Replacing plaster with drywall in rental

[Bienes Raices]

I'm looking at a couple of houses built in the 50's that have plaster. I haven't been able to get inside the houses yet so I'm not sure what the condition of the plaster is.

If anyone here has bought one of these, did you leave the plaster alone, or replace it with drywall? Were the rental applicants turned off by the appearance of the plaster? If you do replace it, do you just go by the going rate of square foot materials/labor for drywall, or is there more to it than that? Thanks.

[James H.]

Bienes Raices, I haven't encountered plaster, but if I did,I would probably just patch it where needed. I don't believe the look of plaster will be a turn off. In fact, plaster is used sometimes in very high end homes. But if you were to replace it, I would make sure to use that time to insulate the house and take care of old pluming and possibly electical wires since it is probably a system lacking a ground wire being 1950's built,

When I visited my sister in Florida, I noticed most of the houses built in her area (New Smirna Beach) are cinder block construction. Was plaster applied directly to the face of cinderblock walls when it was in use? Is cinderblock construction common in your area?