All Forum Posts by: Sacha LaCoss

 We are working on one of our properties in Albuquerque that has a single family home and a “Casita” (guesthouse) which are very common to our area in the North Valley.

They are usually rented out separately and have their own electric/gas meters with just water/trash shared.

Our goal this trip (we live out of state) other than supervising repairs from a fire in the front house are to upgrade some parts of the property to increase rents and attract better quality tenants as well as taking care of some upgrades as the property has been rented for 9 years to a variety of tenants. 

I thought I’d share our projects and progress with you all over the next 3 weeks as I have learned from and appreciate reading about everyone else’s projects.

Day #1

First up is to further separate the two houses for more privacy with a new fence. This will create a private back yard for the front house and a private front yard for the casita.

Before the back yard was shared space and neither unit had privacy

The front part of the fence will also be removed to allow parking closer to the casita and to better define the two parking areas.

To keep costs down we will be dismantling a small covered area and part of an existing fence and re-use the materials to build it.

That along with other left over materials from past projects and properties should allow us to complete this project for very little cost.

That cover and fence is now disassembled and is fencing material. We also laid out where we want the fence to go for visualization purposes

After pic with the covered area and the fence removed. Hey it’s a Casita!

We even will repurpose the gate from the front of the house now it will be a back gate 

We also got in a dump run and worked on more sorting and organization of the storage and materials stored here.  

All in all it was a very productive day.

We have State Farm-dealing with our first claim ever right now and so far great service 

Great map Art, thank you for sharing! 

We lived in Albuquerque for 11 years and my husbands family has been there since the 50’s. We currently own 2 houses and a duplex in the north valley.  

 Care to share some nearby cross streets? There are areas that are exactly has you described in the south of I40 in both the east and west. 

 But Abq is a city of pocket neighborhoods so can be very different in just a few streets. Personally if we buy more properties there we will focus on the areas North of I40, or in the area right around the university and Nob Hill areas.  Though the area around the university also gets worse the further you get from it. 

The closer you get to the east mountains the nicer it gets and then there are the Los Ranchos and Corrales areas near the river than can get very very nice and even ritzy. 

Good luck! 

In LA I would just expect a massive party lol 

Just curious what laws are in N.M. relating to security deposits.  Basically I just want to know if I need to do a repair or clean up and I get a few quotes for what needs to be done but I do it myself can I deduct my labor so it’s similar or less than what I would be charged if I paid someone else to do it as long as it is in line with the quotes I received?  My reading on the forums here alerted me to the fact that this is illegal in some states and I want to make sure I’m not doing anything I should not. 

I do understand I cannot deduct normal wear and tear and do not plan to do so. 

*yard clean up when the tenant was required to do so by the lease but didn’t do any -so many leaves....

*repairing holes in drywall and painting (not from nails but larger ones) 

*Removing blinds the tenant broke and replacing with new ones

*Heavy cleaning where they did no cleaning at move out and didn’t apparently clean at all while they lived there 

I also understand that I need to provide an itemized list of repairs/costs and have 30 days to return it.  

Thank you 

I am currently dealing with a similar situation except my tenant has renters insurance.  But we have the same insurance company so my agent is telling me we probably won’t have to pay the deductible but if we do we will get it back once everything is settled.  I highly recommend making your tenants have renters insurance otherwise we would be out the costs as most tenants don’t have any assets for you to go after for damages they cause but for $30 a month added to to their car insurance they have 100k in liability insurance and their belongings are covered as well. 

We use Behr Heavy Cream-it’s not white and not beige, just enough color but not enough for it to clash with pretty much any decor.  We use the same color in all rooms in all our properties to make it easier to paint only what we need to between tenants

I tried this for the first time on one of our properties recently, I increased the rent  $50 over what I wanted and prominently advertised the discount of $50 to pay before the 1st and yes there is a late fee if it’s late.  So far (6 months) rent has been paid before the 1st each month.  

I will be speaking to a lawyer tomorrow or Tuesday, waiting to hear back.  My company provides  free legal consultations as a benefit  so I am going to start there and move forward after I get a general idea of where we are legally.  I’m not communicating with her at all till then.  In the meantime I have informed my insurance agent about my suspicions including sending copies of the tenants emails over the last few months.  He said 25% of instances like this are intentional which is sad but I guess reality. 

I think  that she can break the lease but I will be confirming that. She is leaving either way at this point but if I can hold her responsible for the time the house is repaired but not rented I will be. 

I also believe that I can charge her for other damages not related to the fire.  I’ll verify that first.   I got some feedback from a different tenant who lives next door and there is considerable yard work that has not been taken care of (these are not apartments but houses) that the lease holds her responsible for.   Plus from the few inside pics I have seen there are other damages that have nothing to do with the fire that I was unaware of.  We were last in the unit in July. 

Part of the smoke damage repairs is going to include heavy cleaning and painting of the entire house so I think the inside at least will be clean and painted when the house is considered fixed.  If not I’ll deduct that as well. 

She also owes amounts for electric, water and trash which I’ll deduct from her deposits once she is gone and I get the final numbers. 

If we subrogate to her insurance policy initially we will not have to pay the deductible but they will only cut 1 check at the very end if we do it this way vs paying out per job-like they would if we paid the deductible and were later reimbursed. We are going to wait for all quotes ect.. and then decide which way we want to go as we may do some of the finish work ourselves. 

We are going to see what the insurance and adjuster says about the furnace and consider installing a different type.  The contractor told my mom when she let him in to get a quote that they don’t allow the floor furnaces anymore BUT the guy from the gas company who called when they pulled the meter said it just had to be moved 12 inches from a wall and that they still sell them so I will get clarification.  I have code update coverage up to $20k so if that has to be done it’s covered. 

I looked hard at mini splits but apparently they need monthly maintenance? I dont trust tenants to do it and we live in another state so unless that’s wrong I don’t think we will go that way.  Is this accurate? I’ve never had one before. 

I’ve wanted to sink some additional funds into this property and finish the last of the updating.   This incident  prompted a good discussion with my husband about the different types of properties A, B, C, D and the quality of tenants that live in them.  We recently purchased another property from a family member that would be considered an A and he is now seeing how much easier they are on the home and to deal with.  So we may go ahead and do some upgrades and raise the rent.  We are lucky that this property is in an improving area and already a B.  We are at the very edge of a very desirable area and the street has been steadily improving over the last 10 years with people buying and redoing houses.  Redoing the kitchen and 1 bath from functional but old to updated should allow us to increase rents at least $200 or more a month as the rest of the house has been very well maintained and updated.  Our insurance agent couldn’t believe it was built in 1941.  Rents in the area seem to already be around $1,150 for what she had for $950 as is.  I underpriced it when I rented it last I think even though I increased it from the previous tenant. 

I have learned a lot from this experience and I’ll expect I’ll learn more lol I was  careful in screening this last time in regards to credit and income but here are a few lessons I plan to implement when I fill it this time: 

No individual showings-just a set date and time- open house.

Collect all applications at once.  After significant reading on this site and hindsight her eagerness to gives me money is suspect. 

Insist on speaking to not just the last landlords but the one before that as well. 

As always you guys were very helpful and I appreciate all the constructive feedback and information.