Woodburning vs. gas Fireplace for rental? New vanities?

[Aimee Lawrence]

Hello, I'm doing some work to my first rental and hopefully will be putting it on the market in Fort Collins, CO next month. I have lived in this town house for three years with out issue but it's 30 years old and is due for some upgrades. It used to have a wood burning fireplace but someone converted it to a gas insert. Fort Collins does not allow any new construction to have wood-burning so you have to be grandfathered in, which mine would be. I either have to have the gas capped and convert back or get a new insert with some safety features. Any thoughts on which would be better from a safety and marketability standpoint? Would one increase the rental value? Also, I had to remove the old vanities to have tile put in in the bathrooms. They are in good shape but dated. Should I just put them back or get newer ones? Would new ones impact my rental amount? I'm going to be picky about renters so I'm not going to have college kids in there or anything. Thank you so much for any advice!

[James Orr]

While there are exceptions, the majority of Buyers I've been in houses with in town in Fort Collins prefer gas fireplaces to wood fireplaces. That changes slightly if you're up in the foothills or north toward Laporte where it becomes a little more common to have wood burning fireplaces. So, for marketability, I'd say gas. I'd probably also say gas for safety.

From a value perspective, and maybe there's an appraiser on here that will correct me if I am wrong, but I don't see much difference in rental value between either.

Updating bathrooms might give you a slight edge getting it rented, and might bump rent a very, very small amount.