All Forum Posts by: Bill Kramer

Thanks! It will be about a month before we get to that stage, but it's always good to know what product not to use

Spend the money on "Bartop epoxy". You pour it on crazy thick, use a hairdryer to get the bubbles out. Let them try to damage that, they are going to have to willingly make an extra effort beyond anything that resembles normal use. 

It's ridiculous how durable and maintenance free it is at that point.

I will be doing that on my next remodel where we are replacing cabinetey/counters so I'll make sure to document my next rehab for you guys.

Is it legal to have the applicant list everyone that will be living in the rental on the app so you don't get my surprises?

I just fix the places, and I'm still learning the administration side before I get my first rental.

Maybe I am being silly here, but have you priced out butcher block?

Every chance I get, I sell thats an upgrade. Very cost effective and easy to install. Slop some bar epoxy on it and never look back.

If it's for a bar style or weird shape, then I suggest otherwise.

suction cup bath mats destroy the epoxy in resurfaced tubs. 

In lower income neighborhoods you don't charge for service calls, or they will stop calling them in altogether. Then when they move out, you have a toilet and bath tub full of sh.. and pee and other issues.

I would say in c class or above, give them a freebie drain snake (life happens). Anything else that's obvious tenant damage make them pay, it will rarely happen anyways in nicer rentals with better tenants.

Low income housing comes with high maintenance costs. Landlording 101

Hire slow, fire fast. And don't hire for a job you have no clue about. Educate yourself on building codes, so you can spot a hack. 

Example: your painting a freshly drywalled house. You don't know the fastest way is to spray prime it. You hire a guy, tell him to paint and he uses a 9 inch roller (should be 18 inches) and a 2 inch brush (should be 3 inches). And now he bleeds you dry on payroll hours.

Employees will bleed you dry if you aren't smart enough to keep them on track and and efficient.

Most of the worst guys out there i have hired have "been doing this 30 years...."

Oh, and be ready to spend a fortune on tools that will get abused and destroyed. $10,000 will be a good start.

We don't rip out cast stacks, we reroute the new stuff. No way is anyone trying to he man a cast iron stack. Plumber's back in the day were some brutes to manhandled that stuff.

I'm only using Mobile, so I guess I can't tag people. Phones are computers these days, and I run office on my phone as well as quickbooks, etc... but I will update my location, thought I had done that. I'm from evansville indiana.

I'm gonna try this @ thingy, see if it's works. I'm new to hash tags and whatnot, lol @Jim k. Did that work?

Anyhow, in our d and f class properties, plumbing is issue #1. Well, that and hvac.

Good points on cast vs plastic. It's $1500 down here for a licensed plumber to swap them out. So maybe that's why we do it. At that price it's a no brainer.

Lever drains start appearing in c class areas where tenants take a little better care of the place. So they do have a spot, like you said. 

In d and f we bomb proof the places. Plywood instead of drywall, etc...

Tenants do weird things to plumbing. I can personally testify 3/4" pex will hold a 30 gal water heater off the ground when tipped. Crazy I even know that, lol.

Last week I snaked a bar of soap out of a toilet. That's kids for ya.

I have been hired to handle the eviction of a girl who dated her landlord. She wouldn't leave and rode it out until the day the sherrif showed up. He rented a uhaul and had us meet the sherrif there.

To top it off she never asked anyone if they could store her stuff. We went to four peoples houses that day, each one was just as surprised as the last that we showed up, and refused to let her keep her stuff at their house. House 4 was finally a winner.

What a long dramatic day. That's life in the rental game though. landlord paid us $1500 to make her go away, lol