All Forum Posts by: Gerald K.

@Brandon Turner

Not sure what kind of shower door it is, but I would check the rollers that roll in the guide. Sometimes those come apart. We were cleaning a shower door once and it fell off the guide once and almost broke. This particular door had the bottom guide missing so the door swung around too much. The ball bearings/roller came apart. You can get replacement rollers and the bottom guides at the Big Box stores. Not to say that it wasn't the tenant's fault, but at least you have a place to check for a possible fault. Good luck.

Hi @Steven Huang

Welcome to BP. Always nice to see another Pacific Northwesterner join the community here. Vancouver is nice. My wife and I like to visit up there as often as we can. The real estate market is expensive up there though, so I understand why you would be investing in another market. Please share with us how you were able to make those investments happen. Turnkey or by building your own team? We're also interested in building a portfolio of cashflowing properties so we will be free to travel and do the things we like. Hope to see more of you on the forums.

@Denny Le , welcome to BP. Always nice to see another WA resident join the community here. If you do nothing else, joining BP is a fantastic place to start. Good luck and hope to see you around the forums!

Yeah, it seemed to work for us. The cycling on multiple times per day as you indicated might even work better in this situation. When we were researching fan timers, we considered a humidistat switch timer, but weren't sure about their reliablility as some reviews reported them as not always triggering even during very humid conditions.

@Sam Leon , thanks for taking all the time to log your experience here on BP. I'm glad I'm not the only one with hairy problems like this! Glad you finally got it figured out.

We put this fan timer in a bathroom in one of our rentals.

http://www.amazon.com/Air-King-AKDT60-Delay-Switch/dp/B000EVWFPS/ref=sr_1_13?ie=UTF8&qid=1387049778&sr=8-13&keywords=fan+timer

It can be set up in many different ways. We set it up so that when the vent fan is turned off it stays on for a predetermined time before shutting off. It can also be set up with the light switch - after the light is turned off, the fan keeps running for a predetermined time. I wonder if they're trying to create a steamy area for the daughter to breath for her sinus problem(?)

Steve, thank you for providing that. That's a good list of housekeeping standards to begin with. Besides the list itself and the inspection, I'm particularly impressed that they included what happens afterwards if standards are not met. Being upfront like that should eliminate any surprise or misunderstanding about the whole inspection. We have a list of housekeeping requirements and have been conducting regular routine maintenance and safety inspections, but never spelled out exactly how the issues would be addressed. Here's the specific part:

"The Housing Authority inspects each unit at least annually, to determine compliance with these standards. Upon completion of the inspection the Housing Authority Inspector posts a letter to inform the tenant of any fail items and the date that the dwelling will be re-inspected for corrections."

Making it a process like that makes it just a routine thing - no thinking involved - just follow the process.

Thanks for taking the trouble to provide that information. I think this is very helpful.

Thanks @Steve Babiak

- Understand and agree. Visiting the tenant to see how well they're taking care of their current residence before they move into yours - the housekeeping addendum and opportunity to cure - all good points. Prevention is always the best. While a housekeeping agreement is a good thing to have, I'm not sure how much good it would do with tenants that are accustomed to living like slobs. If you have to constantly be on their case about following the agreement, it might just be better to let the lease expire and not renew it. I wonder if any BPers have had success changing a dirty tenant into a clean ones. If you have, let us know what worked for you.

As Steve mentioned above, an air pressure test would be a good first test. Hopefully you could identify if/where the leaks may be by listening for the hiss. All the water valves would need to be turned off to all water fixtures - faucets, toilets, etc. We didn't have frozen pipes but the asset manager of a bank owned property we were interested in wouldn't let us turn on the water so that was how we checked the plumbing. We just used our own compressor with the right fittings. Do a Google search for air pressure test on water pipes and you should get some good info.

@Scott W. , Just curious - when you did visit, how was it arranged? Was it part of your screening process or a less formal thing? Were you able to go room to room checking the condition?

It seems difficult, if not impossible, to make it a requirement of a screening process - since some people are moving from quite a distance. However, it would definitely give you a clue of what to expect at your place. And just by asking if they would allow a residence visit could reveal something by their response to the idea. Driving by a residence could also give you some information as far as the condition of the yard, the condition of the cars in the driveway, what type of people are hanging around the area, etc.