Managing Home Maintenance Costs

A property management system must have a many features that help the property manager. They help manage the rent of the units they are managing but many other activities around the property. They must  keep track of all cash flows which include rent income and expenses. Include all work orders that are associated with the property for repairs. In addition any  maintenance that needs to be completed. Some owners want a lot of detail. They review how costs are being managed. This is something that can be used by the property manager to differentiate your business from other competitors.

Property Management System – Information Readily Available

They must have these reports and information available should the board call for the information. Or the board asks for an audit of all cash flows and expenses. Complete an audit every year. Assure  owners that all cash flows are correct.

An excellent property management system will allow you to meet your own property management needs. In addition as well as the owners of the buildings that you are managing.

Reporting should be excellent as well. The manager can quickly tell how many units are rented at what rent level. Who is coming up for renewal. How much money is being spent on each unit? Flag units that are triggering a lot of unnecessary expenses.  Sometimes there are a lot of incidental expenses which by themselves are not very expensive. But over a year can add up to more than expected.

Information for Owners from Property Management Systems

Reports also need to be available for the owner or investor of the building. The minimum requirement is accounting reports showing the total income and expenses by all categories. Also bottom line summaries. These reports should allow drill downs to individual units that may have higher numbers than what are the average for advertising or repairs as an example. While paper copies are helpful, with today’s systems, online reports that allow browsing of the results and drill downs into more detail should be available.

Investors also want alerts for high expense, for rent renewal, for non-payment of rent etc. Track large numbers of items with property management software. This helps the senior management team manage large numbers of units and stay on track with various issues. Weekly reviews and monthly reviews of all of the top line numbers with exception analysis should be the norm. A good property management system can help a great deal to make this process smooth, while providing the answers at the same time.

Complex Property Management Software

Property management software is becoming more and more complex all of the time. Property managers either must invest in training for their people to learn how to maintain and use these systems or they need to hire someone who knows your software inside out so they can deliver all of your needs. There is nothing more frustrating when the support people from the software company tell you that a feature or report is available, when your people should have been able to deliver these results from the beginning.

Software systems can be expensive, but they can deliver significant results. Invest in appropriate training for your system and utilize the train the trainer approach to keep everyone up to speed on all of the features. Invest wisely and use your customers requirements as a means to select the best system for your needs.

For more posts about property management, click here.

The best time to buy tires is at the end of the seasons when lots of dealers have tires for sale and are trying to deplete their inventory before the next season begins. A good example of this is snow tires. If you can wait until the end of winter or early spring, you should be able to find all kinds of tires for sale with no problems whatever. You may even find that the steel rims will be on sale as well which will save you a lot of money. Steel rims are often used by many consumers for snow tires on their cars in the winter time. This avoids them having to remove and install tires on their more expensive rims. Rims have been damaged by excessive removal of tires, balancing etc.

How Much do You Really Save Buying Tires for Sale

Of course you will have to store them somewhere over the summer months and you will lose the use of that money you spent on the tires, however if you save enough it can be well worth it. Let’s assume that your tires cost you a thousand dollars and you bought them six months before you needed them. You had to take out a personal loan for 10% to buy the tires. We are using round numbers here to make the calculations easy. You should substitute your own values in for tires you purchase and the carrying cost of money that you have.

Carrying one thousand dollars for a period of six months is going to cost $50. If you can save more than that by buying these tires for sale now, storing for 6 months and then using them, you will be ahead of the cost curve. In fact you might be further ahead of the price of next year’s tires go up which they probably will. Look for tires for sale now to get the best deals.

Used Tires for Sale

Also many consumers who are  on the lookout for tires can find tires on sale through the online resale web sites in their own city or by getting to know the dealer and picking up used tires that are priced very well. One friend found a set of four snow tires with steel rims that were used and was able to purchase them for $150 with installation and balancing.

