All Forum Posts by: David J.

I have had a water heater fail (or need parts repaired) in every property I have owned.  Seems like by now, we should have the ability to produce a water heater that can simply work without issue for 20 years. 

These things have to be the least reliable thing in a home,.. or maybe in life.  (perhaps i'm just frustrated)

I am no thermodynamics engineer but isn't it just a tank of water being heated by a flame? 

@JD Martin that is exactly what my approach, is and will be.  I suspected that I would keep the legacy options open. What threw me for a loop is the way the tenant reacted. 

I never imaged more convenience and organization would translate into RAGE from a tenant. She freaked out on me and called me screaming. "How dare you add my information to a website without my permission? How dare you try to bully me into signing up to a website that I want nothing to do with"

I never would have thought, this would be the reaction. I assumed that worst case I might hear, "I really prefer to just keep dropping it off at the bank". Which is fine because Cozy let's me credit their payment after I get it so that I can still manage my portfolio

But, wow, I thought I was cynical and paranoid, some folks are next level. 

I am loving this discussion though. Seems a lot here can relate in some way.

WOW, thanks,.. got to love California  -_-

Some great ideas in this thread, thank you all.

I tried to figure out what her reason is and she says she doesn't have a bank account and thus can't use cozy.  I don't understand how she manages her money without one but that was her reason none the less.

Hi Arlen,

I have thought about that. Cozy has a way to prevent the tenant from paying. It's a switch that basically stops accepting payments from the tenant.  Hopefully that works.  

Good point though.

my lease says I can switch the lease

I have been going crazy with a disorganized mess. 8 rentals and everyone pays different ways etc. 

I decided that I want to set all my rentals up on Cozy.co and manage them better. 

So far I really like the system and my tenants do to. 

However, I have one tenant that freaked out and called me yelling telling me "You can't bully me into joining some website that I don't want to join". ... " I will continue making payments and delivering to your bank account"

I really don't want to manage things any other way though. Should I just give her the boot?

Why not find the average of the utilities and work the cost of it into the rent? This allows you to advertise as utilities included, one easy payment. 

You can then have a clause in the lease that covers for high electricity usage and tenant will be responsible for X% in this situation.

Tenant reported a leaky toilet. I had it repaired within 24 hours of report. The flapper had gone bad. 

Then tenant contacted me claiming she had a very high water bill due to the water leaking and wanted me to pay the bill. 

Apparently the flapper had been leaking for some time. 

She has been there almost a year, and when she moved in several inspections verify that toilets were in good working order. 

She claims she didn't know it was leaking until she reported it to me. She claims that she should not be responsible for the water bill since this is not her fault.  It must have been leaking all month because her normal bill of $70 sky rocketed to around $400

She is the only person on contract with city for water bill. I am not apart of that as lease dictates that she pay her own utilities. 

Advice please.

Thank you :)

Hi @Kerry Baird I have been spending a lot of time reflecting, learning, meeting folks, asking questions and considering my options. It's a real cross road for me. My current plan is to start by securing a HELOC. (Almost complete) From there I will keep my options open.

Thank you