All Forum Posts by: Justin Fox

@Sai T.

Had 3 total, just sold two.  They were all within 2 or 3 miles of my personal residence.  I would make the rounds in ~45 min unless one of the tenants was chatty, but I don't mind chattin' : ).

Only allow pets in my 15 year old rental with a fence.  New rentals?  Never.  No smoking, candles or Scentsy warmers.  I change the air filter at my properties every month so I always know how well the tenants are/aren't keeping the place.

Check the temp at the thermostat, may it's shot?  If all that checks out, check your insulation in the attic.  If it's too low, do what @Marian Smith suggested.

Meh.  Go for dentistry (ortho or pedo), nurse practitioner or chemical/metallurgist engineer.  If you like working a lot you can become an ambulance chaser and make BIG bucks.

I pick up the check and change the air filter every month.  

@Maugno M.

Yes they shouldn't have.

I'm not over complicating anything.  He did the wrong thing and it's strange that I have to keep explaining it.

It's easy to say that once you've knowingly closed on a defective property and have the money.

I'm sure your A/C units need Freon 'all the time', but properly maintained ones don't leak 4+ lbs. in 10 months.

@Kyle Houlahan

That may be the case.  Why did you skirt your responsibility to provide the property at closing with AC that blew cold, then?  It's $600...  You could have avoided being called out, had a clean sale and the AC probably would have lasted the buyers long enough to clear the 30 day warranty requirement.  Whether there are any legal ramification is irrelevant, you did wrong.

And you can keep saying you're not in the wrong.  But had the buyers walked and taken their earnest money with them, could you have sold that house with AC that didn't work properly?  Yeah, you would have paid that $600 real quick and prayed it didn't leak before you found another buyer and closed.  Which wouldn't have happened.  You don't 'slow' leak 4 lbs of Freon over 10 months and not notice it.

It's pretty easy to do the right thing.  Last house I sold the buyer did their final walk-through 3 days before closing, said the stationary window in the back-door double-unit was real foggy and they didn't notice it in the initial walk-through.  I called the local glass place, they said it'd be ~300 bucks, I paid, he ordered and I brought the receipt to closing.  Yes, he replaced it.

That was door glass.  Imagine what I would have done if they said the AC was blowing hot?

Basically, your product was defective by the time you picked it up off the shelf and brought it to the counter, and you told the potential buyer that it was their responsibility to fix it even though it malfunctioned before they even purchased said product.

"I notified the buyer of this and told them they would need to take care of it themselves as it is classified as regular maintenance."  HVAC blowing hot on the cool setting is not regular, or in other words normal.  The unit was "4lbs of refrigerant" or more low.  

I have a real hard time believing the technician just walked up after investigating and said, 'Welp, it's 4+ lbs. low, which by the way is almost the entire amount of Freon needed for a full charge, but that's normal really.  Oh yeah, It's completely normal to have to do 4 lbs. worth of Freon maintenance on these units.  I can charge it up and it'll be good as new though!"

Yeah, I would get it.  If your quote is that high, it's in a flood zone and/or the property has had claims.  If the property is in a flood zone but its elevation is above the BFE the annual premium is much cheaper.

I don't care about your history with the house or how wealthy your are or aren't.  This sale is the only thing that matters.  How do you not become alarmed when a technician tells you it's $600+ low on coolant?  And THEN proceed to tell the buyer it's their problem and that, "non-functioning AC is normal"?!

They should have pushed closing back until the unit was blowing cold like when the property was inspected, end of story.  I'm surprised their representative didn't advise them better.

I mean, how thin are your margins?  Geez.