Oceans of paint and Acres of Carpet are bad. Limit the size of your rentals!

[Cal C.]

Thank you @Tyler McCracken for that phrase.

Anyway, ten years ago when I didn't know what I was doing when purchasing property, I bought a couple of four bedrooms with about 2700 Square feet of space in each.   While this makes the places slightly easier to rent, it means that I have seemingly oceans of paint to pay for and sometime, probably soon, I'm going to have to buy acres of new carpet.  

Since I could have gotten the same rent for an 1,800 to 2,000 sq ft house, my capex expenses on these properties are needlessly high.  

This is definitely one of the (many) lessons I have learned as a landlord.   

[John Chapman]

@Cal C. You've touched a subject near and dear to my heart.  I reached the same in the last year or so, and  I've been pruning my portfolio to get rid of these really big houses that are murderous on make ready.   (It's a real problem here in Texas where everything is bigger.)  I've actually come to the conclusion that in my area I generally do not want anything over 1500-1700 square feet.   My favorite houses are 3/2/2's that are 1200-1300 square feet.  Relative to rents, make ready is very reasonable.