Rent or finish rehab?

[Bryan Huntington]

I’m currently house hacking my first property. ( is a duplex, living in one side renting out the other). On the side I’m living in I’m doing a rehab job turning a 2 bed 1 bath into a 4 bed 2 bath by finishing the basement and some other upgrades to the upstairs as well. Once done, I plan on moving over to the other unit and do the same thing to that side and rent out the finished side for about $1700. My current tenant just moved out of the other side and I’m still about 4-6 months away from finishing my side. Due to limited funds I’m doing most of the rehab myself and only subbing out a few things so it’s taking me longer than I’d like. My question is should I turn over and try to rent out the other unit for those 4-6 months? Or just hurry up the rehab on my side and get it done and leave the other side vacant? Ballpark I could get $900-1100 per month for rent in the market it’s in. The other unit isn’t in terrible shape but it does need some TLC and would require some time and effort to get it rent ready again. And keep in mind I’m going to rehab It in about 6 months so it doesn’t make sense to do a ton of improvements such as replacing the carpet (which needs to be done). Is the extra income worth it for those 4-6 months? Or not worth the time, energy, money for turn over?