Toured a distressed deal last week. Opened a water heater closet and found an invention. The tank was running, so somebody ran a hose off it into the washer drain box. Twelve dollars. Eight minutes. Problem relocated. I did the math in the car. Call it half a gallon a minute. That is 21,600 gallons a month, and Houston water and sewer on a commercial meter puts that past $350. Then the tank reheats every drop it loses, around the clock, about 2,600 kWh on the vacant unit meter. Another $400. Roughly $800 a month. From one closet. A new tank runs $550. Another $250 to set it. Eight hundred dollars. The leak costs exactly what the fix costs. Every thirty days. It was already in the T12. Water high, vacant electric high. That guy who ran the hose is out of money and out of help. He has no PO, no second tech, and a queue that grows faster than he closes it. So he solved it in eight minutes and moved on. This is the death spiral from the inside. No cash for the tank, so you run a hose. The hose raises the bill. The bill eats the cash. Next month there is less money for the next tank, and there is always a next tank. Now price it. Nine thousand a year of burn on one unit. Open the closets on your next tour.