What a good rental home must have with low maintenance

Question

I am currently looking at a foreclosed home and planning to buy and rehab. As a foreclosed home, it has mold and bad roof. The question I have is, in order to make it rent ready and not to spend too much to make it look so luxurious, what are the basic things that a rental home will need with low maintenance. Carpet or Wood flooring?

Thanks,

Venkatesh

Thanks,

Venkatesh

Kevin Harrison · Answer

There is a great thread on here about how to harden you rental. I'm pretty sure if you look up Harden or bulletproof your rental you will be able to find this thread, it is full of fairly low cost ways to make your rental better protected form rough tenants.

Jeff Gates · Answer

If you will rehab a foreclosure, you can take this in steps. Go on a tour in your market and look at rental open houses. Make notes on what is the rent and the condition of the property. See at least five. Now you know what the minimum you need to get your first tenant at the low end rents. Sign a short lease, and keep fixing it. By the end of your first lease you can charge more.

Adrian Mata · Answer

Wood is a no go. It scratches. From what I've heard, vinyl flooring is great. Laminate works well and you can get that stuff that looks like wood but tenants have to take care of it.

We're using carpet because that's what we can afford in the current situation. If you go that route, get a good carpet pad so that way you'll only be changing the carpet in the future.

Pex not copper piping. Pex will expand and contract because it's basically flexible plastic.

Cheapest stuff you can find in terms of appliances or things that will get replaced.

Lucero Sanchez · Answer

In my experience with tenants they do not take care of anything and our rental properties are in middle class neighborhoods, one tenant would lock his dogs inside the bedroom for days the carpet was torn up and guess where they would pee and do do yup on the carpet, and pets where not even allowed on the property! The doors had to be replaced because the dogs would try to chew there way out! Good thing we installed cheap carpet, the tile floors only had to be cleaned, because they couldn't destroy it.

Also don't put landscaping just throw gravel because they won't take care of it.

Just fix the roof, give it a good cleaning with appliances off of Craigslist make sure plumbing, heating and cooling works and is safe to live in (no bare wires, black mold, smoke detectors etc..) when you are ready to sell it than that's when you would want to upgrade it.

Good luck

Wishing you success;)

Lauren Heart · Answer

Welcome Venkatesh!  I prefer laminate in my rentals because it looks better, lasts longer, is easier to clean, is cheaper in the long run, and is a desired upgrade for most good tenants. As far as general questions on options for upgrades, there are great resources here to read up on.  Also, you want to do local research for your area so that you don't overdo your rehab, but remain in that "sweet spot".  Congratulations and good luck!

All the best,

Lauren