All Forum Posts by: Johann Jells

Personally, I would consider that 1st month rent part of the closing cost and then require rent on the 1st like anyone else. It's not your job to accommodate oddities in tenants finances. But if she's that great, it would be worth it. And there's nothing wrong with using a separate personal account for the rentals, we did it for many years. Get a dedicated credit card too.

You've been adequately responsive,  and bringing in professionals. She's got nothing but threats, tough it out. Heating season will be over soon enough, and count yourself lucky you can actually decline to renew, unlike NJ. If you want to cover yourself further, get one of these recording thermometers and put it in a locking thermostat box in the unit. Cool thing is you don't even have to enter the unit to download the data via Bluetooth. Then you can graph the temp data over whatever time period you have captured.  I've actually used a pair of them to diagnose a bad steam vent valve on a radiator, comparing the rad and boiler graphs showed it was missing heat cycles.

https://www.amazon.com/Inkbird-Wireless-Bluetooth-Thermometer-Hygrometer/dp/B07BLX1G66

Some of them look for anything. In NJ the state inspects 3U and over every 5 years. I've gotten dinged for things that had been that way for a century, like being told the stairs on the sidewalk hatch need a handrail. It's all in da game...

I tried a Kwikset "dumb" keyless deadbolt a while back for my own unit, but the damn thing was LOUD! It made an awful motorized whine opening and closing. Very unpleasant and I pulled it out after a while. Are these better? 

I've put down a lot of Costco 8mm laminate, and for the most part, it has held up fine. One of the 1st rooms was my son's that he moved into at 3. He's about to turn 21, little boys are hard on floors, and it still looks great, as do other entire apartments from that time.  My only major failures are from water, and the newest version has a 24 hr leak resistance. I've not tried it yet. If you hit a sale, you can get the Costco laminate for under $1.40/ft.  

I've installed the Tranquility 5mm vinyl click planks in 3 kitchens and a stairwell, and I don't like it nearly as much.  On a long hallway run it's had some joint separation due to contraction and in general the joints show more. Easy to cut, just score and snap, but harder to lay, far more of struggle to get it to snap together properly than the more rigid laminate. I even dust the joints with baby powder to get them to slide more easily. And you're not supposed to tap it together, though I do, and it's difficult. But there's always spots where that's the only way.

I'm with you @Matthew Paul. I often count the times I've saved hundreds with a few minutes of work. And that's not even getting into whether the "pro" would properly diagnose the problem. 

A few years back I was visiting friends in the Catskills and when I got there he apologized for breakfast taking so long because there was virtually no water in the faucet. He explained he had had 3 different professionals there, one of whom told him his well needed fracking and charged him thousands without solving the problem. I said " is the pressure in the bathroom (on the other side of the wall) OK?" Yes, he said. I walked over, disassembled and cleaned the screen on the faucet's pullout hose, and it was done. His jaw dropped. He's a lawyer and a smart guy, but he got taken by some incompetent and/or dishonest contractors. 

I'm a "mom & pop" landlord, not an empire builder. I have 13 units that I maintain, and if I wasn't doing it I wouldn't be hustling my next deal or something else high paying, I'd just be paying someone else to do what I can do, often better.

1st stop is a Leatherman. You can tighten cabinet hinge screws or a sink feed, remove a broken off light bulb, saw off a troublesome small branch, or any number of small tasks without going further than your belt. Only get one with the insert bit holder like the Wave below, and get the insert bit set of various straight, Phillips, Robertson, Torx and Allen.

Nope, and if I had one here in JC they wouldn't be competent or even necessarily licensed to practice in NYC.

Well, I may live to regret it, but I think I'm going to go with this system for $600, plus another $80 for a code entry keypad. It can call multiple cell phones so every roommate gets the call.  The main issue is I don't want to have to have a broadband account at that house just for this. Hopefully the Xfinity Hotspot connectivity will be good enough. I could use a tenant's Wifi, but then when they move out I'd be scrambling to keep the doorbell working!

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01GW5K93O/ref=ask_ql_qh_dp_hza

This has been asked before with few responses, but I figured why not try again? I'm looking for a video intercom/door entry system for a 4 family that in ,addition to the obvious doorbell function, will allow them to buzz package deliveries into the common area from anywhere using their phone. Optimally it will also allow programmed entry codes for regulars like USPS and UPS. I've seen some that are mega-expensive designed for hi-rises like ButterflyMX, and some that are cheaper but sketchy like the GBF WiFi Video Doorbell Intercom on Amazon. I'd still take a chance on the latter if it had a keypad entry on the 4U version.

So, has anyone been down this road?