It's going to need some repair/upgrade and there are other fees and costs involved.

While I do agree that a $1700/month rental probably is expected to have some upgrades, can you be sure the 3-month vacancy was solely due to a lack of them?

.- Less than an hour ago we upgraded our hardware to a monster setup that is faster and which will allow for a lot more traffic.

electrical service upgrade, new roof, new boilers etc....

Joshua Dorkin may already have this in mind for future upgrades, or may be persuaded to add to those pages for educating us noobs.

The same question that hunts me every year raised its ugly head once again.Issue #1:I have two times of expenses, routine maintenance that sometimes is quite costly .. like labor and materials to repair main sewer .. or upgrading the unit after its vacated.Second category is rehabbing trashed new acquisition.IRS rule is relatively simple: If the item has short life span .. like a gasket or so .. labor and materials can be expensed in the same year.

my analysis of the rant FWIW - as a landlord, you need to practice the 3 F's - friendly & fair but firm. 1st & foremeost - this is a people business.in regards to your upgrades, you just need to look at the competition & equal that.

I've typically followed a similar formula to Jscott's in that I want to have a better house than the competition (eg. upgraded finishes, etc.) priced below the competition.

I do run Virtual Box on the work mac for one application I have to use that is Windows only.If you buy a Windows 7 machine you should be able to upgrade for free.

When you plan to rent a property, you need to limit your investment to as little as it takes to rent out the home.As to replenishing your personal funds, selling off a couple of your well rehabbed and upgraded units sounds like an economical way to accomplish that.