The Money Kings are keepin' it real, baby!!!

For your consideration: Real Estate Profits And Losses: Gas Company Problems. Scenario 33.

Tonight we were drinking and telling war stories from the landlord front. We were complaining about tenants, of course. We were complaining about real estate buyers and sellers. We were just complaining and telling it like it is with real estate sometimes.

One thing we forgot to spread our hate upon is a tried and true favorite of any property owner—whether landlord or owner occupier.

Here are four big things that really suck about natural gas companies, all of which wind up costing someone money:

1. In many municipalities and towns, gas companies will neither turn off delinquent tenant accounts nor notify owners when their tenants owe them tons of money. In most places, the gas company won’t transfer a tenant’s balance to an owner. This is great! However, it would be nice if gas companies told owners, “Hey! Your property is racking up $2000 in bills to us over the past 6 months!” Why would this be great? Well, it will give some landlords more insight into the web of lies commonly weaved by tenants. So that tenant that you think lost their job, but insists is really employed, will look a lot less employed with a huge gas bill lingering in the shadows. This could give a landlord valuable time to strike.
2. Natural gas can be the most expensive energy bill in a household—easily. Yet the damn gas company is still so lazy that they estimate bill payments every other month. The Money Kings realize this isn’t the case everywhere, but still, for all the money these companies make we think that we should be spared the necessity of checking our meter each month to make sure that uber-gas company is being honest!
3. Gas companies are not allowed to turn off service during winter months. We realize this policy is in place to protect homes and water pipes, but maybe there’s a better way to operate here. Maybe there’s a way to keep water pipes from freezing independent of the temperature of an entire house. We have no idea how this could happen. That’s for you folks to figure out and patent! We’re simply positing the idea that the notion that a utility CAN’T be disabled when people refuse to pay their bills is kind of counter-capitalistic. In all decades we’ve been using both indoor plumbing and gas heating, no one has figured out a way to basically make these two seemingly independent systems TRULY independent. Wouldn’t it even be in a gas company’s interest to do this . . . We gotta quit wasting resources on people that don’t pay for them.
4. Gas companies are typically oligopolies. Great! Everyone loves less choice! We understand there are strategic safety concerns here with having natural gas in fewer hands. Then again, why all the bullsh*t about how it’s better for consumers when gas companies merge into bigger entities thereby leaving people with fewer choices? The same crappy infrastructure remains. The same crappy phone service remains. The same crappy vice presidents wind up making tons of money. Where’s the true value added to the consumer’s life through gas company consolidation? We don’t see it.

Have we solved anything with this list? Heck no! But, if you’re considering buying investment property The Money Kings want you to realize that whatever problems you had with the gas company regarding your own residence are not going to lessen. They’ll only compound with all other investment property nightmares and concerns of which we write each week.

Stay tuned, and . . .

Good luck out there.

Keywords: landlord, gas, company, tenant, bills, overdue, meter, readings, oligopoly