Furnace vs Baseboard Heat? Central AC vs Window Units?

[Tavari Keel]

Hello,

I currently have a 4plex in which I pay all heating and cooling costs, running about $300-350/mo by itself (two furnaces and two ACs). I'm thinking about converting to electric baseboard heaters and window ACs to pass that expense onto the tenants. For reference, in my area (Cincinnati), in all the apartments I've ever personally rented, having heating and cooling be landlord-paid is unheard of.

Would it make more sense to A. invest about $2,000 into baseboard heaters and window ACs, or B. simply begin raising rents with future tenants to cover this expense?

The downside I foresee with 'B' is that my rents would be higher than what normally goes in my area, and prospective tenants would be too concerned with the sticker shock to care that the extra cost is going towards central heating and cooling (which they'd otherwise pay themselves somewhere else).

What are others' thoughts? Has anyone been in a similar situation?