Steamy Hot

I spent some time debating on what type of water heaters to purchase for a rental property. On the cheap end I could likely get away with two 40G 6 year warranty tanks for around $700, on the higher end I could purchase two 50G 12 year warranty tanks for around $900. In the end I went with the better 50G 12 year GE tanks. It’s difficult deciding where to cut costs in rentals, but I feel like infrastructure is a place where quality will pay off down the road. The cost of $200 more for 6 years of piece of mind and knowing tenants won’t be complaining about cold water was justifiable. Plus, anyone who knows me knows I take ridiculously long hot showers in the winter so we could call this a bit of a personal splurge as well. If the strategy on this property was to flip I would have went cheap, a buy and hold strategy requires long term foresight.





Before



After

Let the Games Begin... Plumbing is up to bat!

It’s now been 4 weeks from my closing date and I’ve been anxious to get the construction started. Time is ticking, and with a rental property every week of vacancy is money out of your pocket. The masons and roofers have been at a standstill with the recent crappy weather, but I’ve decided to pull the trigger on plumbing.

I’ve selected Chicagoland Plumbing as they had excellent reviews on Angie’s list. Edwin and his crew have been extremely responsive, polite, and provided great workmanship. The project scope included the removal of all old ¾” and ½” galvanized piping and replacing all the supply plumbing to the first and second floor units with the copper. They are also installing two brand new water heaters (I have requested to purchase on my own separately) which will have separate gas lines run for corresponding Units 1 and 2. Upon completion they will hook up kitchen and bath fixtures as necessary. I have budgeted $5,000 (water heaters included) for this project and their quote for labor and material is around $3,500. I’ve allocated $1,000 of the budget for purchasing new water heaters from Home Depot.

Below is a link to their website and a picture of some of the shinny new copper in the basement utility room. I highly recommend Edwin and his crew at Chicagoland plumbing for anyone that needs great work done at great prices. Thanks Edwin!

http://www.chicagolandplumbing.net

Angie the Angel

One of the most difficult first steps I’ve encounter as a novice rehabber has been finding good contractors. I’ve had over 5 plumbers and 6 electricians over and all have offered different advice, pricing, and interpretations of City code. I cannot speak highly enough of Angie’s List service for finding contractors. It has been the best $7 I’ve spent thus far, and every contractor from this site has been very professional to work with. For those unfamiliar the site does the leg work of checking contractors for insurance, licenses, and even offers links to Better Business Bureau records to ensure they are a legitimate contractor. Users offer tons of feedback on the results they received, including prices, and the contractors are scored A to F in 5 areas. Poor work gets them put into a penalty box where they are shown in poor standing until issues are resolved. An amazing resource that keeps contractors accountable for their work and is available for areas all over the country! Check it out below.

www.angieslist.com


FYI- servicemagic.com also offers a similar service for free, however I’ve found the user feedback and larger database of contractors worth the few bucks. I’ve worked with two contractors thus far from servicemagic that have not met expectations. They will likely earn their very own writeup on this blog discussing their performance (or lack thereof).