Rental property WITHOUT a basement in Kansas City - good or bad?

[Becky Lu]

Hi guys,

I just put a few offers in Kansas City, MO for SFH. At first I was only looking for properties with a concrete basement because of the natural disaster - tornado. Along the way, I've learned that most of the properties in KCMO are old and the basement is usually in a worse shape than the house itself. The basement usually has water leakage issue or some even with foundation issues, which are not cheap to fix. Then I asked my agent if the basement is a necessity in KC? He told me a not-so-helpful-at-all answer "it depends. Some people don't like a basement or don't need one....and some do"

I did some research myself and found: most people would like a basement cause it's safe to have one in case of a tornado and it doubles the living space. It's easier to sell and good for re-sell vale.

I'm afraid I'm biased on this cause my first decision was to buy the property with a basement because I think it's safer and I'd want to live in a safer house. But I'm not going to live there and maybe renters don't really care or tornado is really not that bad in KC....

Can anyone share your thoughts or your experiences? Or if you live in KC, would you care to have a basement? Thank you!!

Becky