All Forum Posts by: Seth Borman

Bettina, houses in South Tacoma have been appreciating at an incredible rate. My cousin bought one for $100,000 and it's now worth $200,000 with a little work. Lots of young professionals getting their first house in South Tacoma.

You won't see the holes. They are covered.

The units don't mix air all that well. They work for rooms and, if you keep the doors open, a little more.

I really like how efficient they are, and how quiet they are compared to central air.

Maintenance consists of rinsing a filter once a month.

Before you do that, why don't you come up with a plan to weatherize and insulate the house. That includes new insulation, sealing, windows, etc.

Than have a Manual J calculation performed.

Than you'll be able to compare the costs for the various systems that you want to install.

The technology that minisplits use (inverter compressors) is now available for central air as well.

Are you flipping or holding?

We hold our properties (30 doors now, plus six office suites) and we've found that it is considerably cheaper to replace HVAC equipment proactively rather than waiting for it to fail. 

We learned this lesson on a house that we managed remotely. A boiler was taking $500/yr in maintenance to replace so we waited until the off season and replaced it. It was significantly cheaper than waiting for it to fail and replacing it during the heating season. The same house had a heat pump that failed once a year and cost $1000 to fix each time. We ended up replacing it during the cooling season at a premium. Both new systems cost $0 after the work, and we finally sold the house because we weren't making any money a few years later.

 We've got two apartment buildings in Lakewood. One is pretty easy, the other is a pain in the ***, but one is from 1977 and the other from 1928. One was built as an apartment, the other was not.

With the right PM a newer apartment building shouldn't be too hard.

Is there something in the landlord tenant law in Pennsylvania that requires you to store his trash?

I've bolded something that simply isn't true. I have a BA in Political Science and a Master of Real Estate Development that I got with the GI Bill. The VA will pay for any accredited program.

Look into the Reserves. You'll get six months of free health care and then be able to sign up for health insurance for $50 or $220 a month (depending on if you have dependents). Drill pay is peanuts but the insurance is awesome.

What's your goal?  What are you trying to prevent?