They are sufficient for the winter and were a really great deal. Another friend picked up a set of tires that were advertised online. They agreed on a price and he had to drive to another city close by to pick them up. Again a really great deal for him. So always look for tires on sale. Either from a tire company or from online systems that are available in your area.

There are also companies who buy used tires from wreckers and cars that have been taken off the road. They are sold as used tires for the most part, but consumers need to be careful. These tires may be unbalanced, they may be worn badly and they could just be really old. If you are buying these kinds of tires, consumers need to be really careful. The tires could be so old that they are not safe at high speeds. They could damage your shocks and springs if they are not balanced properly.

We urge consumers to take extra care in these kinds of situations. For more tire sales and discounts on tires, click here.

Text messaging advertising is another way that companies can advertise to consumers. Some cell phone users are starting to receive a lot of text messaging advertising. Frankly many people find it is quite annoying. These messages take time to read and delete. They are potentially using up some of your incoming message quota for text messages every month. If you have an unlimited plan, they you probably do not care quite so much. They even come in during the middle of the night which used to wake us up. Now we leave the phone downstairs were we cannot hear it in the middle of the night. Many mobile owners will turn their phones to private mode at night if they do not want to be disturbed.

Text Messaging Advertising And Your Phone Number

The writer made the mistake of giving out their cell phone number once to a company who then sold the number to an advertiser. Selling numbers to advertisers apparently occurs all of the time. This advertiser began sending text messages to my phone at really odd hours. I now leave my phone down stairs at night so that it does not wake me up. I will still hear it if it rings and if it is an urgent call.

Fortunately I also have an unlimited incoming text message plan so do not need to worry about how many text messaging advertising messages I actually receive. If I had a limited plan, I would have to do something about this problem. These messages eat into your monthly quota and can cause a problem for many people.

Short Code Text Messages

There are also text messages which are called “short code  text messages”. and each time you receive one your account is charged $2.00. This is an outrageous amount to charge for an alert message that you did not want and did not order. There may be some alert messages that might be worth this kind of money. I do not know what they would be. I certainly do not want them. In my mind this is really a scam and they should be disallowed! The phone company makes a lot of money from them and does nothing to stop them unless you call them to have these type of messages blocked.

In the mean time, call your mobile provider and have them block these kinds of test messages from being received by your phone. This is the only way to block text messaging advertising of this type. You have to have specific numbers to block which you can do with short code text messaging.

Not sure if I can ask my carrier to block text messaging advertising in general from being received by my phone. If this could be put in place, it would be really appreciated by many consumers, but the carriers would lose a lot of revenue if they did block them so I really do not think that they will take the step to block general text messaging advertising.

Does anyone know if this is possible. If you do have some idea regarding blocking these kids of text messaging, leave us a comment and instructions on how to go about this.

For more about text messages, click here.

Winter is here and most of us have turned our furnaces on to begin heating our homes. It is also the time to have a technician come in and check your home’s furnace to make sure that it is ready for the next season. Cleaning, a tune up perhaps and any parts that might need replacement will be on the menu for these checkups. While you are at it have your gas fireplace looked at and also your hot water heater. These all use energy and if they are working properly they will reduce your monthly heating costs and also operate safely keeping you and your family safe for the coming heating season.

Should Consumers Purchase Insurance

This was a question that the writer recently had to face as part of my annual furnace check up. I called a technician who is in the business of doing annual checkups and cleaning. His proposed fee was $80 to come in, inspect the furnace, clean it and prepare an estimate of costs for any repairs if any are needed. I would have to pay labor and parts for any repairs that he identified. Sears, coincidentally sent us an insurance proposal that had a fee of $230 coverage for 16 months. This fee includes check up and cleaning fees, plus any repairs including parts and labor for our furnace. Our furnace is about 11 years old at this point and we originally purchased it from Sears. We decided to pay the extra fees just in case there are parts to be replaced. Normally we do not suggest that consumers buy insurance of this kind, however the costs are too high if parts are needed. We would rather pay a little extra to have peace of mind and to potentially save some money.

