Should I replace my gas boiler and water heater?

[Jacob Gelinas]

I bought a three family property almost exactly a year ago and the three gas boilers are about 15 years old. I live in one of the units and had to replace the water heater for my unit in July. Now the first floor tenant’s boiler needs some work and his water heater is getting old as well. I had a technician come to check out the issue on the boiler and he suggested I just replace the boiler and water heater with one of the high efficiency combination units.

There is a rebate from the local gas company for $1200 but that would still put me around $6k all said and done. Is it worth swapping to one of these combination units or just fixing the gas boiler for now and replacing the water heater? I can probably fix the existing boiler and get a new water heater for under $1k all together. But do the high efficiency combination units justify higher rents? And would that plus the peace of mind of having a brand new system outweigh the additional cost? Looking to get people’s opinions and whether they’ve had the same dilemma.

Thanks!