To Fix or To Sell (or Both)

[Andrew Dudun]

Hi Everyone,

I am looking to see if anyone is able to offer any advice on my current situation.  Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I currently reside in Chicago and bought my first property, a duplex, in August 2021 in Euclid, OH that was built in 1920. At purchase, there was one inherited tenant in the upstairs unit while the downstairs unit was vacant. We were able to get the downstairs unit fixed up while the upstairs was rented out at $750/month. When both units were rented, total income came out to $1590/month with PITI at around $800/month.

Recently, I have had a lot of issues with the property. A water leak from the upstairs into the downstairs unit ended up costing me $3850 as there was damage to the wall and flooring.  The downstairs tenant moved out early in November due to this. There was some damage to the interior from the tenant and some repairs that needed to be done that totaled over $4500.  In a separate incident, the hot water heater broke and it was $1600 to replace it. The inherited tenant stopped paying and did not pay for the last 3-4 months of 2022 after we had chosen not to renew her MTM lease. My property manager had to file an eviction and she finally moved out in late December. Unfortunately, she has caused quite a bit of damage - the kids had drawn and painted on many of the doors and walls in the house (sometimes the whole wall), there is a broken window or two, some wall damage, and she left piles of clothes and bed frames for us to deal with.  There are some other repairs that needed to be done when the property was purchased that we did not have the chance to do since it was occupied but this tenant definitely caused a significant amount of damage.  My PM is quoting me $14k for all the repairs. I have put a lot of money into repairs recently and it has been frustrating to deal with this over the past few months.  My PM has been very slow to move at times and it has taken a while to get some repairs started.

I am working on filing a claim with my insurance to see if they will help with the water damage bill and also the most recently needed repairs with the tenant causing damage. Hopefully that will pan out but I am not sure how much will be covered and if it will work out.  I am not sure if it is worth putting in this money into this house, as it is older and may continue to need regular repairs along with potentially sustaining more significant tenant-caused damage.  My PM has been difficult to work with at times and communication has been pretty poor at times.

At this point, I am thinking of trying to do some repairs and selling it. This property has caused a lot of headaches! Redfin and Realtor.com estimate the value at $133k.  If insurance doesn't come through for me, I may consider doing some repairs and selling at a lower price.

This has been very challenging for me. I wanted to see what other people think about this situation and what they would do in my shoes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

-Andrew