All Forum Posts by: Michael L.

I took a look at what other property owners are paying for water and decided to pull the trigger on getting meters installed.  The city offers a 7 year rate guarantee:

https://www.metersave.org/

Alex and his team are on it to get the ball rolling.

Happy New Year BPers!

I'm back from a long vacation and have a few updates on my properties.  Long story short, both my properties are "non-metered" for water and I pay a flat amount.  Last month I received a $1600 bill for one of my properties.  I've been trying to contact the PM to look into why this was so high, but I haven't gotten a clear answer yet.

I suspect this is the payment for the entire year, but that's still quite high at ~$130/mo.  I've done some research on metered vs. non-metered in Cook County and it seems like a good idea to go the metered route.  It's a free service from the city and they also provide a rate guarantee for a few year.  I'm looking into what needs to be done to get a metered installed at both properties.  Will provide updates on this later.

I have a tenant in each property that is habitually late on their portion.  One of the tenants continues to pay in smaller chunks, but is eventually paying in full.  I just saw an update in the management portal for the other tenant, that they would be submitting the payment (with late fees) within 2 weeks.  I'm not too worried about it as this has been the story for a while with these two particular tenants.  Also, I understand it's the holidays money can be tight with all potential money leaks (gifts, car repairs, heating bills, etc.).

Has anyone had experience with switching over the metered water in Cook County?

Hey Joe, 

I'll have to look into this further.  It may be because the CHA inspector had to re-inspect once the repairs/paint were completed.  I haven't had a chance to find out whether this will be a guaranteed annual expense or not.  To answer your first question though, the fee does not seem to include any repair cost.

Alex (Owner) did reach out and explained that CHA inspectors vary and this one was especially particular.  Also, there was a child residing in one of the units and they're more keen on peeling paint.  Elite had to do whatever was brought up by CHA otherwise the property risks going into abatement.  Alex did mention that this repair extent is not typical.

It'd be good get input from other "EliteInvest-ors" to see if the CHA inspection is a regular annual expense or not and to see what their 1 year or greater experience has been.  I talk regularly with another investor (not on BP), but his tenants are month2month (>1year) and he has not incurred the CHA fee.

 Waaaahhh!

So apparently Unit #1 on my first duplex failed a CHA inspection (they re-inspect yearly) last month.   I did not receive any communication from the PM that this occurred.  I had to find out after I was billed $700 for 'Painting'.  I asked what this charge was about and was told about the failed inspection.  They sent along the inspection report which shows all the failed items, most for 'Deteriorated Paint'.  Moving forward, PM told me they would inform me about these occurrences.

November is turning out to be a costly month for Duplex_1.  I'll definitely be in the red.  The small bright side is that both tenants seem to be staying put.  If anything changes I'll let you all know.

Here are all the expenses from Duplex_1 this month:

@Beatrice Borges

Mine are both in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood.

Best of luck on your duplex!  Let us know how it goes.

 About $30-40 per unit (per month).

Quick update on the numbers on duplex #2, since it's been a while.  The actual rent on this duplex came in at $2101 for both units.  $99 short of the estimate.  A little disappointing, but when dealing with Section8 (CHA), you are at their mercy.  Duplex #1 is coming up for renewal/expiring lease soon, so I hoping for some good news there. 

Will keep everyone posted when that happens.

 I guess the maintenance person did not log the work done and was away for a couple of days.  The window that was broken was not going into the interior.  It was a rear window for the back porch.  All the duplexes have these, many are open, mine happens to be enclosed, thus the window(s).  The maintenance person "...eliminated the window because it is a ground floor window that is easily accessible by just climbing through it without a ladder.   It was safer for them to block it off completely to avoid another incident."

This is a pic I found that shows the different types of 'rears' found in Chicago.

After logging in to the Management Portal saw this message:

Posted to [removed name]. Posted by [removed name] on Thu, September 10, 2015 at 01:34:02 PM

tenant called from number on file to inform her unit was broken into, will address it to Mgr to get this resolved.

And then this Work Order created:

Job Description

-Broken back Window (break-IN)

Notes

Posted by [removed name] on Thu, September 10, 2015 at 04:21:39 PM Attempted to call 4 times, text, rang bell, knocked. Tenant not home. Will have to go tomorrow 

Will keep you posted.  Hopefully everything's okay.  I'm glad it appears the PM is attempting to handle this ASAP.  Again, I have to say the PM portal is flawed since I had to log in to find this out.

Hi @Joe Chin,

Here are the details of my insurance:

Coverage: $170,000 Dwelling (covers fire and other perils), $10,000 Garage, $17,000 in Rent Loss, $2,500 Deductible

I forgot to mention that I have a GL policy for both duplexes that has a $256 /yr premium.  So, I should have added half ($128 /yr) that to my numbers above.  Sorry for the confusion.