What Other Steps to Take to Reduce Your Monthly heating Costs

The cost of oil has gone way up in the past couple of years and the cost of natural gas has not gone up as much, however depending on demand you can be sure that your heating bill is going to be higher than it was last year. Anything you can do to reduce the cost of keeping your home winter this winter will be money in your pocket instead of the oil or gas companies. Here are a few things that home owners may want to consider, if they haven’t already:

• Annual check up of your furnace
• New air filter for your furnace
• Install an Electronic thermostat
• Set temperatures at least 1 degree lower on average
• Set temperatures lower during the day if the home is empty
• Reduce your temperature at night
• Ensure all windows and doors are air tight and properly caulked
• Upgrade windows to a higher insulating value
• Add insulation in the attic if it is old and does not meet today’s standards
• Avoid leaving windows and doors open
• Adjust the water temperature lower on your water heater
• Heat only the rooms you live in(be careful of rooms with water pipes)

A Great Starter List

This is a great starter list of ways to reduce your heating cost this coming winter. Depending on your home and lifestyle there may be other ways to reduce your energy cost. Take a look at the way you live and how you use energy and make adjustments to reduce your cost of heating even further. Let us know so we can add them to our list for other readers.

If you decide to turn the heat off in some rooms, a word of caution is in order. If that room has water pipes in the walls or feeding that room, consumers should be careful to avoid the pipes freezing in cold weather. A room with no heat could possibly go below freezing and freeze the water in the pipes causing them to burst the pipes and cause a serious water leak.

A final word regarding purchasing insurance coverage for your furnace. It is really all about the amount of risk that you want to take and whether you can afford the bill if and when it needs to be repaired. The return on investment is really peace of mind and not how much money you are going to save. Do the math and make a decision about whether you can afford the risk vs. paying for insurance. Saving money on insurance could help pay for a new furnace if you avoid paying insurance for a long enough period.

Save

Hardwood floor installation prices will vary a great deal depending on where you live, the type of flooring you are installing and how much cutting and fitting you need to do. For example, the picture on the left shows a fireplace that needs to have the floor fitted around it. While it is not that difficult to do, it does take time with the extra cutting and fitting and it must be done right. After all the fireplace is the focal point of the room and any mistakes will be noticed by virtually everyone. There are many examples that will affect the installation price. Discuss your plans and the details with your souse and of course the contractor to make sure that you have a clear idea of what the finished product is going to look like.

Hardwood Floor Installation Price – Price Factors

Here are a few that you may have to take into account:

• Square feet of flooring to be installed
• Fireplace cutouts as shown in the picture
• Hot and cold air registers, while pretty standard, still need to be accounted for
• Irregular rooms with angles or curving walls
• Many doorways
• Interface with other types of flooring
• Type of hardwood that is being installed
• Addition of a supporting subfloor if needed
• Removal of existing flooring
• Preparation of subfloor
• Repair of joists and support structure if needed
• Stairways
• Curved stairways require a lot more time and effort
• Cutting hardwood outdoors extends walking time
• Cutting hardwood indoors increases clean up costs
• Any unusual flooring, room size, etc in your home

While this may not be an all inclusive list, readers can quickly see that the hardwood floor installation price can vary a great deal depending on what you have to deal with.

Professional Installation vs. Do It Yourself

Most handy men can install hardwood floors themselves and save a great deal on the overall cost of your new floor. You may have to purchase or rent a few tools to make the job easier, however the money you save will more than pay for these tools. Take your time, watch YouTube videos and read lots on line. We find that many hardwood flooring suppliers will also provide courses for people planning to do their own floors. They do this to enhance their sales value and entice you to purchase the materials from them. Even if you make a few mistakes and have to redo some portions of your floor, it is still al lot cheaper than paying for someone to install the floor for you.

Using a professional to lay a hardwood floor can save a great deal of time. Compared to working evenings and weekends, have a floor installed over one or two days is preferred by many people. They do not want to put up with the mess for several weeks or longer and they want it done right. They may not also have the skills, the tools and the patience to try installing a floor themselves.

