As a phoenix investment property owner, you should budget for two common repairs that are somewhat costly:
The first expensive repair is a water heater replacement. It is pretty common to see water heater leaks due to corrosion at anywhere from 6 to 12 years. Due to Arizona's hard water, corrosion in water heaters tends to happen faster than in other parts of the country.
When corrosion leaks happen, there is no way to fix except to replace the heater. The water heater itself can run between $400 and $600 depending on the size and whether it is gas or electric. Then you must also budget for labor to drain, replace and dispose of the old one. A full water heater replacement job usually takes four hours. If you are lucky, the leak will have been recognized by the tenant before any damage to the stand or surrounding walls/rooms occurs. Common stand and drywall damage usually is contained to the stand and immediate drywall and runs less than $200 to fix. However, in cases where the water heater leak is rapid and/or poor draining issues in the garage, the damage could run $1000 + depending on the severity.
The next potential large repair to consider is with the A/C unit due to the summer temperatures in Arizona causing the unit to work at a level it isn't designed for. Unfortunately the A/C manufacturers do not make specific “Desert Tough” A/C units rather the units are manufactured in mass for more temperate climates. Because of this many of these units will fail inside of 10 years. It is not uncommon for outdoor condenser a/c units to last only eight years and we have seen them fail after only five. The compressor failing is the main reason for the a/c unit going bad. When this happens, the compressor or outdoor unit must be replaced. It is almost as expensive to replace the compressor only so the whole condenser unit replacement is a better idea at a cost of anywhere from $2,000 to $3,000.
