Airing Out the Rental

[don]

Re: Airing Out the Rental

Yes, I'm an electrical contractor. And yes, it happens in homes for sale too, but generally, a pre-sale home inspection will catch those things, while they can go for years without detection in a rental because no inspection is required. But the stuff is really comical like you say. I have hundreds of photos. Some would only make sense to another electrician, some are obvious.

Here is one of my favorites

No room in the panel to add the new pool wiring? Just tap into the meter. On the LINE side( pre-meter). This had been like this for several years. With a gaping hole in the brick.

As you know, Flint, for a pirated power install, it's way above average. Liquidtite strapped, a 3-R box, etc. Wow! The all-time winner for me was a 2-pole knifeswitch, the type you see in an old Frankenstein movie, completely exposed, never had a cover, mounted next to the old-style A meter, on the back porch in easy reach of the kids. Simply incredible. An electrocution waiting to happen. It had been there for decades.

[flintlock]

Re: Airing Out the Rental

Some of the big corps give generous relocation assist for senior talent. It makes all the difference.

I looked at my own moving expenses and find it'll cost me something like $25,000 to move my primary residence - $19,000 realtor fees, $2,500 for the moving crew, $2,500 for window coverings etc at the new place, and $1,000 for misc storage fees, boxes, etc.

If your employer covers the realtor fees and moving truck, it makes it a pretty easy decision. If you're a six-figure guy, the couple grand remaining is just a minor price to be master of your own domain.

Me, I was deciding if I should sell and then rent just to avoid price decline on my residence. At $25K to get us moved into a rental, them a big chunk of that again when prices stabilize and I want to own again, there is no payoff for moving to avoid losses. I'll sit tight and take the loss . When it all comes out in the wash, it'll only cost me a couple grand to skip the whole ordeal of an extra move.

Yes, I know they do a lot of that stuff. Like you said, master of your domain is a good enough reason for me. My neighbor's wife is a pretty big time executive, and they can certainly afford the hit, but I think he said they lost about $50k when they moved from here, even with the company buying the house,etc. Moved in 2008, moved back here again in 2010. So bad timing on that. The home he bought here six months ago is probably down in value close to $40k since then as well. That gets expensive. 90k will pay a lot of rent! And won't companies pay for the move regardless of rent vs own? For some I think it's just a habit rather than a well thought out process.

I've seen it work the opposite way as well. My brother moved to FL, bought a home, and about a year later sold it for $150K more than he paid! But I think those days are behind us. They moved to North FL after that and he really wanted to buy a home near the coast. I urged him not to and they ended up just renting. A year later they moved again, glad they hadn't bought into the Florida RE market right before it collapsed.

[flintlock]

Re: Airing Out the Rental

I thought the same thing Don! They obviously knew enough to know better.

I've seen them tap into the overhead wire in the attic. Back when they allowed the wire to run inside the home before it got to the meter. Just skin the wire and presto, no power bill for that electric heat! I've noticed the power company around here has taken to installing lock on the meter base now. Sign of the times I guess.

[don]

Re: Airing Out the Rental

I thought the same thing Don! They obviously knew enough to know better.

I've seen them tap into the overhead wire in the attic. Back when they allowed the wire to run inside the home before it got to the meter. Just skin the wire and presto, no power bill for that electric heat! I've noticed the power company around here has taken to installing lock on the meter base now. Sign of the times I guess.

The meters have been locked in Cali for 20 years. Not all, just those with a tamper history, 'bad' neighborhood, etc. I've seen some real hacksaw massacres on the hold down rings, which are tougher than hell. Now we're into the 'smart' meters, a whole new ballgame. Of course it was "expected of us" to tap into the overhead for working power during a service change. Then replug the meter or flatten it in (jumpers if the meter design was too old) to provide temp power until PG&E could come out. If anything went sideways we were on our own

[flintlock]

Re: Airing Out the Rental

It used to be only in bad neighborhoods would I ever see a locked meter base. Now I'm seeing it more often. Perhaps its just that the neighborhoods are going downhill.

On another note, I just got off the phone with a friend. Seems his tenant moved out during the middle of the night. Took his appliances, a large weight machine, and even his Ping Pong table!

[Jay]

Re: Airing Out the Rental

I rent. Since we moved in in January, in addition to saving the pipes from a freeze, having a gas leak fixed and the thermocoupling unit replaced on the water heater (both taken out of my rent), I have, among other things, joint compounded and painted multiple rooms, installed at least 10 lights (including two chandeliers), put in motion detector switches in the halls for the lights, and had a security system and fire alarm put in, and wired a sound system. All except the gas leak and water heater paid for or done by me. I enjoy the house and the improvements. Next I need to humanely get rid of the squirrel living in the eaves...

Renting is fantastic. Friends of mine who looked at me like an alien for renting since 2006, now tell me they wish they could do the same; which makes me think it might be getting close to the right time to buy.

I have saved a ton of cash in the last few years renting (plus the interest/gain on that money.)

[zoog]

Re: Airing Out the Rental

The tenants on this one decided to do a few "upgrades" on this home by painting it and taking out a few walls. They installed a "bar" as well as doing a little electrical work.

Love the mustard grout with mayo stone on the fireplace, LOL. Classy.