Purchasing Your Floor Materials and Installation From Your Supplier

Many suppliers either will have their own installation teams that they provide for a price to install a floor. They are either on staff or they are preferred installers with an excellent record of quality workmanship. The time to negotiate the overall price including installation is before you agree to the hardwood. Combining negotiations for the price of the hardwood and the installation can sometimes get you a better price.

Don’t buy the argument that they cannot negotiate on installation price, because the installer is not available or does not vary his price. Be prepared to walk away unless they are willing to reduce the price offered from the initial deal. It may take some tough negotiating. But after all you do not have to cut the deal until you are totally satisfied. Compare prices and compare reputation and work quality. If you need to or feel it is in your best interest, ask to speak to previous customers to confirm satisfaction levels. Also check on line for any comments that may be available.

Do your homework and there is a better chance that you will be totally satisfied with the hardwood floor installation price, the quality of the wood and the quality of the installation. After all, you will have this floor for many years and consumers want something they are going to be proud of and satisfied with for many years.

When we started looking at this question of which appliances use the most electricity, we thought that intuitively we knew what the answer would be. The oven, the furnace, pool pump and appliances with motors would be the heavy users. And yes these appliances are in fact heavy users of electricity; however they are not even close to the big one. It turns out that central air conditioning and heat pumps are the big consumers of electricity for two main reasons.

Appliances That Use The Most Electricity

First there are two electrical motors that are running when these appliances are in use and they are typically large motors that consume a lot of electricity, up to 15,000 watts on average per hour. On top of that we tend to run our air conditioners for a long time particularly if it is really hot compared to other appliances such as an electric range, a clothes dryer etc. They use a great deal of energy during the summer time.

The cost to run an air conditioner that is consuming 15,000 watts per hour during the day time during peak hours can be as much as $1.60 per hour; while at night when rates are lower the cost can decrease to around 75 cents per hour or half of the rate that is charged during the day. We are assuming 11 cents per kilowatt during the day and 6 cents during the evening.

Large Appliances vs. Light Bulbs

Clothes dryers will use 4000 watts per hour, while a hair dryer is down around 1200 watts and the incandescent light bulb is down around 60 watts. Electricity usage is all about the math. For example let’s assume the average home has 10 light bulbs, all incandescent and are on for an average of 3 hours per day. This amounts to 1800 watts per day or 13,600 watts per week. The dryer on the other hand might be used for 30 minutes several times a week, let’s assume 4 times per week. This calculates to 8000 watts of total usage over a weeks’ time. We all want to cut down on electrical usage and now you can understand why everyone wants to switch to fluorescent bulbs or LED bulbs which reduce the electrical usage significantly.

Detailed Usage Levels

The following chart attempts to hi-light the usage levels and costs of these appliances. You can vary your own assumptions; however we think that in general you will come out to the same conclusions. Note that for the incandescent lights are assumed to have 10 light bulbs that are on for 7 hours a day on average, for 7 days.

When you add in the number of  hours of use on average every week, it really changes the picture. the air conditioner is of course the highest, but what is really surprising is the cost of leaving lights on that are incandescent. Switch to fluorescent and you can save a tremendous about of electricity.

Reduce Hours

Reduce the number of hours your air conditioner is running by turning up the temperature on your thermostat and you can significantly reduce the amount of electricity that you use. You might argue that the assumptions in terms of how may hours we assumed, however just substitute your own to calculate the cost. We do not think that the conclusions will change.

Pushing usage into lower rate times such as in the evening will have a huge impact as well. In summary here is how you can control or reduce your electrical usage and your cost for total electricity:

• Turn up the thermostat
• Cool the house in the evening when rates are lower
• Control usage so that it is primarily in the evening in low rate hours
• Turn off lights
• Switch from incandescent to fluorescent lights
• Focus on the higher cost appliances that you use a lot