All Forum Posts by: Genny Li
Genny Li has started 21 posts and replied 422 times.
Post: Tenant Applicants say the dumbest things
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
Originally posted by @Pat L.:
My boyfriend & his cat maybe moving in with me as well. The cat's a 'for sure' but the bf not so much.
Soooo she's going to cat-nap the animal and hopes the BF will follow?
Post: Ceiling paint looks patchy after fix
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
Is it the PAINT or the TEXTURE? Two different solutions.
You can usually get away with spot-painting flat paint from the same can or a flat white ceiling paint. In the condo I just bought, though, the ceiling was slightly off white and the paint-overs were white, and that worked about as well as you'd think.
Post: Maximum unrelated tennants
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
Your city will have certain standards, and so will your neighborhood. The city buy in is 4. My parents' city next door is 3. My parents' NEIGHBORHOOD is 2, because the grad students were trashing the yards because they didn't water or mow regularly, and the neighborhood also needed to throw out a frat that was misbehaving.
Post: What are your steps to vetting a new contractor
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
1) Reviews but 2) examples of their work.
Post: Who is responsible for Trash Cans in Rental?
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
Usually, the owner of a property gets fined if trashcans are mismanaged. Usually, the owner of the property has language to move that fine to tenants if they are dorks and mismanage the trashcans.
Post: Wife doesn't want to increase rents
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
If she wants to donate to a charity, donate to a charity. Your property isn't a charity. It's that simple.
Post: How do you guys go about Popcorn/Asbestos Ceilings?
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
As far as removal, it's actually EASY to remove asbestos safely from a technical standpoint. You just have to keep it wet and produce no dust. From a PITB, standpoint, though, it is not so easy. It's mucky and gross, and Tyvek is hot, as I learned doing my own foam insulation.
Post: How do you guys go about Popcorn/Asbestos Ceilings?
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
Originally posted by @John Clark:
You have to disclose if it's asbestos, so your buyer when you or your heirs go to sell will demand a discount. "Encapsulated" will not be good enough. All my properties have modern systems (copper, not pex nor galvanized steel, plumbing, removed asbestos wherever located, no formaldahyde insulation, etc.) so when I drop dead my heirs will have no problem selling for top dollar.
Does it cut down on cash flow immediately? Yes. Allows me to gear rentals to people who value that sort of thing, pay more for renting it, and who are usually easier on a property to boot, so it comes out even in the long run.
Then there's disclosures to renters and forced removal anyway as cities put the screws to landlords (money trees) for tenants, and encapsulation will not be good enough. Did you know Chicago wants to mandate landlord-provided air conditioning? Might as well get ahead of the curve now and just have the asbestos professionally removed. Mark the problem "solved," not "fixed."
PEX is a top modern system when done end-run into a manifold with zero connections behind drywall. It will outlast copper in acid water systems by decades, and it has more freeze resistance than anything, plus if worse comes to worst, the copper thieves have no reason to destroy the house while the tenants are on a 2 week vacay.
Post: How do you guys go about Popcorn/Asbestos Ceilings?
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
If it's a rental, I'd never touch it. Just paint over it. It's safe UNTIL you start mucking with it.
Also, most popcorn ceilings aren't asbestos.
I can't think of a reason why I'd ever redo any popcorn ceiling in a rental, unless I bought one that was basically a gut job at pennies on the dollar.
Even on a flip, unless not having a popcorn ceiling raises the price a bunch, I'd leave it alone.
Post: I just had a tenant ask about changing a burnt-out light bulb...
- Baltimore, MD
- Posts 431
- Votes 281
Really. Can't make this up. I had to coach him through changing it over the phone because the closets have linear fluorescents, and he didn't know what to do.
I'm focusing on the day job now, but I had to share. (Keep in mind that I rent to college students. They're babies, even though they're all in STEM....)