Paying your Tenants to Fix up your Rental!

[Tj Simmons]

Good Morning! I am going to discuss a Duplex I own in the Creston Neighborhood of Grand Rapids, 49505 - Recently rated the HOTTEST ZIP Code in America to buy real estate in! 

I wanted to post about what I am currently doing with my Tenants, and if anyone else has had this Success, if anyone has ran into problems doing things this way, and if anyone has even BETTER ideas for me along these lines. 

I recently bought a Single Family home, and moved out of one Unit of my Duplex that I was living in, and Now have the entire Duplex rented out. The upper unit guy works at ServePro- so he is a pretty hands on handy guy, and the lower unit guy is a younger handyman that is in School. 

I have done some remodeling to both of the units myself prior to moving out of the apartment, I redid the Floors in both units, Partially remodeled the lower level Kitchen, and Added a Slider door to the back Laundry room to the backyard from the main Unit. They were all Added Value - but the projects themselves were sort-of - 80% finished rather than 100%. The Floors were never Trimmed, the Cabinet Hardware and the sides to the counters were never put on, and the paneling and Trim over the Slider door was never put on. So they were all Half finished Projects that I did not have the time or energy to finish (I work full time also, this is just a fun side thing) SO - I struck up a deal with them. Since I realized they were handy - I asked if they would do those things for me, if I could take money off of your Rent for the next month, and we could be even, and I could pay for the materials. So - first it just started out with what needed to be done to make the house look complete - the back wall with the trim, the Kitchen Cabinets, and the Counter sides - I took $150 off of his Rent to do those things for me - THAT IS SO CHEAP considering labor cost these days...(I realize would have been even Cheaper if I did it myself but I did not want too) So - this Idea kind of Snowballed and when the Lower unit got occupied by the younger handyman - I basically said up front "If I wanted things fixed up here and you felt like you could do it, could we make a deal and cut some of your rent for the month?" He was 100% in. So far he has Replaced the ceiling Fan in his Apartment with a way nicer one with much better lighting, Trimmed the Entire Apartment, Fixed the Faucet and the Bathroom Tub Faucet in his Unit (They were not "Broken" just not working Properly and could have created a problem if not taken care of) AND he went and Picked up a new fridge that I bought, moved it into the apartment, and is now handling getting rid of the old fridge! 

So - all of this has been pretty exciting to me - Getting Sent pictures of my Apartment just looking better and better when usually the horror Stories are your Tenants making it Worse and Worse! They are just slowly but surely adding value to my home itself, when I am eventually ready to sell it. And then on top of that - they get to live in a nicer unit themselves, while still paying the same monthly rent. 

So - besides sharing that Idea to others that might have handymen in their units (Obviously it's good for Maintenance of your property, but they always say in real estate the unpredictable cost are where you lose money, so let's say I did not fix that Facet and my Entire lower bathroom Plumbing went to **** and I had to pay heck of a lot more to fix it to a real plumber then just a quick replacing of a faucet that is not working properly) I also wanted to Write this to hear everyone else's two cents on the Idea - what should I be afraid of? how could I make this situation even more of a Win win for myself and my Tenant? 

Thanks for Reading - I hope everyone had an amazing Labor Day Weekend. 

TJ Simmons.