The Money Mustache Community
Learning, Sharing, and Teaching => Real Estate and Landlording => Topic started by: danlaska on May 02, 2014, 02:59:23 PM
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I'm considering purchasing coin operated washer and dryer. This is primarily to protect my utility bill (water/gas) in case my future tenant will use laundry to wash friends' clothes that do not reside in the apartment. This is not to make extra income. And I don't believe it is legal in my state to put how many loads a tenant can do per month...
Where can I purchase a decent coin operated washer/dryer?
Do mustachians use coin operated washers/dryers?
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I saw some on Craigslist recently.
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I talked to a management agency recently and they advised me not to put a washing machine or dryer in a rental house. He said the problems would be huge with tenants clogging up the machine, etc., and he had various horror stories. He said, "Tenants won't expect one." I was surprised, but he was very persuasive.
If you do get a machine, one way to avoid their friends doing laundry there would be to make the tenant responsible for the utility bills.
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As a renter...I'd be pretty mad if I moved into an apartment and it had an in-unit coin-operated machine. Seems kind of rude to distrust a tenant you haven't even met yet (though I guess I don't know the area you're renting in). Is using friends' washers a common thing around there? Because I've never heard of anyone who does this on a regular basis (maybe a couple times if they were staying a while or their washer broke or something).
I'd also think it weird if there was a laundry area/hookups but no machines. But less weird than a coin-operated one. Really, is it hard(er) to make them pay their own water?
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We have a coin-operated shared machine in one of our properties. The company covers repairs, servicing, et cetera, we cover power and water and we each get 50% of the income at the end of each year.
Give Maytag a call if you're interested. They make it very little trouble for you. Obviously the tradeoff is that you don't get to keep all of the money.
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I'm a partner in a multi-unit rental and we have a coin operated machine in the shared common space for the residents to use. It makes about $1K income/year so not too bad. It came with the property so I don't know where to purchase one. Good luck though.