Is it worth replacing drive and garage on rental property with active renter?

[Mark Winney]

Hi.  We bought a rental property 2 years ago and it took us a year to renovate so we are in our first year of renting.  Our current renter is likely to be renting for 4 years as she has kids at local school and 4 years would see them through to going to college.

We have an old detached 1.5 garage that has functional automatic garage door, and just fits their car....not that they do it very often as I think it is a challenge.  It is very old but stable and has a slight lean.  I don't think it is any risk of collapsing.

The driveway is about 80 ft long (garage is at back of property and driveway runs down side of house) and is one of those with grass down the middle with slabs either side.  Over the years the side toward the house has slumped toward the house and during very heavy rains can cause seepage into the basement.  The driveway near the garage and inside the garage has large cracks from tree roots, but probably has a few more years life in it.

My question is whether, in the next year or 2, I should replace the drive and garage?  I would likely put in a 2.5 car garage.

We have had one estimate for just replacing the drive and 2.5 car pad (not including garage) and that came to $25,000.  I assume we could add another $20,000 for garage, although we have not estimated that yet.  My expectation would be around $50,000 for drive and garage.

I would likely not raise the rent more then 3% as they are such good renters and really take care of the place.  Current rent is $2060 + $40 for dog.

I assume I could depreciate the cost over 27.5 years.  But is it worth it?  Should I wait and do something between renters?

FYI - We just had the spend $15,000 on lateral sewer problems causing backups into the basement, so year to date we have no positive income.