Looking back over the years, I see that many of these mistakes were actually good things, as they taught valuable lessons and offered even more valuable experience. Mistakes are a part of life and are something we all have to learn to deal with. I made some pretty good ones when I first started out, and I am still making and learning from them today. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoicesĪfter a dozen years in the real estate investing business, one thing I have learned is that mistakes will be made. Water is one of those ever-present utilities that is always needed, no matter who your tenants are, what time of year it is, or what region of the country you’re in. Frequent tenant transfers, notifying landlords if water is shut off, transferring to landlords when a tenant move out-it’s a hassle to make tenants pay this bill directly.Ī lot of multifamily landlords have to deal with this issue. Most cities don’t have the infrastructure to deal with “landlord situations” very well. Water bills in my city are read quarterly (not monthly like gas and electric), which makes it very difficult to track which tenants should be paying which portions of the bill when one moves out and another one moves in. In my area, unpaid water bills go as liens on a property (instead of collections to tenants), so if my tenants ever stop paying-it hurts me, not them. There are a few reasons why the water bill always ends up being my problem.

Of all the rental properties I’ve ever owned, there is one utility bill I’ve always gotten stuck paying out-of-pocket.

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