Update on Rental Property
July 19th, 2006 by Grant in: Real Estate, Rental PropertyAfter I got the lease signed on my first rental property, everything went fairly smoothly and I had no complaints…
…then it got hot.
Evidently, the air conditioner was blowing air, just not cold air. After a day of elevated nerves and frustration that the air conditioner might be my first major expense, I was relieved to find out that it was only a loose wire on the back of the thermostat.
Whew! While it did cost me about $60 to fix the problem (a hefty $49.99 for the service call and $10 to check the unit and screw the wire back to the box), it could have been much worse! Note to self: check all wires before calling repair man.
Another couple weeks went by, and the kitchen counter broke. The counter in the house is poured concrete, and evidently one of the tenants set some groceries on the edge and broke a chunk off the end.
Great! How do you fix that without re-pouring the entire countertop?
Answer: Liquid nails and some plywood. I reinforced the bottom of the countertop by screwing plywood into the existing plywood base, and then schmeared some special “liquid nails” type adhesive that adheres to concrete to the broken piece and the plywood. Worked like a champ.
An update on my washer/dryer situation: I ended up buying a refurbished pair from a mom and pop appliance store for about $300 total. They are nice, name brand units that are about 5 years old. So they look new, but cost about one fifth of the new price…
No other complaints yet, and I’ve been receiving rent on time so far.
Leave comments
Subscribe to Comments
Loading ...
July 19th, 2006 at 11:30 am
Other Voices: Links for 7/19/06
Links of interest: The Corner Office Blog:
July 20th, 2006 at 8:58 am
Way to go on the washer and dryer. It’s amazing what you can find at those little hole in the wall stores.
Could you have used regular cement to bond the counter top back together?
Congrats on your seemingly successful rental.
July 20th, 2006 at 10:23 am
Nice! So far so good - don’t worry you always have to go through an adjustment period - once the renters get adjusted to the house youll stop getting phone calls for awhile.
July 20th, 2006 at 10:45 am
Yeah, the phone calls have stopped for the time being.
I do need to go in and replace and test all the smoke detectors. The lawyer I talked to recommended going in every 6 months to change and test the detectors regardless of whether they need it or not.
A) It gives you piece of mind
B) It gives you an excuse to go in and walk through the house.
July 20th, 2006 at 2:03 pm
Nice work on the rental deal… keep an eye on your tenants and don’t take any excuses from them. experience talking. Gotta be a hard hearted landlord to be succesfull. its a business afterall
July 26th, 2006 at 5:18 pm
Quite creative using liquid nails to fix a concrete countertop. Are you sure it will hold up?
Great find on the W/D!
WTK
November 20th, 2006 at 7:50 pm
Some GREAT tips in this post. I especially like the idea of using liquid nails to fix the countertop. I have used it in a lot of projects and I can testify that it will hold up for a long time.
Good luck with this investment.
Phil G
November 21st, 2006 at 11:26 pm
Liquid nails really worked well on this fix. Actually, it was a liquid nails specifically for cement. Haven’t had a problem since.
-Grant