All Forum Posts by: Tom C

Thanks why that kitchen sink GFCI stopped working.. j/k.. but very good point.

Not at all Bill.. That's why I am asking. Scraping, nope. It's a rental house or apartment, not a condo or a $1200 a month rental. We go in and paint if necessary, clean and make them safe, clean and livable. We don't go in and start remodeling the place. If the trim needs new paint, you clean it off and paint it. I can imagine that your business is going to take one hell of a hit if you refuse to do any construction on homes older then 1978.

Bill,

As far as being totally honest. My city requires a permit to replace a toilet. Do you really think anyone is going to pay $25 bucks for a permit to replace a toilet? Also, I was always under the impression, that if you paint over wood work, it sealed any lead paint that maybe present. Is this not the case now?

Steve, I am not an electrician either, but I do pretend to be one, since I can't afford to hire one. Most inspectors simply put their little tester in the GFCI, push the button and see if it the GFCI pops. If you ground it at the cold water line, this will occur, therefore it's grounded and will correctly in the event someone drops their can opener in a sink full of water.

Here is how I look at this. You have to look your business's whole picture. Sure, every time I pull cash out of one house that is free and clear to purchase another, that first house becomes less profitable, but now I just purchased another which gives me an extra $550 a month in cash, actually only $200, because now I have a note on the first property. As long as you are only holding one property, you will always be at risk. I say hold the property, pull some cash out if you can and go and buy another to off set your risk and the money you are loosing on this property.

Here is my advice. I run into this all the time on my Section 8 inspections. First, get rid of all of your 3 prong outlets and replace with 2 prong. Grounding issue for that is solved. For any GFCI receptacle that you must have near a water source, run a ground down to your cold water line under the sink. This will provide a ground for the GFCI outlet. Make sure you have a ground outside and your hot water heater is grounded and your cold water line coming in is grounded. As far as I know, this will bring the grounding issue up to code. Remember, they also make GFCI breakers that hopefully you can find that will fit your box, just in case you can't get a good ground on a GFCI outlet.

Tell me.. As a buy, rehab and hold for rental investor, I always practice that when our dwelling inspector comes in and asks about improvements, our answers are simple. We cleaned up, painted and waxed the floors. Nothing was done that would have required a permit. Anything new in the house, must have been done by the previous owner. So, if that's all we did, then there is no need for lead testing, correct? Of course this doesn't work for flippers, but it could for landlords and all of our tenants get the lead paint handbook and sign off on it.

My very first investment has been the most expensive. Since I bought the house 3 yrs ago here is a list of things that I didn't expect.

Broken gas line in front yard - $1200
Termites, $800. We don't have termites in Northern Ohio.. so I thought.
One massive Pin Oak tree that had to come down. $2600
Another massive Pin Oak tree, 2 broken branches from a storm, $600

There are 3 massive Pin Oak trees on the property and sooner or later they will all have to come down before they fall on my neighbors house horribly killing everyone inside. When I bought the house, I had a feeling those trees were going to be a problem, but never expected it to happen so soon. One bit of advice. Look at the property closely. Look for dead grass in front yard, clear sign of a gas line leak and for Pete sake, look at the tree's!

Oh, the amount of their voucher means very little. S8 determines how much they will pay based on your home and their monthly expenses. My tenant had a voucher for $550 a month, but my house was only a 2 bed, so they would only pay $425.