All Forum Posts by: Michael Bier

My tenant wants to break lease to move to a lower rental. Should I lower the rent to keep them to the end of the lease which is one more year or let them just break and leave?

Originally posted by @Lauren H.:

Listen to Sylvia B, but don't be afraid of a sprayer. It's just paint, you can back roll over runs with a roller and if you didn't apply enough, you go over it with another coat. 

My husband and I own/remodel/self-manage a 4plex and have painted 3/4 unit interiors and replaced all the windows last summer and painted the exterior.  We went all-out and bought a commercial grade Grayco sprayer. I hate masking and my husband's eyesight isn't good enough to spray, so he masks and I spray. 

It's easiest to pick one color to use for everything and just go semi-gloss or glossy everywhere (interior). Paint the ceiling, walls and trim all one color, unless the trim has stood up well to abuse. 

Remove all fixtures that a can be removed for interior painting. Get a masking tape roller that has a sheet of contractor paper attached to do mantles and light fixtures. 

Exterior: 

Buy the highest quality paint you can afford.  Spraying will be faster than rolling, you don't want to have to cut in around every single window, door, gutter, etc. If you don't want to buy a sprayer, just rent one.

Be ready to work on a ladder. 

Make sure the hose is long enough.

Work on a hot day, pressure wash first thing in the morning and wait.

Mask it off and drop cloth, starting at a place on the house where you can afford to mess up. 

Buy 10% more paint than you think you need. 

Wear a respirator. 

Rent the sprayer for 2 days just in case.

This is great info! I painted a 1200 sq ft house inside and out and sprayed the whole thing. Using a airless sprayer is fairly easy and to make it even better have another person go behind you with a roller and that will help give the walls a better texture plus help the paint have an even coat. I pressure washed the house one day and painted to next day to make sure the house was all dry. On the inside remove everything that you can and cover the rest with plastic. I used tape to secure the plastic to tthe carpet or other flooring and placced it under the base molding so there is no worry about paint bleeding under the tape. Hope this helps. 

When I completed a remodel of my first rental property I had to redo the whole kitchen and I chose to use Ikea for everything. The cabinets took a little longer to install because you have to assemble them but if anything gets damaged I can just replace the small peice of the cabinet and not the whole thing like most pre-made ones. Plus for me it was all tax free from Portland Oregon. 

More thenlikely the popcorn will have asbestoes due to the age of the house. Howevver you can get a test online and mail it to a lab to test it and then you know for sure. It's only $20 for the test. If you want to remove it. Start with putting plastic all over the floors and walls if you want to catch the falling pieces. Spray it with water from a garden sprayer and let it sit. Then try scraping it off, if it is sttill hard to scrap then spray somme more water and let it sit longer. You should be able to scrap it off without much effort. You can wear a painters suit and 100%cheap respirator to protect yourself if you choose. However, after all of that you still need to texture the ceiling. I did this to a 1400 sq. house and it took me one weekend to scrap and one to texture. Best of luck.

Brandon, it was great! Thanks for all the info.

Thanks for the story. It hit home for me. I studied and read countless books before I bought my first rental, but now I am walking the path. I learn something every day 

Kyle, welcome to the site. I am in Kennewick and have a rental. There is a ton of info on here so enjoy.

Shane, that is a great list of suggestions. Do you just do this Annually? I have been thnking about doingquarterlr inspections/maintenance.  have you every heard of doing this quarterly or is it just overkill?  My thought is that it would get me into the house more throughout the year.

I got all of my cabinets from Ikea. There were on sale and I didn't have to pay for sales tax in Portland OR. They seem to be very build very well. It is the first time I using them so I don't know how the will hold up with renter, but all the parts are replaceable with out having to buy a whole new cabinet. 

You could try Spokeo.com. They search the internet for people by address, name, and etc. the more info the better you can track them and you should have all kinds since he rented from you. Hope this helps.