All Forum Posts by: Jennie Ballard

While you are waiting for her to reach out you can gather a lot of information thru public records. Start with "town name" + "GIS server" search.

-GIS map, you can find the parcel # , legal tract name, and official parcel size of home. You can also see flood plain and zoning sometimes. There is normally a popup that leads to Central Apraisal District webpage. 

-CAD website you can find current assessed value, property tax amount, and if it's current.

-County records page with owner name or property legal name, you can find the deed, if there is a mortgage, and if there are any liens on property.

All this will give you a starting place to run comps and talk with heir.

In Texas atleast, landlord that pays water and sewage can pass on the cost to tenant. The amount per unit is based on a formula the landlord defines, normally bathroom count. 

ex 4plex with qty2 of 2bed 2bath and qty2 of 1bed 1 bath. That's 6 bathrooms total. If water bill is $240, each bathroom is allocated $40. So the 2bd/2ba tentants are charged $80 and 1bd/1ba tenants are charged $40.

A washer is a water hog and would complicate allocation. Especially if some units have them and some don't.

If you are having to redo the plumbing, I would investigate submetering the water to each unit. Either with individual utility billing meters or submeters you use for % splitting bill. 

I wouldn't want to be in the efficiency with no washer & dry on allocated bill. Right or wrong, that tenant is going to feel like they are paying more than "their" share of water bill.

I agree with grouping areas by how long stays are expected to be. My family full-timed for a year at an RV park while we were house hunting. The long term stay section had widely spaced slots and was a pretty nice with it's own bathhouse and  laundry room. The short term side had it's own amenities including a pool and the chaos stayed over there.

Most city and county ordinances are available online by searching thru their .gov website or google. 

Letting go a pet snake is illegal in many states and it probably wouldn't survive. I would see if an animal rescue would take it or a friend.

I deal with stormwater control maintenance as part of my W2 job. Semi-permeable parking options are pavers or gravel. If you use the geotextile grid to keep it from going everywhere gravel is maintainable. The concrete stormwater modification isn't too hard either. Have concrete sloped so that water goes to one point and have an outfall box that slows flow then gravel permeation zone. Install an oil adsorbent filter that your maintenance guy changes as needed. For a parking lot only, I would expect 1 filter to last several months.

https://www.newpig.com/pig-frameless-storm-drain-filter-for-...

Along with what Jules said, does your basement meet local code for a living space? Generally you need an outside exit and escape windows in any bedrooms. Are the utilities like furnace separated off where a little kid can't touch?

I'm about 20min south of there. That area north side of Crowley is revitalizing. It was pretty bad before. One issue with getting tenants might be that a 3b/ 2b 1600sqft is a family sized home but several of the Crowlwey ISD schools are pretty bad.

Thank you for the link to workbook!