All Forum Posts by: Jill F.

I keep my boat in Horry county (Little River), before I started buying in Akron I looked around that area for deals.  I couldn't find much that cash flowed and nothing that I wanted to buy.

That is strange. Around here it seems like most SFR's have tenants pay all utilities, gas and electric are put in the tenant's name and the landlord is not responsible . In the city of akron and many others around here, the water/sewer/trash bill is the responsibility of the property owner regardless of who pays the bill. However the owner can request that the send a paper bill to the property address and an ebill to the owner by request or the owner can sign a form allowing the city to ebill the tenant. You should be able to call or check the website for each city where you own property to determine the water billing requirements.

I would not be able to maintain a subterfuge anyway, but especially in a house-hacking case, it seems you would get some "self screening" benefit by letting potential tenants know you live next door. No, they won't be able sneak in that dog or their three n'er do well cousins or start up a grow house or drug dealing business...

There are not many areas in the city of Akron where I would consider paying almost 38,500/unit for one bedrooms. Maybe in the good part of Highland square in a building that had individually metered gas and electric. How old is the building?

But I have paid that for one bedrooms in akron... 2 side by side duplexes 1300 sqft/unit central heat/air washer dryer hookups. nice front door parking and those are a little under market at $600/mo built in 2000.

This thread is VERY "pun"ny! 

I know you said without buying another property, but especially if you live near by what about considering a duplex so she could live in one side and have a tenant in the other side to defray her "rent" costs?

@Joel Florek

I had a tenant die (overdose) in a unit at the end of May. My insurance covered a bioclean company to come and remediate the damage: That cleaning included deoderizing, removing affected flooring and removing and disposing a mattress. The family removed the tenant's belongings.  The security deposit was enough to cover the insurance deductible, though we chose to donate it to a trust set up for the tenant's young son. We were also out $150 for our cleaning company and a couple of weeks rent.

This was an overdose and the insurance  didn't cover any drug related damage but did cover damages from body in unit for several days. I had quotes at $1500 and $4500. My insurance co. thouht $1500 was cheap.

Will you pay water or are the units individually metered?

I am in the process of submetering my duplexes. In the simple case where there is already a main shut off for each unit I paid $750 to have a submeter with a remote (outside) reader installed. If you have plumbing skills you can probably do it much cheaper but you'll need to be careful about accuracy and have a way to test it. We do pass through charging at the same rate as the local water company to avoid any possible problems with being regulated for selling utilities

Not only duplexes, but duplexes are my favorite. I have six and would like more.  I get more stable tenants and tenants are happier.