I’m 26 and have very little life, let alone real estate experience but I was able to buy my first single family home with my dad going in 25% in Southern California’s high desert.
My dad owns one other home up there and has told me we can have our tenants get their own fridge. This was pretty alarming to me as I’ve always rented from places that have fridges.
Is this normal? My instinct is to tell me dad no and just buy the cheapest aesthetically good looking fridge I can.
@Jacquelyn First, I've heard some landlords not provide refrigerators, washers, or dryers.
I understand not providing washers and dryers. Those are hard working appliances with many moving parts and seem to be more prone to breaking down.
I do not understand not providing a refrigerator. Sometimes a kitchen is only suited to a refrigerator of a certain size. Why would tenants want to own appliances and have to haul them around. Most homeowners buy the appliances with the home their purchase, why wouldn't a renter want to get a rental with appliances included.
As with most anything, I would first look at other rental listings in that area and determine was is "common" in your area. Then I would decide what aspects of my rental I want to be average/common and which areas I want to be BETTER!
I always want some areas where my rentals are better than comparable units. The house I'm rehabbing to rent now will have all appliances included (washer, dryer, refrigerator, stove, and microwave hood). The kitchen appliances will be brand new stainless steel. I expect to attract a good tenant who will hopefully want to stay a good while. If you don't provide a desirable product, why would a good tenant choose to stay?!? Vacancy costs are killers.
@Jacquelyn First In the State of Maryland, The Land lord is required to provide a fridge, stove, and heat (AC is not required). I personally would still supply a fridge even if it was not required by law, but I would find one that’s “tenant proof”. Nothing high dollar but nothing cheap and brittle. Scratch and dent places are good place to look.
@Jacquelyn First - I am with you on this one. A tenant shouldn’t have to haul in their own refrigerator. However, I would get one without a water filter … those can create different issues down the line.
@Jacquelyn First If nobody in the market provides a fridge, I WOULD provide a fridge and happily advertise my competitive advantage, receive batter tenants, better rents.
Landlording is a business, the race-2-the-bottom BS is lazy business management at best. If a market "norm" is worn-out carpets so filthy you could plant seed and garden in the living room, are you going to do that?(more a ? for everyone) If the answer is anything other than "Hell NO" than your NOT a business person and doom is inevitable, go buy stocks or fund into a REIT.
As for tenant damage to such, that's why we have this thing called a lease, eeh. And I add a 24pt written page called "How Things Work" and it details how if they damage things from their direct actions, there gonna pay for it AND how every year there is a maintenance inspections and each year with a perfect 5-star rating, there gonna get a reward. Each year with perfect maintenance inspection record, the reward get's bigger. Simple. I went to do an inspection once and was greeted by a panicked tenant and carpet installers, the tenant apologized and begged forgiveness because carpet installers, whom he hired and paid 100%, were late and he had it all planned to be perfect for the inspection, so he could keep his perfect score. The carpet was 3X the discount he would "win". I thanked him, paid 50% of the bill back to him (yes, checked the receipt) AND bought him and wife dinner at the local steak house, PLUS his perfect score reward.
THAT's why market minimum mean nothing but opportunity to be the PREFERED units, what better tenants mean, and how to think like a business owner than a swap-meet trader.
If there was a fridge when tenant moved in, then you should replace it unless specifically stated in lease. If no tenant, then you will make it more difficult to rent because most people expect a fridge.
@Jacquelyn First it's standard in Germany ( and other EU counties) to bring your own appliances into the apartment. People also bring in their own kitchen cabinets. As far as the USA I think the landlord is responsible for the appliances in most cases (don't know a place that require the tenant to buy appliances)
Seems to be local norms. In Indy, my sub 1K/month rentals dont come with appliances except for stove/oven. Renters there are used to hauling their own appliances from place to place. I was also surprised when I first bought those properties years ago but that's just how it is there. On the other hand in California with rents exceeding 3500/month I provide all appliances including Washer Dryer and maintain them all and replace when necessary.
I understand the regional aspect of it, but down in C-class here in Pittsburgh, this is one of the non-negotiable aspects of finding and keeping the kind of tenants we want to have in place paying off our properties. The number one thing all of us look for, and I am no exception, is a 3x rent-to-take-home pay ratio. This is how you make sure the rent always gets paid. If your tenants have that number to shoot for, they can generally structure their finances so they can get the rent to you reliably by the fifth of the month.
But you can't micromanage your tenant's finances. You REALLY can't make them make smart spending choices with their money. When you DO look into what they do with the 2x of their income that they're not paying you for rent, you're going to find a bloated car payment or two, iPhones instead of Android phones, rental payments on furniture, carried monthly balances on credit cards, fanatic brand loyalty in food shopping...my point is that they fritter their money away and are typically left with nothing, month after month.
