All Forum Posts by: David Fairall

@Brian Sparr Thanks, Brian. That's a really good way to break it up. I had someone else suggest that I work on inside things first because it will be less intrusive to work on outside things if I have a tenant upstairs--which is true. But you also make a good point, I should probably prioritize the health/safety items. In my case that's the GFIs and the windows. Thanks again for your input. 

@John Teachout Thanks, John. That’s some really helpful advice. I think I can definitely organize these things based off of your recommendations.

@Andrew Dean Thanks, Andrew. I’m actually a little surprised with myself that I made the plunge and bought a property. Especially now that I’ve been in it a year and have learned that I knew less about real estate than I realized. Haha.

How do you prioritize what gets updates/repairs for your rentals? Because there is a lot that could be done in mine (whether it should be is kind of the reason I'm asking), I feel a little hesitant to take action because I would hate to use my limited resources to do an update or repair when the money could have been better spent else where--like buying another property. I'll give you a rundown of my current situation to give you some more insight. 

We are owner occupying an older single family home that has been converted to a legal duplex with a basement apartment. Basement is currently rented. The tenant rent covers 60% of the mortgage so we aren't cash flowing right now. Any repairs or updates are coming directly out of our savings. I feel like we have enough to make a decent dent in some of these things I'll list below but not really sure how to proceed. 

-Replace 3 and possibly up to 6 windows upstairs. A couple we don't open because we may not be able to close them again. Haha

-Replace the frame around a couple of the basement windows as the bottom plate is in bad shape

-New gutters that will fit with a gutter filter system to keep out leaves and pine needles. My current gutters are plastic and won't fit anything on the market right now. Or cut down a couple of the trees causing the problem. This was my first "welcome to land-lording" experience. A month after moving in we had a storm that dumped a lot of water really quickly and I had no idea that my gutters were clogged. The water over flowed the gutters and poured right down into the basement window well. That was nearly a $1,000 surprise and that was with me doing the work myself. 

-Install a sprinkler timer and update the sprinkler heads. Some still seem to work just fine but they are the old metal pop up style and I'll have to repair about half of them anyway so I should probably just do them all at once. Currently it is a manual system so installing a timer makes it easy on the future tenants.

-Related to the sprinklers, there are some dirt/dead spots on the lawn and the lawn itself isn't level. 

-We've painted one bedroom but the other two need it as well along with most of the house. The people that owned the place over the years channeled their inner Bob Ross and tried to use the full color palette. There are 13 different colors between both units!

-Our biggest after closing expense has been updating the electrical system. Our unit could still use some minor electrical updates. Mainly GFI outlets.

-Replace the garage door. The property has two unattached garages. A 2 door and a single car. Ours is the 2 door. It's manual which I don't mind but it's wood and is splintering in places and catching on the frame of the garage at times when you close it. Also, a panel or two has been kicked out before and they are just kind of nailed back into place but could easily be kicked out again. Additionally, you can't lock the garage so it wouldn't be very secure if you were planning on using it for storage which a tenant is likely to do. 

-Last but not least, a kitchen remodel. Or at least replacing the cabinets. I've heard that a remodel can increase the value of the property and allow you to justify higher rents. In our case, the cabinets are very old. Not sure if they are original but the fact that they are pink on the inside tells me all I need to know. Some of the cabinets don't close all the way because they show some signs of warping and the latching mechanisms are junk.

As I look back at the list I know that some of these absolutely need to get done due to safety/security issues or to help protect the property against damage. But as I mentioned, my struggle is deciding what takes priority and to what extent should I fix things. For example, the sprinklers. Half of the sprinkler heads still work but they are old. If I have to replace a few of them anyway should I just replace all of them at the same time or save some money and just get what is necessary?

If anyone wants to chime in on a specific repair I listed that's great and would definitely be welcome. However, I'm also hoping to hear any rules of thumb or principles you use to determine what you fix or update and why? I'd appreciate any input you have.

I'm not sure where the most relevant place is to post this so I thought I'd start here in the Utah Q&A with some locals. If anyone has a recommendation of a more appropriate place for this let me know. Thanks!

How do you prioritize what gets updates/repairs for your rentals? Because there is a lot that could be done in mine (whether it should be is kind of the reason I'm asking), I feel a little hesitant to take action because I would hate to use my limited resources to do an update or repair when the money could have been better spent else where--like buying another property.  I'll give you a rundown of my current situation to give you some more insight. 

We are owner occupying an older single family home that has been converted to a legal duplex with a basement apartment. Basement is currently rented. The tenant rent covers 60% of the mortgage so we aren't cash flowing right now. Any repairs or updates are coming directly out of our savings. I feel like we have enough to make a decent dent in some of these things I'll list below but not really sure how to proceed. 

-Replace 3 and possibly up to 6 windows upstairs. A couple we don't open because we may not be able to close them again. Haha

-Replace the frame around a couple of the basement windows as the bottom plate is in bad shape

-New gutters that will fit with a gutter filter system to keep out leaves and pine needles. My current gutters are plastic and won't fit anything on the market right now. Or cut down a couple of the trees causing the problem. This was my first "welcome to land-lording" experience. A month after moving in we had a storm that dumped a lot of water really quickly and I had no idea that my gutters were clogged. The water over flowed the gutters and poured right down into the basement window well. That was nearly a $1,000 surprise and that was with me doing the work myself. 

