Articles by Cliff Hockley, CPM

Apartments for Rent

Houses for Rent

Commercial Property
for Sale & Lease

Articles by
Cliff Hockley

Cliff Hockley, CPM
President, Bluestone & Hockley Real Estate Services

Ellen had just graduated from high school and was moving out of her home. So she packed up her computer, her hair dryer, her stereo, TV, DVD, her microwave and her fan to move into her new apartment.

Ellen had picked a beautiful, I bedroom unit in a 1925 4-plex apartment building with many-built in cabinets so that she would not have to buy much furniture. The architecture was exquisite and surprisingly spacious. She moved in on a Sunday with her father designated to haul in all of the furniture. Once the bed, the dining room and the couch were installed, the appliances came next. That’s when it began to dawn on Ellen that she had made a mistake in renting this unit.

There were only two ungrounded plugs in every bedroom, and the apartment was wired to a fuse box with only 40 amps of service. She had enough power to keep the food in the refrigerator cold… and nothing else. He father look around and said, “Either you cancel your lease or you ask the landlord to rewire… but first, let’s figure out how much power you really need.” They added it up and discovered that if used all at the same time, all of the electronics (including the Game-Boy) used 110 amps of power.

Ellen called her Landlord. He said he would look in to the cost of rewiring her unit. He called his electrician and discovered that not only would he have to rewire the apartment, but he also would have to bring the whole building up to code. He was not happy about the news -- especially since the cost exceeded $10,000. He decided not to spend the money and to try to hold Ellen to her lease. She in turn, called an attorney. The Landlord, in his wisdom, decided that the attorney’s fees would cost more that just letting her leave.

This left Ellen out in the street looking for a new place to live. She started shopping around. Though she still had a limited budget, she now knew she needed an apartment with at least 100 amps of power. In addition, she needed a property with either a wi-fi node, Cable or DSL access, or all of her electronic gizmos would be useless. She found that many older properties had not been rewired and need to be updated. She also discovered that there were not enough outlets in many of the apartments she viewed. In the end her father helped her find a place. This apartment was more expensive, but she could set up her computer, two printers, scanner, etc., use her hair dryer, her Game–Boy, the Stereo…

What can a landlord learn from this?

Consider installing quad outlets instead of duplex outlets.
Protect your rental houses from spikes and surges by using a “whole-house” surge suppressor manufactured by Leviton
Keep upgrading your apartment units. Every unit should have the ability to deliver 100 amps of power. Every outlet should be grounded;
Knob and tube wiring needs to go.
Upgrading the electrical systems will make it easier to get insurance. Insurance companies are resisting insuring older wiring systems, because with the increase in need users tend to overload electrical systems.
When older circuits are overloaded for a long period of time the wiring heats up and stresses the insulation, which then becomes brittle and falls off and creates opportunities for potential shorting sparking and then fire.
Get rid of fuse boxes and transition to breakers

In addition to rewiring, you should consider pre-wiring all bedrooms, living rooms, bathrooms and kitchens with outlets for both cable and telephone use. This will enable the modern tenant the opportunity to be always “plugged in.”

Remember that as Landlords offer more amenities to tenants, that most of these amenities use ample power, such as: washer /dryer hookups, dishwashers, disposals, insta-hots, stoves, air conditioners, big screen TVs to name a few.

Why would a Landlord want to spend the money to upgrade the electrical in their units?

In this time of high vacancy rate, you need to pull out all of the stops to remain competitive.
You need to keep your property up to date
Tenants are fickle, this keeps them happy for just a little longer, remember tenant turns cost in excess of $500 for every tenant. The longer you keep your tenants the more money you make.

Finally, remember that Ellen will not rent from you if she cannot plug in her computer, her stereo and use her hair dryer to look great.