All Forum Posts by: Eric Mauricio

Hello BP community. This is my first "real" topic that I'm posting and I want to hear your take. So, we bought this home in June and we thought this would be the home where we'd raise our family for a few years. Unfortunately, my job thought differently and we'll be moving out of state next summer. We are debating on whether to sell it (if we have enough equity) or rent it out (which is what I'm leaning towards because we'd love to come back here in 4-6 years). I'll start that as a new topic when the time gets closer.

Now, back to my original question…Is it worth upgrading a dated home on a rental property? 

Our home is 4 bed/3 bath, approx. 2600 sq ft, 3 car garage, in a desirable neighborhood. However, the home was built in 1987 and it shows. I'm pretty sure the bathrooms have never been upgraded (linoleum is in good shape, just looks dated). The kitchen floors and counters are tile with some ugly, dirty grout. The white kitchen sink has some small nicks. The kitchen cabinets are nothing to praise about. The only things in the kitchen that were upgraded were the appliances (stainless steel). The 2 fireplaces are definitely dated (surrounded by tile with no mantle). Even the light switch and electrical outlet plates are all almond color. The laminate and carpet in the home is in good shape, though.

We have put some work in the house. We removed the popcorn ceiling and spray textured it, but you can see the imperfections ( I don't look up too often so it doesn't bother me). We upgraded the dining & breakfast nook lights and ceiling fans. We also painted the kids' rooms, but it might be too "loud" as a rental unit because one room has "Victoria Secret" pink stripes with a ceiling fan definitely for a little girl's room and the other room we painted teal and it has a modern looking black ceiling fan. 

A property manager said in today's rental market we SHOULD be able to get $2400/month (which would cover most of our mortgage/tax/insurance) just based on the location and size of our home. 

Would you make some updates and if so what would they be? Thanks for reading my ramble.  = )

I'm glad I saw this posting/topic. I never really thought about doing upgrades during tenancy. I'm a new landlord and will definitely use some of the advice from this topic. I like the "lease renewal bonus" idea. I'm pretty sure my bonus idea when the time comes to renew the lease is to offer adding insulation in the attic because I remember when we used to live at the house it would get really hot upstairs in the summer time, especially in the master bedroom because it's right above the garage.

@Jon Huber - I just read your RE goals and saw your new goal of wanting to be on the BiggerPockets podcasts. It's funny because that's one of my goals, too! It dawned on me a couple days ago after listening to a couple podcasts back-to-back. Hopefully we'll be there soon…Good Luck!!

@Jon Huber @James Wise - Thank you very much! I have listened to approx. 5 podcasts thus far and they are great. I plan on becoming very active in the forums soon when I do make my move to Fargo.

@LuAnn Vigen Thanks for the info. I have been passively looking on Zillow and Trulia and I noticed property prices from 2 years ago were much lower than today's prices. I did sign up for a Fargo RE meet up, so I'm hoping to attend one within the next couple of months.  = )

Hello BP Family! I have been reading through some of the BP posts for a few months now trying to learn and soak up as much information as I can. I have one property (first home we bought in 2005) that we just put on the rental market because it's underwater on the mortgage. We didn't want to just walk away and mess up our credit. I think as soon as we break even, we're going to sell it because of the stupid HOA rules (we were lucky the HOA is letting us rent it!).

We bought another home this summer that we thought we would be staying in for a few years, but my job is taking me to Fargo; so, we might be renting that home next year (I'll be adding another post later because I do have questions about renting that one out). 

I am looking forward to my move to Fargo to start my RE Investing lifestyle, but it's going to be a challenge because I need to get the "better half" on board because she HATES risk. I really do not have anything to offer to the BP community right now, but I have the eagerness and time to learn! Cheers!!

@Kari Reynolds How is your rental property doing? Did you make the suggested updates? I'm curious because the home we live in right now is dated (built in 1987) and we might put it on the rental market in the summer of 2015.

Nana K. - I wish I could give you some sound advice, but I am very new at REI as well and I'm in the process of getting as much info as I can right now. How was the HomePath process? I'm looking to do the same thing, but have not heard anything positive or negative about it. Can you please share some info? Thank you.

Connor Dunham - glad to read that you're doing well and have persevered and showed resiliency through those rough times in the beginning. I'm sure you're story will inspire others to chase their dreams with real estate investing (it inspired me!). Glad to see you had a plan and stuck by it. Best of luck to you and your family in the future!!

This is awesome!! I haven't posted real estate ads yet, but every time I try to sell my Golden State Warriors tickets or other items my ad gets flagged and deleted. Thanks for the wonderful Craigslist tip!!!