All Forum Posts by: Krishna Chava

I have 2 kinds of tenant complaints for AC: not cooling enough and not cooling at all. Second one is an emergency an I send someone same day, irrespective of what it costs. First one is the grey area that gives rise to tenant dissatisfaction if it takes too long to send AC tech.

What are your typical HVAC system complaints from tenants? How soon do you respond? What are the preventive measures you are taking to make HVAC less of an issues?

Also looks like 40% of my calls  are related to HVAC (on average). Am I doing something wrong? 

Tenant landlord is a business relationship. Don't do anything under the table. If you want them to leave for some reasons, say that to their face, don't renew the lease and send an eviction. If you want to cut off any amenities that you are providing that are not part of the lease, cut them off and tell them why you cut them off. 

@Aaron Klatt Thanks for clarifying. Now that you mentioned it, I remember adding this peep hole for a housing tenant. We have added it to other units as well as tenants requested it.

Thanks everyone foe the reply. I started the poll after I have seen many of my tenants replace their thermostat with nest. I have installed security cameras on some units and those were easier to rent and I still get questions about when I would install security cameras for other tenants. 

It is evident to me these features are worth something. Otherwise it wouldn't be a trend in multifamily to install them. We typically charge $40 extra for installing a Fridge and $50 for washer/dryer. Obviously, tenant can buy these and not pay us, but they never do. 

My vote is for $25 a month.

@Billy Smith Agree with you, more gizmos and more things go wrong. That would be my biggest deterrent as well.

@Marian Smith what is the texas doorbell requirement you are talking about?

I would do AirBnB in your situation until you have more money to invest. AirBnB hosting experience is not same as real estate investing experience, but there are parallels in the sense that they are both DIY and teach similar discipline in making decisions and also people skills.

@Adam Webb, why is the bank willing to refi if that will make cash flow negative. Is the appraisal based on just property comps and not rental income? generally banks do both ways and take lesser of the two to determine refi amount.

I am noticing that smart home amenities for new construction apartments and homes are becoming common. For those of us who own older non-smart properties, I want to analyze cost benefit of retrofitting. It is possible to retrofit an apartment with a smart lock, video doorbell, smart thermostat, voice and app controlled lights, smart interconnected smoke alarms etc.,  How much rent premium will your tenants pay? Please pick closest number among these 3 options.

1) 0

2) 25

3) 50 or more

Any other ideas to increase rent with smart home features?

I use nolo for setting up new LLCs. I wouldn't bother with LLC for 2 properties. If you are getting conventional mortgage, you probably need to buy in your name anyway as they don't make loans to LLCs. You can later transfer these properties title to LLCs, there are some issues there, it's better to look at those issues at that time.

All my tentals are within 45 minutes of my home. I get that some people donlkng distance investing even of single family homes, I would never do that unless apartment complex >100 units

I would go with a larger property management company that is registered with NARPM and has a reputation to loose. I would also make sure they would act as good legal shield between me and tenants. Only case I would go with a smaller company is when I expect them to grow with me and have a symbiotic relationship along the way. In general, property management is one of the jobs that can either be done well or not at all. If I have small number of properties, I would self manage and make use of ever increasing technologies to streamline my job.