Determining Cap Exp for a 24 year old House in Kansas City, MO

[Mariama R.]

What is the typical Cap Ex on a 24 year old duplex house, in Kansas City, MO which is between 1000 sq ft and 2000 sq ft, wherein one AC electric unit is new, the other one is 8 years old, where the heating systems in the 2 units are 8 years old and where the ages of the water heater and roof are undisclosed?  Would you estimate between $100 to $200 per month in expenses? Thank you.

[Cliff Harrison]

Originally posted by @Mariama R.:

What is the typical Cap Ex on a 24 year old duplex house, in Kansas City, MO which is between 1000 sq ft and 2000 sq ft, wherein one AC electric unit is new, the other one is 8 years old, where the heating systems in the 2 units are 8 years old and where the ages of the water heater and roof are undisclosed?  Would you estimate between $100 to $200 per month in expenses? Thank you.

If you are going to hold long term, it's easiest to ignore the current component ages when determining how much to lay away in CapEx accounts in a long term proforma. Use the ages to think about 'when' you will need to make the CapEx withdrawls. For a duplex I think $200 per month is a good approximate number, may be a little less if it's a two story building design. The math is to identify all CapEx components, their total life span (assume purchase new), and their replacement cost. Divide the replacement cost by the life span in months for each component and add all of these together to get the amount to use to evaluate the 'long term' performance. If you are holding for less than 10 years you need to look at things differently, and if you have components approaching end-of-life now you need to ensure you have reserves/cash on hand to make those repairs out of pocket because your capex account won't have time to accrue savings from your layaway before you have to make the repairs.