All Forum Posts by: George Azita

 I don't think we will ever see a correction where the numbers will make sense with the exception of a bubble like 2008 to 2010, but I don't think that will happen again in our lifetime with the exception of a nuclear war and then there won't be enough humans left to buy the cheap properties.

I've been looking for single-family and multi-unit properties for the past several years and cannot find one property with numbers that make sense. I put my money in an Ameritrade account, but my money is on the sideline just in case we have a market crash where I can buy stocks with a good value for 40%, or less on the dollar. Since my money is not invested, I will have the cash available in case a good property falls on my lap. I don't even see decent properties at auctions and I think our government has been bailing most people out and have been giving them a massive amount of cash (so I heard). 

Sorry!!! Every situation is different and the drains and sewer should not clog in a new building with all the new plastic drains even if you have a bad tenant. If the building is new it appears that the contractor may have done some shoddy work where the drains don't have the proper downhill fall, or the contractor installed some of the wrong fittings, elbows, etc.. I worked on a brand new triplex where the sewer kept clogging on a 2nd floor unit and I found a 2 X 4 a carpenter or someone dropped inside a 3 inch vent pipe and the 2 X 4 was blocking the toilet san-tee. I've found pipe wrenches and all sorts of objects inside drains and sewers that could only have been inserted into drain and sewer pipes when the buildings were being built. 

For more than 50 years, my company has been installing new sewers and drain pipes and we give every customer an original owner lifetime guarantee against clogs and leaks because it is virtually impossible to clog sewer and drain pipes even if a person tries mischievously when the pipes are installed correctly.

I owned 28 fairly new homes in Las Vegas (sold most of them in 2020 to 2021) and I did have a few problems with the sewers where tree roots crushed sewer pipes from the outside and that is un unusual. I've never seen that in my 50+ years of plumbing in Los Angeles.

Hopefully, you get the cause of the problem resolved so it doesn't continue to occur.

I am a plumbing contractor, deal with many landlords and I hate it when landlords blame plumbing problems on their tenants. No less than once every week, landlords ask me to tell them what I find in a tenant's drain and I always tell the landlord I can't do that because the crap goes down the drain or sewer when I clean them. Just because hair is found inside a clogged drain the clog is not the tenant's fault when they rent a unit with ancient plumbing that was 99% clogged the day they moved in. the poor drainage system snags the hair and there is nothing the poor tenant can do to prevent the drain from clogging. Landlords accuse tenant of clogging drains when they put baby wipes and feminine napkins in toilets, but those items are supposed to be flushed through toilets and when the pipes are in good condition those items will not clog the drain system. So, when the drains clog it is the landlord's fault and not the tenants'.

The problem I see is it is almost impossible for a tenant to cause a drain or sewer to clog when the pipes are in good condition. The hole inside the toilet bowl is about 2 inches in diameter and everything that goes through that 2 inch hole will absolutely go through a 3 or 4 inch sewer pipe when the pipes are in good  condition. But, when landlords rent units with crappy piping the landlords are prone to putting the blame for all clogs on their tenants and the same goes for shower drains, tub drains and bathroom and kitchen sinks.

A high percent of tenants rent units from landlords because tenants don't want to have to deal with plumbing issues nor do they want to have to deal with expensive maintenance issues. So, to accommodate the tenants wants and needs it should be the landlord's problem to pay for cleaning drains, sewers and making all repairs with the exception of when a tenant grossly and purposely is the cause for maintenance problems and even then I give every tenant the benefit of any doubt.

It sound to me like you have a crappy plumbing system and a sewer pipe somewhere in between the floor clogged and sewer clogs equally for homeowners and tenants regardless of how careful homeowners and tenant try to stop them from clogging. It sounds like you have a routine maintenance problem and should not be anxious to jump all over your tenant just because you are angry about having to pay to maintain YOUR PROPERTY that is not your tenant's property.

It seems to me that you should have insurance company and have your insurance take care of the cleanup and any damage.

Can you post some numbers like the gross income, property taxes, insurance, mortgage payment, sewer use fees, trash removal, lawn and plant care, current value, etc.?

I am a contractor, work for many small and large public storage unit facilities and they are always crying about being broke. There is one corporation buying almost every storage unit in the country and I would be careful in regards to competing with them. I think the name of the corporation is Extra Space. I did work for them in California and they own almost every storage facility.

While operating a public storage facility sounds like it is easier to manage than housing rental units the business comes with inherited problems i.e. 24/7 management, theft issues, issues regarding damage to your customer's personal items caused by leaks in the roof, flooding of the storage yard and maintaining the asphalt driveways and parking lots is often very expensive and can take several years to recover from.

I do underground utility installation and repairs for sewers, water mains, electric, etc. and I recently completed a job for Extra Space where we had to replace 1200 feet of 6 inch fire water piping. Our bill was $800,000 because we had to saw cut 1200 feet times 2, the pipe was buried 6 feet deep and we had to fill the entire excavation with slurry (concrete and sand mix) and then the facility had to pave the entire 1200 x 20 ft driveway with asphalt. I don't know how, but I am betting it will take 20+ years for the storage facility to recover from those costs and then they have massive problems with large trees around the entire property.

Be careful because when dealing with brokers you will be told the positive side of everything and will not be told about the pitfalls that can bankrupt you. 

We own several fairly large apartment buildings in the Los Angeles County area and our water costs us an average of $60 per month per tenant.

I am fairly sure the cost for water tripled in the past 10 or 15 years and we would probably be paying more than $120 per month if we had not installed water-saving toilets, water-saving shower heads, water=saving bathroom sink and kitchen faucets and we removed all the laws, shrubs and trees from every property we own and installed rocks and only 4 to 8 cactus plants on every property. Otherwise, our water for the lawns and plants would double our current water bills.

At first, tenants complained about the rocks and when they realized that having rocks totally eliminated those millions of tiny bugs that fly around dusk and they never had to hear the lawnmower motor our tenants live the rocks. It cost tens of thousands of dollars to install the rocks because we hauled away 6 inches of soil, put down 4 inches of crushed concrete base and 2 inches of rocks so we have very few problems with weeds coming up through the rocks and I think we more than recovered our costs in about 7 to 10 years plus we don't have to pay for grass seeds, don't pay for the water and no longer pay a gardener.

Most likely, your LLC is a waste of time and money. Hopefully, you did a lot of research for the pros and cons on the internet.

Someone posted a free software for analyzing properties down to the nitty-gritty.

Search Google for Bestline Plumbing. Scroll down the home page to MS Access Software and download the free software.

March 11 - 16

Go to:

https://www.sdttc.com/content/...

What is the rental income, expenses, property tax, insurance, business licenses, etc.?