

I don't by properties that aren't properly individually metered.

Patrick M. · Answer

@Francisco Milan I don't understand your second post. Either you are making a good profit and therefore covering utilities or not.

Electric runs with the tenant- absolutely no reason they should not switch it over it is a 5 minute, at most, phone call. They are paying above market and you are going to tell them what to set the freezer at and when to shut off the TV? "What do you mean your computer is running on standby!!!"

That is not above market living.

As @Tanya F. said - insulate. Saved us a FORTUNE.

2. Landlordstat thermostats... HUGE savings by regulating the temp on an auto basis... I cannot say enough good things about this, tenants can adjust up to 71 and it auto resets. They do have ones that regulate AC, but since my tenants pay there own electric- I don't bother.

3. For me - water pressure reducer at the main line. Again, massive. When we fist took over if you put on a kitchen faucet it would kick back. We added that and it was 100% perfect and it saves the life of the pipes.

4. Have good water heaters and drain annually. Consider adding a recirculating pump- so they aren't running the water waiting for it to get hot.

5. Toilets are capable of using much less water now- consider installing a new one. Get a nice personal shower head that conserves water- the ones today are awesome and a personal shower head allows for a much quicker rinse compared to a stationary one.

Gail K. · Answer

Since you're making bigger bucks than renting to non-contracted tenants you might not mind that they waste energy.  But if you do then include the estimated cost of monthly utilities into your rent that these companies are paying.

You can write that tenants should keep the AC at a certain level but there's no guarantee any of them will do this.  Same with heat; there are many stories of landlords who go by their rentals in the middle of winter and find the heat jacked up to searing levels, tenants walking around in shorts and half the windows in the place open.

Francisco Milan · Answer

I understand you guys say dont pay utilites but there is blue collar workers out there that get contracted out of state and their companies pay for their stay therefore they dont mind paying above rent market value. This is even worth more than doing AIRBNB less turnaround and higher profits.

Scott M. · Answer

Well, don't pay utilities.  That is the best way I have found.  Insulation, more efficient equipment, upgraded windows, nothing cheap will have a major impact.  Low flow this or that just causes people to run it longer, LED's are cheap but again, penny's.  And yes they do add up.  But next time push utilities onto the tenant.

Andrew Freed · Answer

@Francisco Milan - The only utilities I pay for is water (and common electricity) since I own old multi-families and its hard to separately meter it. In regards to water mitigation, you can install water efficient toilets and water efficient shower heads. In my state, they offer a free energy assessment (its called massave) and they give free energy efficient light bulbs, surge protectors, showerheads etc. They even insulated my building for free ($25K worth of work). Maybe you have something like that in your state. Definitely worth exploring.

Lastly, if you see your water bill jump suddenly, you most likely have a toilet leak (this is the issue 98% of the time). I've had a toilet leak in one of my multi's and it increased my water bill 3X. It's a super cheap fix so if you suspect any toilets leaking, get it fixed ASAP.

How Do You Keep Your Utilities Down ?

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