Duplex Vacancy Rent or Renovate?

[Nick Reinhardt]

Looking for some insight on the following situation:

I recently purchased 2 neighbouring duplexes, 3 of the 4 units are currently rented out. We plan to move into the vacant unit and do some minor updates while house hacking it. However, I just found out one of the tenants who was on a month to month lease will be moving out September 1st (our move in date).

So the question is:

Do we use this opportunity to upgrade that unit which would include adding a sliding glass door in the kitchen, removing the wall separating the kitchen and living room, and tiling bathroom floors?

Or do we skip the renovations and get the unit rented as soon as possible?

My concern with completing the upgrades is trying to rent the unit in the fall October/November timeframe.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

[Nick Reinhardt]

@Natalie Cloutier thanks for the feedback, looks like your well on your way to your investing goals. Keep up the good work.

After talking it through, the plan for now is to do a portion of the rehab, items we feel confident can be completed quickly.

Once completed, rent the unit on a lease that will expire next summer, if the tenant would like to renew to a long term lease at that point great, if not complete the remainder of the rehab at that point.

My natural intuition is to go for it and get everything done at once, but when factoring in we will be moving, taking on 2 new tenants, catching up on deferred maintenance, etc... may be best to pace ourselves.