Getting a rental property ready for rent could be as simple as a cleanup and new paint, but in this case, this house was purchased with the tenant in place, who has lived in the property for at least 7 years since I purchased it.

So there is a lot of deferred maintenance, which means issues that should have been upgraded or repaired over the years that have not been. This is very common with rental properties with long term tenants (especially older properties).

The first issue is that this house has window units and no central air. So the first thing I am going to do is put in a new central air unit. That will mean taking out the window units and repairing the holes where those units were, which will mean stucco repair on the outside of the house. Since the exterior of the house is going to have some new stucco, I will need to paint the exterior of the house as well.

On the interior, in the kitchen, the cabinets are pretty worn and have some water damage. The countertop is faded, and the sink needs to be replaced. So, for a rental, we could clean up the cabinets and replace the countertop, but looking at the expense of that versus redoing the kitchen completely is something that has to be reviewed.

One key point in this kitchen is that the island behind the sink has an overhang with some cabinets, which is just too low and blocks the view from the kitchen into the living room, and is not very functional. When standing in the kitchen preparing dinner, you would want to be able to look directly out into the family room and not be looking at the cabinets. This makes the house seem smaller, too. So that overhand will need to be removed, and it will need to be opened up. The problem is that we need to replace those cabinets with base cabinets in order to not lose cabinet space, and it will be very hard to find a cabinet that will match that base. So getting new cabinets might make sense. If we are replacing the countertop in the kitchen, then we would want the countertop for the island to match the countertop for the kitchen. So at this point, I am leaning towards redoing the kitchen and putting in new cabinets, a new sink, and new granite countertops for both the sink and the island. That will look nicer than trying to match out the base and restoring the old cabinets.

The tile floor throughout the house is fine, and there is no need to replace that. When you are reusing the existing tile, it is very important to make sure that there are no cracked tiles, and it’s also a good idea to make sure you have some spare tile that matches in case some tiles crack in the future, and then they can be replaced easily. I am going to leave that tile in place, but I will put in new white baseboards. The bedrooms need new ceiling fans and baseboards, as well as upgrading and fixing some of the closet doors and wall plates. They also need new paint. So the interior of the house will be repainted, all bedrooms will have new ceiling fans and new baseboard, and all windows will have new blinds.

On the exterior of the house, I am going to stucco the exterior to patch up the holes from the window units and then repaint the exterior as well. The bathrooms are going to be redone since the vanities and toilets are old, and the faucets are leaking, and they are those old plastic type Motel 6 faucets, which don’t look great. So both bathrooms are going to get new tile, new toilets, and new vanities.

When I am done, this remodel will cost me around $25,000 for the interior and $8,000 for the Central Air. Total cost $33,000. But the house will look new and upgraded, and will be easy to rent or easy to list, and sell on the MLS.

Do you want to learn how to buy rental properties below market with no money down? Make sure you attend my Buying Rentals and Building Wealth Boot Camp, where I teach my students how to buy rental properties with no money down using the Buy, Repair, Rent, and Refinance Method. You can find out more about that boot camp at this link: https://www.lexlevinrad.com/buying-rentals-building-wealth-boot-camp/

I used the Buy, Repair, Rent, and Refinance method to buy this rental property, and I want to show you how easy it is to employ this strategy. You only need three things to make this work? A motivated seller, a job, and decent credit. If you want to learn more about my real estate training programs, book a call by completing the application at this link: https://www.lexlevinrad.com/application/

Or call my office at (561) 948-2127 and speak to one of our Student Support Managers.