-Install a sprinkler timer and update the sprinkler heads. Some still seem to work just fine but they are the old metal pop up style and I'll have to repair about half of them anyway so I should probably just do them all at once. Currently it is a manual system so installing a timer makes it easy on the future tenants.

-Related to the sprinklers, there are some dirt/dead spots on the lawn and the lawn itself isn't level. 

-We've painted one bedroom but the other two need it as well along with most of the house. The people that owned the place over the years channeled their inner Bob Ross and tried to use the full color palette. There are 13 different colors between both units!

-Our biggest after closing expense has been updating the electrical system. Our unit could still use some minor electrical updates. Mainly GFI outlets.

-Replace the garage door. The property has two unattached garages. A 2 door and a single car. Ours is the 2 door. It's manual which I don't mind but it's wood and is splintering in places and catching on the frame of the garage at times when you close it. Also, a panel or two has been kicked out before and they are just kind of nailed back into place but could easily be kicked out again. Additionally, you can't lock the garage so it wouldn't be very secure if you were planning on using it for storage which a tenant is likely to do. 

-Last but not least, a kitchen remodel. Or at least replacing the cabinets. I've heard that a remodel can increase the value of the property and allow you to justify higher rents. In our case, the cabinets are very old. Not sure if they are original but the fact that they are pink on the inside tells me all I need to know. Some of the cabinets don't close all the way because they show some signs of warping and the latching mechanisms are junk.

As I look back at the list I know that some of these absolutely need to get done due to safety/security issues or to help protect the property against damage. But as I mentioned, my struggle is deciding what takes priority and to what extent should I fix things. For example, the sprinklers. Half of the sprinkler heads still work but they are old. If I have to replace a few of them anyway should I just replace all of them at the same time or save some money and just get what is necessary?

If anyone wants to chime in on a specific repair I listed that's great and would definitely be welcome. However, I'm also hoping to hear any rules of thumb or principles you use to determine what you fix or update and why? I'd appreciate any input you have.

@Steven Davis Thanks, Steven. I kind of can't believe how fast the first year flew by.

@Aaron Belt Thanks, Aaron. 

@Jaiden Olsen Thanks for sharing! This is great. I'll check these out for sure. I'll keep an eye out for you.

@Kenya Arnett Thanks! I know what you mean about just getting started. I usually analyze things to death and I surprised myself at how quickly I decided to move once we had an opportunity to buy our place (it was the first and only place we looked at!). But home prices aren't getting any cheaper around here and I think we've definitely benefited from getting out of our comfort zone and buying when we did.

How we ended up getting connected to the right people was one of those right place right time moments. We were renting an apartment a block and a half from the Capitol. We had been there for 7 years. Not sure if you've ever been up there in the spring but the blossoms on the trees are in full bloom and it's really pretty and becomes a really popular spot for photo ops. We drove by it all the time but we never in all our time there went to go see them. It was a Sunday and my wife said I feel like we should go for a walk and go see those blossoms for once. I just like to lay around on Sunday and didn't feel like it but we got the kids ready and went. If you're not familiar, there is a walking path around the perimeter of the building that is lined with these blossoming trees so we were going to do a lap around and then come home. When we got to the front of the building there are these large stone benches and things that are definitely not meant for climbing on but kids see what they want, right? And they saw a jungle gym. So instead of getting back on the path they decide to dart off and start climbing on these things. As I was trying to corral my kids back on this walking path, I see an old acquaintance from college walking up the Capitol steps with his family. We lived in the same apartment complex and crossed paths but didn't really know each other that well. I haven't seen this guy for 8 or 9 years but it was fun seeing an old familiar face so we started catching up while we both ended up letting our kids run around. As we were trading stories he tells me he's building a house and I tell him about how we want to buy a rental but finding the right lender was a challenge. That's when he tells me about the guy he is using and that he helped his buddy close on a rental in the Avenues with a smaller down payment percentage than I thought possible for an investment property. So I got his lender's info who then connected me with the agent we used and we got it done. That never would have happened if I hadn't gone. It wouldn't have happened if my kids weren't doing what kids do. I nearly got them back on the walking path when my friend came walking up those stairs and I nearly missed him. Perhaps that's not a super cool story but, man, it sure was to us. 

One thing I did learn from that experience though was open your mouth. Don't be afraid to talk to people about your goals. If I hadn't said anything about wanting to buy a rental property I never would have gotten that contact from my friend. Sometimes it can be hard to talk about wanting to pursue something like this because maybe you've got impostor syndrome and feel like a poser because you don't know a lot or you don't own multiple properties or even one for that matter. After having this experience, I try to find some way to mention to people that I'm interested in real estate (without being obnoxious) because you never know what it will yield.

@Amy Kendall Thanks, Amy. I’d love to attend some meetups. I did look for some on here but couldn’t find any. At least not in Salt Lake. Maybe I’ve been looking in the wrong place? If you hear of any could you drop me a line? I would appreciate it.

I just talked with my wife tonight about some goals. I think we still need to decide what our end goal with this is. Do we just want to have a few properties to help supplement our retirement, do we want to have enough properties to replace my income and have this be my job or do we want to swing for the fences, grow a large portfolio and then sit on the beach somewhere. Once we figure that out we can probably reverse engineer how to get there, right? If you’ve got any input on what you guys do to stay focused I’d be interested to hear it.