All Forum Posts by: Ed O.

The only clear exemption is if an owner occupier does the work in their own residence. Pretty funny, being that LBP is so deadly, that anyone that doesn't know what they're doing is free to do it on their own primary residence. If they want, they can have their 1 year old doing demo of lbp and be totally fine with the EPA.
I don't think the contractor approach would fly.
I do recall these rules not applying if no children were to be living in the home, or something like that. The challenge would be, what to do when the buyer goes to sell. In this case, I don't think a waiver was even required. Doing the work like this would leave you in a bad spot if your buyer fell through.
The cost of the extra work sucks, but I don't think it's outrageous for the amount of work that goes into it.
I have not yet tested positive for LBP on any of the work I have done. You can buy an 8 pack of tests for $15-28 at depot.. if you test positive, you are supposed to disclose it, but I'd bet few people follow this rule.
Non residential real estate had plenty of loop holes. For residential RE, they kept it pretty tight. You could take the class, cut your check to the epa and get a hepa vac for around 1k and then do the work yourself...

After reading this thread twice, it still seems as though you're going to try really hard to shut down your neighbors as a means to make as much money as you can. I really doubt there's a deed restriction on the specific property you have mentioned. Do you know what one is? I don't suspect you do, based on what you have typed.
It may be another issue(a few come to mind), but I'd hate to help someone shut down a place where handicaped people keep to themselves and have a bus come by once a day to pick them up. They have minivans dropping people off a few times every day! Oh my, I wish that was my biggest problem.
They were there first. Interfering with their enjoyment of the property they're at would be wrong in my opinion. It's your own fault for not sniffing out the "mental handicaps" before buying the home.
It's amazing how ignorant people can be. It's really sad that you feel no shame in trying to throw these people out to make a few bucks. I really doubt they've done anything wrong here. I think you're seeing this situation wrong in many ways.

1. Lead generation strategies.
2. How to negotiate with private party sellers. Real examples.
3. How leads are processed from the time the phone rings to the time the offer is presented. (this would be the area of greatest interest for me)

I can't steer you to the site you're after, but do you have specific questions about the program? I have suffered through the 8 hour class that could've been done in 1.5 nonsense. If there's something specific you're looking for, I might know.

Dick! Where do you get the pad so cheap?
Carpet? The worst thing to put in a rental if you can avoid it. I have tried allure, it's a big hit with landlords that I know.. I was disappointed with it. Have recently installed the .68/ft laminate at home depot on 2 jobs. Goes in fairly easily and is cheaper than carpet by far. Also, there's a better chance it will survive the first tenant. Carpet has never, with one exception, been able to last longer than one tenant for me. I avoid it wherever possible.

For me, it depends on how quickly I'm trying to get someone in. If you miss their call, they'll call someone else that answers in my opinion. Sure, you'll get tire kickers, but tire kickers leave messages too and waste your time when you call them back. If at all possible, I answer every inbound call on vacant units. I have one empty and am pushing to get it filled. Also, being in the same region as you, this time of year, its tough to fill a unit. People hate moving when its cold & around the holidays. I think answering calls as much as possible will fill a unit quicker.

In 8 years, I have never had a pro do this. I am trained in HVAC, so I have some decent knowledge about the systems, etc. Here is all you need to do:
Change the air filters at important times. At the start of when tenants will be running the A/C, at least once more in the middle of that season (3 months max), and then sometime right before winter.. This is at a minimum. Dirty filters cause probably 25-50% of hvac issues in rental homes... it restricts the airflow, causing equipment to fail or not work correctly. Also, get the cheap fiberglass filters. The higher end pleated ones will require more frequent changing and more $$. Change them yourself. Tenants rarely will.
The other thing is to keep brush, grass and anything else away from your condenser (A/C). Spray it periodically with vegetation killer and cut back and remove any brush that encroaches on them. This, again, allows for sufficient airflow for that unit to work properly.
I have used this approach for years and have had reliable system operation for years. Also, A/C's are much more likely to fail than furnaces. They're run a lot harder, under extreme conditions and sometimes the units just can't take it. If I paid a service person to service each unit annually vs the system I use now, I'd be out a ton of money. Not worth it in my book.

With a nice big home like that, your tenant can afford to pay all utilities as well. By being on the hook for them, they can spitefully run them high if they chose and then it's your problem.
As it pertains to having a landlord arrangement with a utility, I do NOT do them. The reason for me is this: If you have a tenant that has their gas cut off in December and it gets turned on, under your account, you can't (legally) turn it off. Say the tenant stops paying rent around that time and you start an eviction, the entire time the tenant is in the house, you can't turn the utilities off, so then you'd be digging a deeper hole. My tenants heat their homes into the 80's+ in the winter, I can't begin to imagine what their gas bills look like. They run the A/C on a 60-70 degree day....WITH THE WINDOWS OPEN!!!..

Josh! I like the approach. I have been to two conferences this year. The first one was loaded with selling speakers and a few non sellers. The non sellers were by far the best received. They're often miles more credible than a guy that wants to convince you of $1000 at the end of the presentation. I think an approach like this will be received very well and will be something people will make a point of attending. I'm also submitting the name of someone that would be a great speaker as well. Not sure if he's interested in speaking @ BP, but, is worth looking at.

Bryan: Not sure what a co-insurance clause is. Can you shed some light on that?
Meant to add rent increases, although I haven't totally earned my sticker for that just yet.
Another possible stream is renting appliances, a tv, or some other small upgrade for a slightly increased monthly charge. This is something I learned from Jeffrey Taylor. He's got a unique way of doing it. Offers a ceiling fan or dishwasher, for a slightly higher rent and gets it some of the time...

On the insurance front, some firms, like the snake oil salesmen at State Farm, will refuse to do anything other than replacement coverage, as it pays them more. It took me awhile before I finally found a great agent that was willing to work with me and let me insure it for what I could acquire it for.