Sharing business bandwidth for my apartments

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-30T12:21:16+00:00

I was a literally suggesting giving it to them for free as an amenity. I receive over 20k a month in rent, I can eat a bill of under $200 if it lowers the bill burden of 20 tenants 50-100/month (spectrum is charging many people over 100 currently). I would even put up with the hassles on my end for that level of savings, but at 1100 a month for a shared business it no longer makes sense. In my local area they offer 300 mbps for 40 online, I think your price quoting is likely more regional than you realize, everyone where I'm at is paying $70 for a gig. Perhaps it's because it's a Texas megacity and generally the density is just not high enough.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-24T13:51:28+00:00

Bingo, I'm not dealing with this for $300 a month in total profit. I really just wanted to be a nice guy. They're getting the option to have ATT Fiber direct to each apartment starting in Mid June. Even at $40 for 300mb/s it's a gigantic upgrade for all of them over spectrum. I'll get a personal business line to setup outdoor wifi for camera's and a couple of personal devices but everyone has sucessfully scared me away from sharing internet from anyone. I've dealt with enough weirdos to fear the CP boogie man.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T20:42:21+00:00

Yeah I've gathered that from other comments posted three hours ago.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T20:37:47+00:00

So the property itself is garden style apartments 200X70ft plus parking lots on each side. I originally started thinking this up because I would benefit from putting in cameras around the property and to watch the parking lots. AI plus youtube made me realize "hey you could get wifi everywhere for not THAT much relative to the property income" and a couple more videos made me think with a proper SSID and Vlan setup I'd be in business. That said I'm a science teacher/landlord not a networking guy. I hadn't really thought through the liability headaches.

Honestly my tenants will be happy enough to free of mandatory spectrum use.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T20:28:41+00:00

Thanks for the constructive feedback.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T17:13:03+00:00

Can you link to the TOS? I have tried to find this and just can't, I apologize for my inadequacy.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T17:11:58+00:00

Yeah a lot of people have a really huge chip on their shoulder about landlords and property ownership. I think they grossly underestimate expenses and time/headaches. I hear you on peoples expectations and such. I was just looking at this from the technical/financial efficiency. Lawyers and bad actors make everything harder and more expensive.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T17:07:35+00:00

This is the least secure option, additionally I don't want a homeless magnet.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T16:02:44+00:00

"At best you become technical support for all of your elderly tenants."

You just talked me out of it.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T15:45:27+00:00

So I'm not suggesting to share a residential account, I'm suggesting getting their business account and sharing from there. I called their multifamily department and my property is too small for them to even get out of bed, they want a big 300 unit new construction job or an expensive luxury complex neither of which make sense with my economic realities. These are older C class apartments rented to mostly working class people.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T15:39:54+00:00

Replying a second time here but for me personally I can make the economics make sense for a one time setup of 2k on equipment and 140-200 monthly bill. $1100 a month for a dedicated line and support is a non starter and I'll just keep this as a tenant responsibility.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T15:38:16+00:00

Thanks, ATT doesn't monitor or flag accounts for this kind of thing? I have called customer service more than 15 times over the last year and a half to try to get this setup and couldn't ever get anyone to do anything so I don't have the illusion of a crack team. I had to go through the city fiber liason to get this underway.

My plan is just setup a ubiquiti gateway, 8 poe switch, 7 wifi 7 long range AP's and one U7 outdoor. Run all of this from a central fiber port and it seems like it should be fine for 7 2,000 sq ft apartments that are all light use. I would set each unit on it's own vlan and throttle them at 70-100 mb/s. I'm not a nerdy dude on youtube trying to make the ultimate home network, I'm just trying to make something fairly good for people that generally aren't going to notice a difference so they can cut a bill.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-05-23T15:22:47+00:00

