Repairing Occupied Units

[Danielle J.]

I just completed the home inspection yesterday and by walking through  the units (3 of which are currently occupied), I know I want to rip out carpet and put in new floors. One unit will be available for me to move in by closing, so I will have full access to do necessary repairs/updates on the unit I will be in which is cool. However I am not sure how to go about replacing floors in other units that are currently occupied. BTW thanks to feedback from my new BP fam, I think I am going to do with mostly "wood looking tile," vinyl plank, or maybe engineered wood!

How do you go about doing floors in occupied units? Seems like tenants may be displaced as they will need to move couches and other belongings.  I have heard of suggestions to wait until tenants vacate to update but what if they plan on being around for a while?  I also heard of reserving a hotel room for tenants while work is completed $$$. Any other suggestions?

[James Hocker]

3 other options: evict, per diem, or shuffle

Evict:  Depending on the length of their rental agreement and any rent-control ordinances in place for your area, you may also want to consider terminating the tenancy, then doing the work with vacant units.

Of course it's usually not a great idea to evict tenants that are paying their rent!  ...but if the fair market rent of the units will be much higher after you've updated them, it might make sense.  

Per diem:  You might consider offering them cash to take a vacation or stay with someone else.  Offer them a daily cash amount that's lower than what it would cost to put them into a hotel.  It could be a win-win for you and your tenant.

I would consider paying per diems or hotels very high risk.  Any delay by your contractor would mean you're stuck paying fees longer, while simultaneously losing cash flow on an unoccupied unit.

Shuffle:  Since you've got one unit that will be unoccupied until you move in, would it make sense to move the tenant from their unit to yours until work is completed on theirs? 

If you're doing something like tile flooring, it will take at least a few days per unit, and remember that any time you rip something out of a house, you may discover a problem that needs more time to fix than you anticipated!

Good luck!