3 to 5-Unit Owners: Laundry In Unit, or Basement?

[Ben Ballinger]

I am considering a purchase of a 4 unit building, with 2 bed 1 bath units in it.  Currently, there are pay-machines for laundry in the basement.

I am wondering if it would be a better decision to do stackable units in the apartments? This would allow me to:

• charge more for rent thanks to the added amenity
• really differentiate the apartments from others in the area, since no other apartments around have this feature
• compete more effectively against SFH rentals in the area (this suburb has a lot of them) since most SFH have in-home laundry

Obviously the downsides are potential for abuse of the machines (requiring added maintenance calls and potentially replacement costs), lost income from pay-machines in the basement, lost closet space and initial investment to install plumbing/venting and purchase appliances.

Interested to hear arguments for either side of this.