Rehabbing other's apartments for rental arbitrage?

[Ade Brown]

Hi all - First post here. I live in an area that is dominated by older homes. Easily last renovated 30 years ago on average. Rents are very high in the area and there is great demand for apartments that are well appointed. For example, I rent out 2 studios in a not so great location but because they studios have been renovated, I can charge high rents and always have persons cantacting me about them. 

On to the question. Is it worth looking into other people with out dated apartments and ask if I can do cosmetic changes, make the place look great and sublet? I look at it as a bit of rental arbitrage. Issue is that I don't want to update and the homeowner terminate my lease and effectively take my renovation for free and leave me out of pocket. What do you think?