College rental house: rehab now or later?

[Karen Powell]

We purchased a home in Charlotte for our daughter and her roommates. She will graduate in three years, so we expect to own the home for at least that long. The kitchen and bathrooms are okay, but need renovating before we sell it. We used a HELOC on our own home for the down payment. Our plan is to refinance the house in our daughter's name, as a first time homebuyer, for a better rate and terms. I think we should rehab the house now, before we refi, so we can get as much of our money back to put back into our HELOC. My husband thinks we should wait to rehab until we are going to sell it (because, college kids...). I am curious what more experienced investors would do?

[Eliott Elias]

If your goal is to refi and capture its highest ARV to pull the most amount of cash, rehab it now. Otherwise they are college kids, the house is going to see a lot of wear & tear.