Deciding what upgrades to make when tenants move out?

[Matt Moldenhauer]

How do you generally go about deciding what needs done/replaced? Our current rental house is about 48 years old. It's in pretty good condition, but we're going to paint all of the walls and replace light fixtures. The carpet in the living room is different from the bedrooms(which all match). The linoleum flooring in the kitchen/dining is god awful. The bathrooms are newly tiled, so are fine. I'm debating if we should try and stick it on the market as is or replace everything but the bathrooms with the Allure Trafficmaster flooring and be done with it? Doing all of this would pretty much eat up the years worth of profit, but would be done and possibly attract a "better" tenant? Any thoughts? I don't want to be a slumlord, but I don't want to go broke fixing up a place and only rely on the improvement deductions and depreciation come tax time.

[Ryan Gillette]

It'll all depend on the costs, but generally it's worth the investment:

1. Attract higher rent > increase revenue

2. Quicker turnover > increase revenue

3. Increase value of the property > increase assets

Painting, light fixtures and a linoleum floor are going to wipe out years of profit? It shouldn't. But if that's the case, you could focus on the imperative things (floors and walls), and spread the rest of project out over years. If you can swing it, it's usually best to do it all at once and capture the benefit upfront.