How far to go with updates on a rental in an A Class area? New sod?
We've recently closed on a SFH in Royal Oak, MI that we intend to keep as a buy and hold. The house was in pretty good shape - fresh paint and carpet, new kitchen with granite counter tops, and new windows. I would have been comfortable moving right in.
We've been doing some light rehab including:
- New flooring in laundry room
- New hot water tank
- Faux wood blinds throughout
- touch up paint, where needed
- Bringing some electrical up to code
- Installing a microwave
- Bathroom: Grouting tub, replacing some damaged tiles, fixing exhaust fan, re-trimming window, new showerhead
- New smoke detectors
- Painting some built-ins in the basement that were bare wood
- Finishing off a bar in the basement
- Powerwash of exterior
- New address sign
- New mailbox
- Repair of interior and exterior doors
- Dealing with a disaster of a yard! We've filled over 50 bags with yard waste including trees.
We've spent about 2K on renos. The property cost $139,900 and we got $1,500 back for repairs. That was fair. It sold in less than a day with multiple offers, so I feel like we did well. We expect to get $1425 per month in rent.
Here's the question. How much further should we go? We're considering:
- Replacing decent bathroom countertop with granite ($200)
- New bathroom faucet ($80)
- New bathroom light fixture ($40)
- Spraying basement ceiling black ($700) - basement is finished and ceiling currently painted tan but black is all the rage around here
- And here's the biggy - resod the backyard. ($1400)
The re-sod project is tricky. After we cleared a yard full of scrub, we found a 10x10 hill sloping towards the house. That needs to be regraded for maintenance reasons. Which leaves us with a bare chunk of yard. New sod will stick out like a sore thumb if it's just done in one place. To redo the whole yard is so expensive! We realized there were some grading problems, but it's worse that we expected. What to do? Should we just hand dig and level the hill and put in the sod? How much value does fresh sod add?
I'm worried the tenants may not maintain the yard over the long term and the grass will look bad in a couple of years. But our grade will be correct.
Any insights will be appreciated! And if anyone happens to know of a company that can regrade on the cheap in the area, let me know.