All Forum Posts by: Pat L.

We charge the non-refundable deposit of $325 & then $35/pet/month. We love our middle aged lady tenants with 2-3 cats. 

But as @Nathan Gesner mentioned it's never enough if there is any damage. We had one woman cut a cat door in the bottom of a bedroom door & the $300 we charged her security deposit for a new door & install didn't phase her at all. 

Another paid a carpenter to design & install really impressive larger window sills on all living room windows so the cat could lay in the sun without falling off.

Always get the permits. 

We saw one that had been 'legally' converted & hidden above the bare minimum height drop ceiling was the entire garage door & mechanicals for it so I assume the down track rails were buried behind the new window trim. Because it was at grade they put the toilet in an alcove 3ft above the slab to get gravity flow. 

So you can imagine the rest of their rehab attempts throughout the home & why that property sat on the mkt for some time.

I would definitely get a qualified contractor who would also pull the required permits. Our utility company will not restore power to a new panel without a permit being inspected & signed off.

Some years ago our neighbor in Palm Harbor decided to repair his own HAVC & it caught fire, causing a LOT of damage to the home.

Like us he had also cancelled his insurance a year earlier, as our premiums had tripled after a severe wind storm & a lot of n/hood roof damage. He just sold it 'as is' & moved to Crystal Springs. 

Get a good REI CPA/accountant & stay on top of it.

My wife just helped a guy here prepare his 2019, 20 taxes. He 'reports' $78k+ a year in FL rental income. His brother in FL apparently had an accountant who handled their real estate tax prep & file it, but she discovered he had yet to file 2014,15,16,17,18,19,20.

He owes, & owes, & owes.

We took a lot of the older ones out over the last few years as tenants would put in TWO 150-200 watt bulbs & cook not only the bulb mounts & insulated thin Al reflecting paper disk, but some had evidence of melted wiring insulation up in the junction box & they wondered why they had light flicker.

My favorite image of lighting upgrade...

We have done that on several occasions (B-class rentals). Deliver used/scratch & dent appliances & tell them they own them, their extra rent covers our investment. 

It has worked well so far, 7 years in one & a couple are going on 4 years. One tenant actually sold off the appliances we left her & upgraded using the pay-as-you go guys. 

Another tenant moved south & left all her appliances behind, so we told the new tenants they own them. They also left them behind & the same appliances except one dryer has survived 3 subsequent tenants.

In our higher end properties we do install better quality appliances & we have a repair guy we can trust on speed dial, so he reacts quickly for us. In five years we have used him probably 8 times & he saved us the cost of replacing a 5-7 yr old appliance. But he hates Bosch (everything) & LG front load washers !!!

Happy tenant, happy life !!!

We are lucky we can pull our own permits BUT the homeowner MUST get it inspected & signed off. If there are deficiencies the contractor needs to satisfy them before pulling the final payment. But any morning at the town bldg inspectors office can be a 2 hour waste of time as you go from one inspections office to the next. So I understand a contractor charging for the time lost. 

We had one contractor lay electrical conduit from a utility pole underground to the building. The E. Insp found that he had used Sched 40 PVC below ground. That was after the cement driveway etc was poured so that contractor was pi$$ed & spent 3 days digging & re-routing conduit & electrical service wiring. He faced losing his ability to work in the town if it was NOT corrected. We paid him the remaining 30% after it passed inspection.

But we have also purchased investment properties that due diligence revealed had unsigned permits dating back many years. 

We did something similar BUT he lived in an RV we had on the property. He paid mkt rent & we paid him by the hour for the work done. Some months he made more than the rent sometimes he didn't. A couple of months after he started he had a 'lady' he met move in & she also helped on another project for $12/hr. He also worked on several other projects I quoted on.

After the ground-up studio build was finished they moved in for several months, paid full mkt rent, then decided to buy the RV & move it to another property. The studio rented immediately & has been occupied since.

Our inherited 8yr old 75 gallon failed at 2am on a Sat night. It's in a 6 unit that runs on one HW tank. I replaced it with a 40 gallon that we picked up scratch & dent that I had in storage. It has worked so far, but I am in the process of installing an on-demand NG HW system. I have installed quite a few of these so far & have not had any problems.

I do have an electric on-demand system at our Lakehouse that has been amazing, but you need a 200amp service 2x50amp breakers & 2 dedicated 6ga circuits to run it.

In your situation I would just bypass the defective tank & run off the other until you can get it replaced.

As my old Real Estate agent said 30+ years ago. ANYTHING near water & that has paid off for us, just wish we had bought a LOT more.