House Hunt: Hillcrest Open Houses for Sunday

When you do your "walk-through" for a potential rental, there are several things you want to consider. Walk through with your Realtor, and then with a camera and a notepad if it seems worthwhile. If the property looks good, but you don’t have total confidence in your abilities to evaluate the condition of the property, having a professional go through the property is a good idea. 

A home inspection will cost between $300 to $700 depending on the scope of the inspection and report. The more detailed and comprehensive the inspection, the more expensive it will be. Keep in mind the home inspector’s job is to pick out any detail, no matter how small, that might be negative. A huge list of problems is not a deal breaker, but a place to start a cost evaluation.

Let’s assume you are going to do the initial inspection yourself first. What should you look for? The first thing to consider is the mechanicals of the property. This would include heating/cooling systems, electrical, such as fuse box and wiring, and all plumbing.

When looking at the heating and cooling systems you want to see how new the system is. A rule of thumb is that the newer the system, the more efficient it will be. That means less energy usage which means your tenant will have more money to pay their rent. If the system is older, you may be looking at an efficiency rate of under 50 percent, that means the furnace is wasting over 50 percent of the fuel it is burning. Newer furnaces can be up to 95 percent efficient. Again, that means it costs less to heat the home, more money for the tenant to pay you. If you need to replace a gas forced air system, you are looking at $1,500 and up depending on the bells and whistles you want on the system. Adding on air conditioning will be an additional $1,000 on up.

Take a look at the electrical system; does the fuse box have circuit breakers or is it screw-in fuses? All newer fuse boxes will have circuit breakers. There is technically nothing wrong with fuses, but breakers are safer and easier to reset. If a circuit is overloaded and the breaker trips, you just have to flip the breaker back into position. With a screw-in fuse your tenant has to replace the fuse with a new one. You have to be concerned that they will replace the blown fuse with the right type. If they don’t and use the wrong amperage fuse, you have a fire hazard. To replace a screw-in fuse box with a circuit breaker type will cost around $1,500.

Take a photo of any details, such as make and model, and look them up online. It will give you a ballpark idea of age, efficiency, and even if the manufacturer is still in business.

Next week we will look at the plumbing system in your potential rental property.

Listed below are the statistics for all properties sold in the Hillcrest area since the first of the year.