All Forum Posts by: Nancy P.

I agree with Joe Splitrock except in Illinois and California,  at least.  carpets are assumed to have a five year life.  I have never bothered to chase a tenant for a carpet issue,  not worth the effort IMO.  But then I put in the cheap carpet on the back wall of HD.  And we only carpet bedrooms upstairs halls, and stairs.

Utilities,  it depends on your area.  My properties are in  Naperville, IL  which runs its own electric billing and landlords are responsible for debts left by tenants.  They are very slow to bill me though,  it took over a year with one tenant.  (Which is how I found out about the law.)  I now call three days before they move out to make sure that they have given the city a forwarding address,  and five days after to find out if there is an outstanding bill.  Tried to do the same with the gas company, but for them,  the bill follows the tenant and they won't tell me anything.    I once had a tenant with over $2000 in gas bills after 18 months (new tenant opened the mail accidentally) and the gas company told me that was for three addresses...yet they continued to serve her at new address,  it's crazy.

Depends on the property.  I own in what was, in 2016 anyway,  the wealthiest city in the Midwest. No one would even answer my ad if they saw laminate countertops.  So you have to think about your market.  That said,  Ikea offers nice butcher block countertop for about $20 per s.f.  I've seen good reviews.  We put quartz in our places,  often can get a remnant or sale for $50  or less per s.f. installed. 

 (Perk of living in a wealthy town,  remodeling places change inventory often and mark down existing stuff.)

Do you provide common laundry areas?  At least don't make them leave the building to do a required chore.  That could make money for you as well.  I do think (Again, now from NJ) that you have the right to forbid any appliance if you wish.  Not sure your fears are justified.  Damages caused by tenants should be their responsibility,  period.  I don't know that you need to get specific such as forbidding a certain item.

I don't know about the law in NJ,   but my  IL leases say they have to get permission for any appliance,  so violating that could get them evicted.  However,  all my properties come with a w/d.  Are you so worried about leaks that you want to make your properties less desirable by forcing tenants to spend time and extra money to do a basic chore?  Seems counterproductive.  Metal washer hoses go a long way towards eliminating that risk.

We bought a house for $395K at the height of the market, September 2005.  Sold it February 2018...for $395K.  In the intervening years  gut remodeled all bathrooms,  added a bathroom,  tiled the basement floor,  replaced upstairs hall tile,  gut remodeled the kitchen, painted every room and the exterior, added overhead lighting to five rooms,  replaced all windows and doors, and replaced the roof.  Added a new deck less than a year before selling.  Total cost---over $120K.  It HURT to only get what we had originally paid.  As RE investors we should have been willing to price it lower from the start.  It took an hour of convincing from our Realtor to ask $405,  I really wanted $435K.  Then before we could decide whether or not we were ready to sell,  a neighbor literally knocked on our door and offered to buy it.  Since we'd bought six properties in seven years from this Realtor,  she told us to sell it without her.  (We hadn't signed anything.)  Without having to pay a Realtor we were more willing to sell for $405K,  but of course the buyer wanted some of that savings so we settled on $395K.   It's possible that your sellers are the same...it's just hard to basically give away all the improvement money that supposedly have 70% payback or whatever.  Good luck.

I own ten properties in Naperville (well, two legally in Aurora with a Naperville mailing address),  and the rents are high enough to make it lucrative despite the taxes.  We are buy and hold investors, however.

Recently sold our Park City, Utah, condo because the board was corrupt and couldn't get the mostly absentee owners to see it.  Six months later they started to wake up.  Board president gave others a quarter of a million dollars the day before being voted out...and it was legal of her to do so.  78 unit building now on the hook for over $3k each plus years of deferred maintenance.  Glad I got out when we did.  When we lived in Texas we loved to go skiing, once we moved to Chicago that lost a lot of its appeal.  I don't know how common this is...but three weeks around Christmas and then the Sundance Film Festival would pay for the expenses for the entire year.  A good snow year,  we'd make $10K more.  A bad snow year,  maybe only $2000.  Usually empty all summer.   My only regret is we never went during Christmas or Sundance because we hated to lose that income.  (We went skiing in Austria last Christmas to make up for it.)

Here in Germany where rentals are tight there is a huge scam of "wire me the 1st month/security before you see it, if you don't like it I'll wire it right back".  Desperate folks fall for it every day.  Constant media reminders here that if the money is getting sent to India....probably not legit.

If he's interested,  I'd help him buy a condo.  Far less maintenance issues.  But he has to deal with roommates.  Friends can be great or awful as roommates.  The side deal makes me nervous, though.  Who decides what is "proper" care of the place?  If you took over you might destroy the relationship.  My MIL gave us the down payment on our first house,  but we were closer to 30 as we have advanced degrees.  Just now our kids live in our U.S. home rent free as we are on 3-year Germany job assignment.  It works for us because we didn't want to store things or bring them here,  they care for the ancient dog, we have a home base when we visit the U.S., etc.  When we return we expect to give them each a  25% down payment on a condo,  whoever buys the cheaper condo will get cash to equalize the gifts.  Both work but neither are hugely ambitious,  that seems to be the way of people in their 20's more than before.  With a modest purchase both can get by with their unambitious earnings,  or bring in roommates and really boost the bottom line.  It will be up to them.  We will have done some reducing of our estate and know they have a roof over their head so no excuse to come asking to live at home again. :)

Sure,  all tile in  hot Arizona,  but in  freezing Chicago,  people want carpet in bedrooms.  And what do you do with stairs?  Installing vinyl tile on stairs is so expensive it's not worth it.  And those hardwood stair covers are even pricier.  We install the cheap stuff on the back wall on a roll at HD with a mid-grade pad (A properties).  It's $2-$3 a square foot installed,  I've gotten it on special for $1.10 but that was 7 years ago.  It's not a continuous loop,  but you don't WANT that,  as a pet or child or chair caught just so can unravel it.  So it "sheds" a bit at first.  I vacuum about 3-4 times and that takes care of it.  And yeah, it only lasts five years unless your tenant is meticulous.  We consider it a normal expense,  although we have gone to vinyl tile in living areas and kitchens.  As to charging the tenant....not worth it.  It's the rare judge who would give you anything for carpet over 2-3 years old other than the cleaning fee.  The only carpet fee I ever charged was--dog peed past pad into the subfloor.  Tenant paid for that repair.