Making Improvements to units- is it worth it?

[Tara G.]

Hello..

We have been in the higher rent SFH market for the last couple of years. Moving into the lower rent apartment unit model by buying a 33 unit Townhome complex.

These townhomes are 24 years old, and frankly, more than a little dated. The architect in me wants to redesign them and make them nicer looking and maybe add an additional bathroom to the 3 bedroom units (currently at 1.5Ba). There is easy space to do this- huge walk in closet in the Master. Replace wood siding with vinyl and wash and paint the ugly brown brick white. That would make them look brighter. All told, bottom line is 3000$ per unit.

Rents in the area support a 100$ per month per unit increase, but only if we spruce these units up.

My problem is, the state they are in right now, I wouldnt want to rent them for myself. Any improvments we made to our SFHs were paid for in a month's rent... Here, we'd have to wait 3 years for it to pay for itself..

Am I chasing a fiscally irresponsible dream?

Rye :violin: