20. After Taking Title

The usual thing is for new owners to acquire "new owner's disease" and you should steel yourself against it. This means that most folks who have just taken over their first or second building are inclined to give it too much attention. They seem to be unable to stay away from it, like a grandfather with his son's first-born. In the same spirit as the new grandpa, the new owner seems to stay awake nights dreaming up things he can spend for on his new baby. I have heard some rational­ize when they felt this way by some such excuse as "I just can't stand it to have that unsightly back hall. I must re-do it."

Don't fall victim to the standard malady. In fact, as soon as the straightening out process of the building (not the tenants) is finished, you should confine your visits to three types. First, when it is necessary to show a prospective new tenant a flat. I have even avoided this by leaving the door unlocked and sending new tenants over to look around for themselves.

The second, and main category of visit is to look over the need for a repair and arrange things with the mechanic who will do it. This includes the careful inspection of the job when finished. Besides the two above, you need only stop by once a month or once every two months. Walk around the building, checking for broken windows, cellar windows particularly, and tour the front and rear halls and stairways for dangerous conditions.

EXTERIORS

Outer sidewalls vary from stucco in the Southwest and Southeast to shingles and clapboards in the Northeast. You will want the outer appearance to be respectable, and if it is shabby, you have made allowance in your Value Formula for the cost of bringing it up to the standard of this class of hous­ing.

A really tattered or shabby exterior usually is best covered, rather than patched. In effect you give the building a new over­coat, and the primary objective in this is to have a neat appear­ance without having to maintain or repair the work endlessly. You will have no difficulty determining what is the best perma­nent outer covering for your section of the country. There are, however, a few methods that have never, in all my experience, been good investments.

Where paint is peeling, scaled, blistered or cracked, you should rigidly avoid repainting. At best you will get a year or so of good appearance, and then the blistering recurs. No painter I have ever met has been willing to correct this either, blaming the moisture in the wood, or some other cause. The fact is, he cannot guarantee such a surface against blistering or peeling. These buildings should be covered with a perma­nent sidewalling. The sidewalling should be nailed over as much of the walls as possible, covering the corners, trim and window facings and dormers, if any. Thus you will leave an absolute minimum of exterior wall exposed to the weather, to require periodic scraping and painting.

There are two common types of sidewalling used, and it is best to avoid the type known as asphalt shingles or panels. These are basically tarpaper with some coating and fine peb­bles. They look very neat and attractive on a display board but are comparatively short-lived.

I have had fine results with the type called asbestos shingles. These are moulded of fireproof material and their color is through and through the shingle, rather than on the surface. They are rot-proof, permanent and act as a heat insulator. In some cases you can have your fire insurance premiums lowered after installing them.

Your choice of installer of sidewalls is important if not vital. Unfortunately, many unscrupulous people have gone into this business and their methods leave something to be desired. Some pay the salesman 30 or 40 per cent and more as selling commission. Many have no plant, stock, or workmen. They take your order, cash it at the bank, and then have the shingles delivered to your home from the distributor. They then hand the job to an independent installation crew at so much per 100 square feet. Of course it is to the crew's interest to finish the job as quickly as possible. The workmanship must suffer as a result.

There is also the serious matter of workmen's insurance in these installations. By its nature, this type of work is dangerous. Hence insurance is expensive and difficult to obtain. You must make it your business to see that the men are covered before they touch the job. No verbal or written assurance of being cov­ered will do. You must see the policy.

The reliability of the company for any needed corrections after installation is your concern too. Often the home-owner cannot find the contractor a year later, and those who can be found still in business are not inclined nor equipped to fix some­thing that goes wrong, like a loose shingle, or leaky roof.

As a result of many unhappy experiences in this area, without implying that all such companies are bad, I finally turned to Sears Roebuck for my sidewalling and roofing jobs. In some cases they supplied the materials and gave every possible as­sistance, advice and cooperation to my regular carpenter who did the work. In other cases I had Sears contract the whole job from beginning to end. It has been highly satisfactory. Appear­ance was first-grade. Where a ten-year guarantee went with the job, I have had no difficulty nor delay in getting a leak repaired. They were not hard to find, even years after the job was fin­ished, and they did not stall nor evade.

From a more important safety angle, they were fully insured. I had no worry on this score. In those jobs where my carpenter did the labor, I made sure that he and his helper were covered by my company.

The quality of the work was better too. Even where Sears hired out the jobs to installation crews, those crews were more thoroughly checked for integrity and thoroughness. They took more pains, if for no other reason, because the crew's biggest and steadiest customer was Sears, and they wanted to keep quality up and complaints down, so as not to lose the account. I found no such attitude among the fly-by-nights.

The prices at Sears were, of course, lowest of all, and financ­ing is easy, where you want the tenants to pay for the job.

Aluminum siding is gradually becoming more popular and less expensive. Aluminum has its faults like all others. Gen­erally, it is too expensive for Aunt Tobys.

Where you must paint, such as trim, doors, sash, et cetera, make it your business to inquire into the newer paints (called "acrylic") that resist peeling and scaling. Insist on their being used and do not let the painter switch you. Surfaces should be properly sanded or scraped and, above all, dried out before the application of paint. Generally five or more good drying days must pass after a rain or mist has penetrated, before painting is attempted.

