Tenant Sewage Hell

I recently bought a new 3 bedroom 2 bath house rental property. It has been some years and I had grown rusty, making some mistakes with the closing, financing and rehab. None fatal. I was trying to be diligent. The home was professionally inspected, I went ahead and spent some money on ceramic tiling the whole floor. I was choosy with the tenant selection, doing credit and criminal checks on all serious applicants. The tenant and family moved in. Then the sewer erupted into the house.

And the fun began. It erupted on a Saturday. Ever try to find a plumber on Saturday? Forget it. The tenants items were soaked. I called a professional plumber for the first of 3 times. They came 5 days later and put a cable down the sewer line ($225) and all seemed well for a week.

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Air Conditioner (A/C) Cage for $90 or Less

How to build a cage for your Air Conditioner (A/C) to prevent stealing for $90 or less. An A/C condensor on a Houston, Texas foreclosure I bought had been stolen long before I bought it. The idea of putting a brand-new 13 SEER unit into a neighborhood known for A/C theft was not attractive. I am told that the scrap metal dealers are doing thumbprint, photograph and 3 day waiting period now before paying for copper. The A/C cage will consist of 3 bars north/south and 3 bars east/west. See picture. This should provide more than adequate room to work on the unit and have un-restricted air-flow. The goal is to make the cage so the unit cannot be removed from the cage without destroying it.

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PG: Younger Generation Investing In Retirement Homes

According to this pantagraph.com article, young people are investing in retirement homes, not stocks: ‘…No one knows how many younger buyers are out snapping up their retirement homes. But real-estate agents and financial planners around the country say they’re increasingly assisting younger buyers out spending $100,000 to $500,000 for a house to call home in retirement. Partially at play is a cultural shift planners say they see among younger savers who aren’t content to just accumulate assets to use in retirement. Instead, this younger generation wants to put some of its nest egg to work today as an investment in family. A year ago, Daniel Merkle and Sandra Bauman of Glen Rock, N.J., took roughly 20 percent of their retirement assets — none of it coming from tax-deferred accounts like their IRAs or 401(k) plans — and bought a cottage on a hill with 60 feet of lake frontage in Athens, N.Y., in the Catskill Mountains. “It was clear the money was better off in the index funds we owned,” Merkle says. “But there are factors you can’t see on a spreadsheet — like the time we get with our kids building memories there. We wanted to get in while it was affordable.”

The Key to Real Estate Investing Wealth: Patience, Research and Events

“98% of the millionaires in this country made it through Real Estate Investing”.

These words inspire millions to get involved in real estate investing, yet lack that special ‘secret ingredient’…

The one thing that explains HOW to make those millions in real estate investing…

So, just what is it that the millionaires of real estate know that you don’t?

Here is the key to making fortunes in real estate investing, or simply continuing to struggle aimlessly…

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7 Top Real Estate Investing Jobs

Real Estate investing has long been proven to make money for the active investor. Many of the real estate investing methods and techniques used to make some of the biggest (and quickest) returns only require a little time and a bit of knowledge to rapidly bring home a big check. Yet the “investing” gets a bit lost in most of the world of “Real Estate Investing” – there is no “investing” other than a bit of time – there is no ROI (Return On Investment) other than the time-for-money factor. Thats why I call these activities Real Estate Investing Jobs -they stop bringing income as soon as you stop working them.

Real Estate Investing through these jobs, while they make you money, will never give you financial freedom as they only generate quick money and not long-term, passive income. This article will look at some of the more popular methods of Real Estate Investing jobs.

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Tile Floor vs. Laminate Floor in Rentals

Don’t do laminate. If you have to do laminate, Lumber liquidators and Floor and Decor Warehouse consistently have the best prices on laminate. But don’t do laminate, do ceramic tile. Don’t do carpet. Why? Read on…

It costs more up front to do tile, but make-ready’s require at most a mopping and sweeping. No stupid truck to come clean carpets. I have 2 condos that have laminate wood, 1 from Lumber Liquidators, the other from Floor and Decor. They have done fine. But again, I do not recommend it because unless you get the stuff rated for kitchen and bath of which the cost-effective stuff isn’t, you can have a very expensive problem with water.

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