Posts filed under 'General Day to Day Landlady Stuff'
I recently received a comment on this blog, asking if I had any top tips for buying a duplex. Here’s my best shot:
CHECK OUT THE NEIGHBORS
Buy in the best neighborhood you can afford. If you do this, even if your house isn’t the nicest one on the block, the values of the houses around you prop up your property value — and rental value. It’s tempting to look at the house as an island, but when you’re trying to find renters, they’ll be looking at the duplex, and also the context that it’s in. They’lll be checking out the houses to the left and right of it, the other side of the alley, across the street, and all around the block…
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Well, after my tenants’ unusually large electric bill, and a little research, I sent them a long email, with a few pointers on how they can keep their bill down in the future. A big one: compact flourescent light bulbs. A big runner-up: turning off the lights in the stairway when they’re not using them.
But how to know exactly what the culprit is doesn’t have to be guesswork — a friend of mine recently came across this wonderful gadget, the P3 International Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor To use it, you simply connect your appliances to the usage monitor and it will assess how efficient they are.
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It’s been a hot summer. My last electric bill was easily three times what it normally is — I figured, though, that it was a result of having the my dinky little room AC cranked for a week and a half straight, while also having about 42 fans on full blast, and me standing in front of the refridgerator constantly with the door open. However, it has seemed as though every summer has a few heat spells like that, yet my electric bill has never gone above $40. Until now.
My tenants stopped me in front of the house the other day, and told me that their electric bill has been way out of line for the past two months too. I told them that mine has been high too, and they wondered “Could someone be stealing our electricity?”
Is this even possible?
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When selecting tenants, I have a limit of three people for my rental unit. Local zoning laws state that I cannot legally rent my unit to “more than three unrelated persons,” which means that a family of 5 or 6 (or more) could legally live in that space. However, even though it is a three bedroom apartment, it isn’t very large. Also, there is only one water heater for the duplex, AND I live below the rental unit, so I like to keep the number of people as low as possible. As far as I can tell, it IS legal to tell someone you can’t rent to them because they have too many people. However, you CAN’T tell someone that you won’t rent to them because they have kids — that violates fair housing laws.
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One of the good things about tenant turnovers, when you live in the other unit of your duplex, is curb shopping. If you’re not above it, that is. I have been called cheap in the past, but I prefer the term “thrifty.” 
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Sometimes there’s only so much you can do about curb appeal. Since I’ve bought my duplex, I’ve done a lot to improve how it looks from the street. I’ve removed four overgrown bushes in the front of the house (you can see the windows now!) and planted hydrangeas, tulips, daffodils and crocuses in the now open flowerbed. I’ve scraped and painted the foundation, painted the front railings, painted the front steps, replaced the front storm door, painted the front door, removed the faux wood paneling and three-season carpeting from the front porch, replaced the dirt driveway with stylish brick pavers, and kept the grass neatly trimmed. Especially when I’m trying to rent the duplex. Everyone I know has remarked on how much better it looks — like they’re walking into a whole different house.
However, my next door neighbors nearly always have a front yard that looks like a prairie. The backyard is also a prairie, with the slight variation of bikes, tents, furniture, toys, clothes that have fallen from the line, and other sundry eyesores.
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I’ve always vacuumed the stairs going up to my rental unit. The tenants are the only ones who use them, but I figure its part of my common area responsibilities.
Until the new people moved in, and asked if there was an outlet in the hall, so they could vacuum the stairs.
Bonus! Self-cleaning tenants!
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My old tenants are out. Mostly.
This girl Marcy, who subletted from one of them last summer, still has a hammock in the backyard, and a couple of boxes of things in the basement. The departing tenants called her the day they were moving out, and asked her to come get her things that day if possible, but she was a no-show.
Now, the hammock I don’t mind if she leaves here. I like having a hammock in the backyard. I’d hate for her to come and get it.
But what am I supposed to do with her boxes of stuff? I’ve called and left a message, letting her know its here, but haven’t heard back from her. How long do I wait, before…
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GIFTS
I give my tenants a small gift around the holidays; just some chocolates or something simple and consumable in the $5.00 range. The purpose of this is to show them that I value the relationship; they are really my “clients,” after all. Also, it makes me look like the nicest landlord EVER. (When you were renting, did you ever get a holiday gift from YOUR landlord?)
IMPROVEMENTS
If something breaks in their apartment, I always try to replace it with something nicer than what was there. You wouldn’t believe how much some tenants will appreciate a new, stylish kitchen faucet.
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When I moved into the duplex, there was an old coin-operated washing machine in the basement laundry room. It worked fine, except for that it left the clothes really, really wet. But only sometimes. I had bigger initial issues to deal with, and my first group of tenants brought most of their laundry to their parents’ houses, so I got used to using it as-is.
My current tenants recently asked me if I could have it looked at. I try to keep my tenants happy (I want them to stay forever!), so I looked into getting it fixed or replaced.
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I bought a duplex as a single, 27 year old woman. I had gotten the real estate bug, just like everyone else, but my options were limited. Condo prices had skyrocketed, I was kind of creeped out by the idea of living in a single family house all by myself, especially in the neighborhoods that I could afford one in. Even then, my options were crackhouses and places smaller than the apartment I was renting.
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