INTERIORS

If you acquire Aunt Tobys, your limit of concern with in­terior decoration will be the entrance halls. There is little in this area that merits discussion except a few minor points. Ceil­ings that are cracked or blackened can be very expensive to put in shape. I sampled a product some thirty-one years ago, with strong doubts about the claims of the manufacturers. After years of experience with the washing, scraping, shellacking, coating and recoating of ceilings, I did not believe there was anything that would not yellow, much less that anything could be applied over old whitewash, calcimine, or paint, without thorough and expensive laborious preparation. "Just wipe (not wash) the surface, mix the stuff as per directions, and spread it on," said the seller. The ceilings we did in 1929,1930, et cetera, are still snow white and no trace of yellowing or peeling is evi­dent! I have since recommended the product to thousands. I do not have any personal or business connection with the mak­ers. My only concern is to save you money and bother and to make your building more attractive.

You will have to avoid only two errors. When you buy it, in­sist on Evan-lite Ceilcote, and no other. Shun any product that the hardware man says is the "same thing with a different label, that's all," or "It's the same formula—they're all alike." If you cannot obtain it locally ask your supplier to stock it. He won't sell as much "repeater" ceiling paint, but he sure will make some delighted customers. Substitution, often innocent, has been a constant curse in this matter.

The other error to guard against is the seemingly universal reluctance of painters to read and follow the directions for mix­ing. They are too accustomed to going by guess, and stirring in "a little more, I guess." Insist on precise adherence to the printed clear directions, even when your painter protests that "you can't spread it on when it's like that—it's impossible!" Tell him to go ahead and dip his brush and he will be surprised.

A little side hint. When he must fill a crack or small hole in the ceiling, ask him not to mix the plaster or spackle compound with water. Use the same paint as a mixing fluid. It will hold better and will "take" the paint better with better concealment of the spot.

The same paint may be tinted and used for hall walls, but many owners prefer to use the new water-paints which can be rolled on quickly and touched up easily and neatly. Others ask around and locate a dealer who specializes in old stocks of wall­paper. Here you can buy excellent oil cloth wallcoverings at very low rates, and these form fine durable, washable coverings for hall walls. Room wallpapers that normally cost .75 to $1 per roll may be bought from these dealers, (particularly if you know how to haggle) for 5 cent or so. Some owners give the paper and paste to the tenants and let them supply the labor. I prefer to give them some of the new water paint and a roller and tray. This may be used over old wallpaper or paint and almost any amateur can make a room look lovely in a few hours. When you give it to one, however, be ready to give it to all. The other tenants will soon be on your neck for some too.

There is one item in interior decoration that costs almost nothing and gives a decided uplift to any hall or room. It is the replacement of light fixtures. For less than $2 you can buy a very attractive and appropriate fixture, modern and smart. In­stallation is a matter of minutes and any man able to read sim­ple directions can install them. Of course be sure to shut off the electricity before attempting to install one, and if you do not know how, get some instruction first. I have a little hint in this matter, too. If the light is to be controlled by a pull chain or cord, you will do well to install a style of switch called Levolier. Unlike the cheaper pigtail switch, levoliers generally outlast the building. They cost only a few pennies more, and once in­stalled, you are finished with that device for many years.

A FEW MORE HINTS

When a wall switch, normally called a flush toggle switch, is to be replaced, you will find that this is a very simple opera­tion if you are careful to shut off the electricity before touch­ing it. In any case you will want to install the best quality for the few cents it costs and be finished with replacing switches at that point for decades. To this end, insist on "T rated" switches, by whomever they may be made in your area. Your electric supply house will understand this and, as in the case of levolier pull-switches, once installed you can forget about it for the life of the building.

Faucet washers should likewise be attended to in the manner that promises best to make each repair as permanent as possi­ble. If you are at all mechanically inclined, or even if you are just willing to learn simple things that save bother and money, you can easily obtain:

A few No. 22 drills.
A 10/24 tap.
A tapwrench.
A supply of the best faucet washers your supplier can obtain. At present writing the only leader is the leather for cold and the fibre for hot water. But there are new synthetics being tested and you may soon find them better.
And, if you want to go the whole way, a reseating tool for faucets.
A box of stainless steel, philister head 3/4 by 10/24 screws.
A roll of graphite packing.

Each time you service any faucet or ball cock, you drill out the screw hole, tap a new x%4 thread in it, and install the washer with one of the stainless screws. Soon all your fixtures will be standard in this regard and yearly service much easier and quicker. Your water bills will shrink significantly. Unless you are very unmechanical, there needn't be any plumbing bills for these minor maintenance items.

The reseating tool will save you installing new faucets where the seeping water has made runnels and crevices in the seat against which the washer presses. You will learn to use it easily and thereafter it is almost fun to fix leaky faucets.

One final bit of advice in the general matter of maintenance and repairs. Go and see the trouble. Try to resist the tempta­tion to do the lazy thing. Whatever you ordinarily sell your time for, unless you are a doctor or dentist, you can sell it for more per hour if you investigate needed repairs personally, and check them during and after the work is done.

In the months I toured the world with my family, I would sometimes have an assistant watch over the properties and service complaints. One day, during a torrential downpour, a tenant called to say the water was flooding down from her ceil­ing. The moment she hung up, my man dialed the roofer. My secretary stopped him, and suggested he go and see the trouble personally. He took his feet down from his desk with some annoyance, grumbling, "Wha'dya expect me to do?" When he went to the building he found that an attic window was wide open—that's all. The roofer's bill would have been substantial.

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