Blinds?

[Jon S.]

Who provides and installs the blinds? I just renovated a triplex, now showing, one lease signed, two leases to go. I'm charging rates similar to rates at nearby luxury apartments, but offering a home feel rather than an apt complex feel. Tenants and prospective tenants are asking about blinds. There are a lot of windows in these units, about 30 windows all included between the 3 units, so if I provide them, its going to be a significant expense. On the other hand, installing them gives me more control on the final look, and since the materials used in this renovation were higher end, ie, granite counters, porcelain tile, maybe it is a good idea for me to have more control over what the final look is with the blinds? I found that faux wood 2" slat blinds are on wayfair for about $40 ea. If install is $10/blind, then you have a total cost of $1550 to buy and install blinds in all 3 units.  Being at the end of the project, this is an expense I didn't budget for (and there are other expenses I didn't budget for too). If I tell the tenants to buy and install their own blinds, they might do a crappy job and/or do damage. If blinds are purchased and installed by the tenant, once installed, do the blinds stay? If I hire someone to do all the installs, how much should installation cost? Recommendations? Other ways to handle this? Thanks

[Todd Plambeck]

I usually go with the cheap 1" vinyl ones from Lowes or HD for rentals.  They cost $8-$10 and a good blind 2" costs me $30-$40.  I can swap out a lot of blinds for that difference and they will break them regardless of how nice they are.  I made the mistake of not putting up blinds once.  Next time I went by the house there were blankets nailed to window casings and tin foil on some of the other windows to cover them.