Inspection Report and Must Dos with Established Tenants

[Erik Dofelmier]

We recently went under contract on a as-is duplex with established tenants (they’ve been there 15 and 5 years respectively). During the initial walk through the house appeared to have great bones, but obviously needs updating and they don’t appear to have cleaned/maintained their living areas for quite some time.
We just got the inspection report back and there of course were some issues, but nothing to me seemed too serious (structural/roof/septic all ok). That being said, what would you consider must do repairs, and should do repairs with tenants that have lived in the situation for years? Some of the electrical was outdated, water heaters were rusted, and there were some issues with runoff that can be fixed with grading.  I’m with the argument of fix anything that will/could be a liability or more expensive down the road, whereas my spouse is more along the lines of  “they’ve lived in it for 15 years like this so let’s build up some cash and fix it within a year/later.”  I see her point, but at the same time I want to protect the investment from further deterioration. Thoughts?