I'm in the process of purchasing a home with the intent of moving into it in the next 2-3 years. Before that time I'd like to rent it out. I have a good bit of experience with rental property generally, but not so much from the specific angle of renting before using as a primary residence. Price for the rental would probably be in the $2,500 - $3,000 range, depending on how nice we make it. Which is high for the area for sure.

The home is roughly 40 years old and in very good shape for its age but has a few outstanding immediate issues. Bedroom carpets are old. One bathroom has peeling wallpaper (the current owner went to tear it out then gave up). And one burner is broken on the current cooktop. Those are the only obvious superficial issues, and any underlying repairs we'd go ahead and make as well.

I'm just not sure how much I want to renovate to my own standard versus for the rental. My wife and I like nice finishes and nice spaces. Almost certainly more than would deliver ROI either from a rental or appreciation, and I'm ok with that. But I don't want to put something in too nice and have it end up damaged after a couple of years. That would be silly. On the flip side I don't want to make a repair that's too cheap just to be cheap knowing I'll replace it later.

For example, I know we're going to want tile in the bedrooms. Probably porcelain. It feels like we could probably put this in now as it's a durable surface. I really don't want to carpet just to rip it out. I also want radiant heat floors in the bedrooms, so naturally we'd get those in when doing the tile. On the flip side, I figure we can just clean up the existing bathroom and not redo it to our specs until after we want to move in.

The cooktop is trickier. A burner is broken, which feels like we can't really just leave even though who the heck uses all four burners. But I would want something overly fancy as I love to cook. I'd rather not go fancy for the rental on the cooktop, but replacing the cooktop after 2 years is once again silly seeming and wasteful.

All this said, any general thoughts about how to weight improvement decisions in a case where you're intending to move in shortly would be welcome. It's a new world for me!

Albuquerque, New Mexico

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