All Forum Posts by: Seth Borman

You don't change the washer to save water, you change it to save power. Hot water isn't inexpensive.

@Wadner Cortez I've been looking around the internet and I haven't seen appraisers come to agreement on how to value an ADU. One of the approaches was to value using the income method and subtract about 10%. That $200,000 figure would be pretty conservative using that method as an ADU is a very low expense way to build a small apartment.

Ultimately I think one of the big hold ups on ADUs nationwide is lenders and brokers getting a handle on what exactly they are dealing with.

In addition to what has been posted, give some consideration to the fact that an old oil boiler may be 60-70% thermally efficient and, of course it runs on oil. A new gas boiler will be 80-90% efficient and run on cheaper gas.

Why do we care about the tenants cost? With gas, the tenant has more money left over to pay rent... and there are no issues with determining how much oil is in the tank when they move in and out.

Nick, the point is that adding the ADU is like buying a rental at 2%. For that matter if they really do add $200,000 in value (a big if) they can be part of a cash out refinance strategy.

You shouldn't sign a lease with a new tenant until they have the electric bill in their name. Really, they should have all the utilities in their names.

We just had to repair one of our two. $750 for new parts and the labor to install. Ours are propane. No gas company involved. If I had a way to profit from it I would install ductless units.

What are you buying? Sewer and trash fees are usually very consistent. Electric, gas and water can be all over the map. More importantly, are you talking about master metered multifamily? If it's SFR then your concern should be whether the tenant can afford it in addition to rent.

We have a few of these. If I were replacing them I'd go straight to a ductless heat pump. It's the cheapest way to get heating and cooling and it's cheap for the tenant as well.

We've started doing pet deposits and rent. It's a valuable additional income that we wouldn't otherwise have. We use vinyl flooring wherever possible anyway so we've got that going for us. The only problem we've had is a dog that escapes and harasses the animal control officer. We've been working with the tenant on that one. No damage to any of the units in the last year that we've allowed pets and I'd say almost half the units have them.

We have some log cabins that use this type of heat and we've never heard of any problems. The units are only about 80% efficient at most but they work without electric power which is nice. We just had to replace the fan motor and burner on one and it was about $750. A new unit would have been about the same cost as a ductless heat pump, except a DHP gets to air conditioning and off the gas. 

I'd rather use ductless units than wall heaters.