Renovating between tenants AND woodstove or not

[Linda B.]

Hello, I am in the process of fixing up a 1978 mobile home that I purchased last year (it came with tenant who gave notice last month). I bought the property mainly for the value in the land (located in a highly desirable neighborhood where prices have increased drastically over the last few years and people are building beautiful new homes). I was originally planning on holding on to the property for five years and then selling the land at a profit. In the meantime, the property cash flows ok. 

Now, the originally planned 'touch ups' turned into a new carpet (very, very bad dog pee smell), to painting all of the 1978 style wall panels (very dark and outdated look) to getting a new roof (original roof that was absolutely in pieces). In addition, I'll have to have some trees taken down that are too close to the house (dead ones) and am spending some money on smaller fixes that are adding up (new stove, light fixtures, blinds, etc.). I guess one of the questions is where to draw the line... At this point I have spent about twice as much as originally intended (spent approx 9k), which is worse if I consider that the mobile home will be of no value to any buyer.

The rental market in my area is very, very hot and there is absolutely no problem to rent the place as is. However, I just learned from my power company that the energy bills of the previous tenants went as high as $570 during the very cold winter months ($200/month average). I'm intending to rent for $1050/month. Would it be worth spending another $3500 on a wood stove to save the next tenants some heating costs? It's a 1978 mobile home and insulation is very bad, so I feel somewhat responsible to offer a more cost effective heating option. I might even get slightly higher rent (but probably not enough to justify the expense). Should I just go with the numbers and not do it? Is there anything I'm not considering in this equation?

Sorry, long story for such a simple question, but I think it all plays a bit into the question of 'where to draw the line' when renovating between tenants... Any thoughts on that? Thanks very much!