2 bd or 3 bd - Single Family Rental

[Christopher Boggs]

My investment group just picked up our first rental property. It is 1200 sqft bungalow 2 bd, 1 ba single family on the east side of Cleveland, OH. The rental comp research we did determined we will get approximately $850 to $925 a month in rent.

The house currently has 2 bedrooms. The 1st floor has 1 bedroom and 1 bathroom. Currently the 2bd floor is an open floor plan. Which makes it only 1 bedroom, and there is no door to the stairs. With the way it is set up now it would be very easy to put up two 6' walls/doors and make the second floor 2 separate bedrooms. These potential bedrooms would be 8' x 10' and 10' x 12', and both would have adequate closet space.

We plan to keep this as a long term rental property. Would changing this to a 3 bedroom house vs a 2 bedroom house be a good long term move, or is having a 2 large bedrooms better? We are obviously looking to get higher rents, and make the property more appealing to tenants.