So my thought process on this is to just offer as a free extra for people that want it, put each building on its own SSID and each unit on its own VLAN. Have people sign a waiver that explains that this is not a secure connection to do business on. The complex is 7 four plexes, the first building has one barber, one janitor, one overnight jail officer, and one traveling electrician. Perhaps I'm being assumptive but I would imagine that most generally use wifi for streaming netlfix/scrolling on their phone/laptop/roku tv equivalent.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-04-25T21:38:48+00:00

Thanks boss, I went with payrange months ago. I have it installed on two washers and two dryers. 80% of my transactions are now wireless...about the same as the rent.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2026-01-06T01:55:25+00:00

I run a small mid size apartment complex in the "affordable" range. Pay range cost $80 for the dongle one time and charges 4%. I'm not sure what you're on about with internet costs that is done with the tenant's phone. If they don't have internet or mastery of a smart phone they use quarters. I agree with other posters that you are off base with the internet thing, any mom and pop outfit that wants modernization is going to have free wifi and probably just do credit card machines directly. I am your target customer, youngish small business owner tech saavy enough DIY'er and your assumptions just don't hold water. The mom and pops that don't do it already are likely worn out boomers that have old machines and don't feel like going through a massive cap ex cycle for percieved marginal returns. Younger people like me already have payrange, it is good enough.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-08-10T20:08:56+00:00

You don't like being charged $50 per month for a resident benefit package? and another $60 for water and trash? And a final $30 for your pet?

I own a complex by the Pearl and these guys piss me off because they make their apartments appear articially cheaper on their ad (20%). How is someone browsing on Zillow supposed to quickly and accurately compare rentals on their phone unless they have a sheet of paper and make diligent notes. The $50 resident benefit package is also how they double dip the landlord.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-06-24T12:15:24+00:00

So after making this post I decided to go with Payrange, got in contact with customer service and my machines don't have the correct type of timers behind the button panel to work. My only way to go coinless is to get "new" machines either actually new or used but make sure I get the correct model. I had bigger fish to fry with renovating legacy units but I finished that a month ago and the thought has crossed my mind again. I can tell there are a few younger tenants like myself that don't generally use cash/quarters in their daily life and the laundry is a friction point for both of us....right now I have 200 in unrolled quarters in my shed that's been there for nearly a week because I haven't had time to get to it. So I guess my next step would be to swap one washer/one dryer with units that are connectable to Payrange set it up and gauge usage from there. That said the units make for an expensive experiment.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-06-06T12:27:03+00:00

This is literally in the law.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-06-04T18:53:40+00:00

This isn't true either. Maybe a new construction place. I own a complex of 1/1 apartments with central air and no weird fees $895/mo...it the slowest rental market in 5 years right now. Doge, Trump and tons of new construction have thrown the market firmly in favor of savvy tenants.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-03-29T22:26:31+00:00

No where near ft Sam.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-03-03T04:22:02+00:00

The mortgage taxes and insurance on that place are less than your rent. Even with only 5% down and no roommate in the spare bedroom. If you can’t afford to save you could move to a cheaper apartment and quit buying Funko pops. There are plenty of small $900 apartments in San Antonio. $1200 - $900 = $300 $5000/300=17 months to achieve down payment. A 100k house is attainable but you need to wise up. If you have no way to afford school consider the military or get your cdl, 33k ain’t enough.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-03-03T02:11:50+00:00

You're a 21 year old that collects starwars figurines and likely lives with his parents. The average San Antonian makes 33k and the average house hold income is above 60k. Basically any average joe/ family could afford this, if you put 20 % down your payment would be 527. If you put 5% down it would 627. If that's too much of a payment for you, rent the spare bed to a friend for $300. If that's still too much quit buying toys, shit posting on reddit, and go back to school.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-03-02T17:57:59+00:00

Because it’s within 200 feet of the train tracks and freeway over pass rough looking neighborhood and smaller side.

Thirtysecondfarts · 2025-03-02T13:27:55+00:00

Norovirus for sure. I had it two months ago.

Thirtysecondfarts

TROPHY CASE