All Forum Posts by: Brandt Tingen

@Jeff Gates These are section 8 tenants in an area best suited for section 8 tenants.  This comes with the territory.  Most section 8 landlords opt for materials that are difficult to break, and easy to refinish.  I am looking at flooring options too.  Some people do hardwood and then refinish, others do the ceramic tile, I am thinking about very thick commercial grade vinyl plank.  It can all be damaged though and often is.  In a door I'd like something that can take abuse and then be repainted.  If it's metal maybe I can just take the dings to my auto body guy for bondo? Lol. 

Another super sexy topic I am starting here (jk).  I have to replace quite a few doors at a rental unit I am turning.  About 80% of the interior doors in the unit were broken.  In the previous tenants defense, none of the doors had been updated probably in 10 years.  I just moved this same tenant into a new unit and all the doors were fine upon move-in, now one's already broken at the base.  They were all hollow-core doors.   What's the best interior door for tenants that are likely to break them?  I am not 100% hip to the door game but I am guessing there have got to be better options nowadays.  Maybe a solid piece of foam or insulation sandwiched between two pieces of thin aluminum or PVC/Vinyl?  I am planning on going to the window/door supply house as I finish up this unit but just wanted to see if anyone else had experience with this.  

Thanks for all the great info.  My plan of attack is to change all the old gate valves in the system, replace all old fixtures with high quality ones, and add access panels where possible.  I am also getting estimates and going into the water utility this week to learn more about sub metering, if I can sub meter inside the property using the electronic scanner meters, it shouldn't be too expensive to add them in.  I may also install my own and bill the tenants myself if it checks out that that is okay to do with code & the utility.  

I have heard good things about PEX too.  I'm not sure if the fittings are as reliable as copper. The plumbers I talked to about is seem to like it if there is a manifold installed from the get go.  

@Gita Faust Awesome process thank you for sharing.  I am finding out from the master plumbers that the city can permit and approve submeters that will use RFID technology to make scanning for them very easy.  So I think I'll be able to stay completely out of it which is ideal.  It is way less expensive than I had imagined.  Break even will happen in 8-14 months.  With the new technology and scanners they don't have to dig a trench so it makes it much much easier.  

@James Lindsey You may want to look into sub metering your multi family.  I found it to be way more cost effective than I thought it would be.  Break even was 1-2 years.  IT is especially less expensive if your water utility uses the electronic (most of them use rfid tags) meter scanners, because that means it's less likely you will need to dig up and replace or add new pipe.  Talk to a good plumber about it but make sure he's done them before and is going to use a permit. 

@Austin James Thanks for the tips.  I need to upgrade the toilet these are builder grade and old / beat up.  I was thinking about replacing all of the toilets with Toto CST744E Low Consumption Siphon Jet Flush Toilets - heard good things about them. Also going to replace most of the fixture's shutoff valves, and replace some of the fixtures.  The valves are all old and crudded up.  

Would you recommend new compression shutoff valves or could I go with shary bites?  Most of them are 90 degree shutoff valves.  I have heard very mixed reviews on the shutoff valves. 

Also I am getting estimates on sub-meters.  They are coming in way less than I expected for the modern scanner type sub meters.  It really is a pretty simple job it's just splitting the main in the crawl space and reducing to the units, and installing an electronic scanner type meter.  Have to pull permits though through the water authority and they come out and inspect for code and set the meters.  

Cool thanks for the info.  I found this in my research, but I have not done much yet. Jeremy above mentions some meters that work well for him. 

http://www.flows.com/remote-water-meter-reading-system/?gclid=CKSv0fLa1MoCFQEnHwoduLcPyg

@Jeremy Hunsicker Thanks for the info I'm going to check with the city but from an initial poke around the internet it seems like it is legal in D.C. to sub meter.  Question - how should I charge?  Do you take the total water bill and split it up based on the percentage that the tenant used of the total water bill?  Or do you say okay the city is charging this much per CF and you used x CF so this is how much you owe.  I assume either of these will get to a very similar conclusion, just looking to see what the easiest way to calculate and invoice it is. 

pretty sure it's just a main coming into the crawl space. and then reducing into the two units.  In theory it doesn't seem too difficult to me, just split the main with reducers and install the sub meter after each reducer.  I just found this one (link below) that looks pretty slick.  My main thing to figure out is how do I bill for water if I'm metering it myself.  I'm guessing however is reasonable and the tenant will agree to.

http://www.flows.com/remote-water-meter-reading-system/?gclid=CKSv0fLa1MoCFQEnHwoduLcPyg

@Frank N. Good on you man I don't think that is overkill, these bills add up fast when you're not on top of them.  I signed up for my high usage alert through the water company, the issue with that is it only sends out an alert on monthly usage... kind of pointless if the problem is going on for weeks unnoticed.  Do you mind if I ask what kind of camera you use?  Landlords with multi's on well water must have it made.  With your water bills, do you have to send them to your tenants yourself with a breakdown of their usage, or do they come to your tenant's directly from the water authority?  I have a plumber telling me the city has to do the sub-metering, but I don't really care if it's the city or a plumber so long as I can separate water usage and charge for it.  If you are billing yourself my assumption is you give them a bill something like "the water bill for the property was $X and you used Y% therefore your monthly bill is Z?" Or do you just pick a rate per CF and charge them that way?

I have a huge crawl space and unfinished basements in these units where the mains are so the plumber could even install it there if possible.  Do you use manual meters or wireless ones that report numbers remotely?

A Tesla's nice but maybe consider a yacht?  I just saw this program as I am searching for a boat and I may not be ready for it but for someone who needs lots of deductions and would to spend some time every year on their boat and have free and clear yacht in 10-15 years, it seems like it could be pretty cool :) I'm still going to look into it with my accountant to give myself something to look forward to!

http://www.atlantic-cruising.com/boat-as-a-business/