Emergency fund? LOL. Budget? LOL. Retirement? LOL. Gotta have the big bag of kettle-cooked salt-and-vinegar flavored Cape Cod potato chips every week. Can't have the cheap Aldi knockoff.
These people cannot cough up $450-550 for a new range, washer, or dryer, or $600-700 for a fridge easily. They do not have the means to transport an appliance of that size easily. In the care of a gas range or dryer, they would be absolutely terrified of removing the old one and installing a new one.
This lack of available income and buying power to divert to an emergency preys on their peace of mind and creates a condition of constant underlying stress that they have to disassociate themselves from in order to function elsewhere in their lives. So if they know that the washer, the dryer, the range, and the refrigerator are guaranteed to function or be replaced by the landlord if anything goes wrong, it's an outsized plus for them versus just the dollar amount it costs for me.
I've talked about this before, but most of our tenants work in health care. There's plenty of down time to gather around the nursing station and gossip. The first thing a tenant is going to talk about to bond with their co-workers, who are all also tenants, is how mean and cheap their landlord is. Every time someone complains about how bad their landlord is about keeping the appliances working, in that situation you want your tenant to be forced to stay silent and realize the clear difference between that co-worker's landlord and you.
This is yet another reason we usually buy new. If you do end up with problem tenants who seem to go through appliances, you switch to providing used ones from the local scratch and dent until the end of the lease, at which time you get rid of them.
I still make a point of only buying Amana, Whirlpool, and Maytag (all owned by Whirlpool) washers and both electric and gas dryers. For electric ranges, I stay away from GE and Frigidaire, Whirlpool family holds up, so does Samsung and LG. Gas ranges, back to Whirlpool I go.
But Frigidaire's current design for the basic 18-cubic-foot fridge is second to none for durability. You can always spot them: there have a metal back with no exterior wire grid or tubing and some cardboard peeking out the bottom, where the compressor is. You can beat the hell out of those and they still get the job done, year after year.
@Jacquelyn First I supply a good used fridge to my tenants. I use a reliable appliance store that delivers and does maintenance as needed. So far the fridges have not been a huge issue. I had one go out once and had it replaced with another good used one and the cost was low. They last a long time, just make sure it is cleaned out and a box of baking soda is left in it during vacancy, so the smell doesn't run off your new potential tenants.
Awesome info Jim! Thanks for the knowledge-bomb! I didn’t realize the major brand differences in buying appliances for tenant housing as opposed to buying appliances for home.
@Jacquelyn First I’ve always provided the fridges for my tenants but if the tenant wants to pay for their own fridge...why not? I once had a washer and dryer that I provided, it broke down and the tenant replaced it with their own because I told them those appliances were optional and not required for me to supply and maintain.
@Jacquelyn First I’ve been a landlord for the past 4 years. I’d suggest looking at other listings in the area to see what the status quo is. See what is listed in the included area
With that said, I’ve almost always seen appliances included in rentals. If it were me, I’d buy a decent fridge with GOOD reviews. I have skimped out on quality of appliances and have gotten bitten.
Real Estate Consultant · San Antonio TX Canyon Lake TX Fort Walton Beach FL Cape Coral FL Clarksville TN Sumter SC and Lawton, OK · Member since 2008 · 139 posts · 128 votes
I think it depends on "how your unit rents." For instance, I have several condos and those rent very similar to apartments. People stay for about a year or two and the renters are generally younger with no kids or very young kids. For those units, I provide all appliances because I'm competing against the apartment complexes that would also supply them. But, for my Single Family Residence, I don't supply a few of the appliances. That house is typically rented by "older families" with more "stuff" and those renters usually have some appliances or - at least - aren't shocked that they'll have to go buy some.
I’m 26 and have very little life, let alone real estate experience but I was able to buy my first single family home with my dad going in 25% in Southern California’s high desert.
My dad owns one other home up there and has told me we can have our tenants get their own fridge. This was pretty alarming to me as I’ve always rented from places that have fridges.
Is this normal? My instinct is to tell me dad no and just buy the cheapest aesthetically good looking fridge I can.
Jacquelyn,
In my opinion I definitely think you should provide a fridge. The goal is to attract quality high paying residents to your property. Quality residents appreciate quality appliances and quality living space. I recommend putting amana stainless steel fridge (used or new) in the unit. This is a very affordable yet nice looking fridge
In my area, currently landlords provide the refrigerator. I have no problems with that. I usually buy them new, a moderately priced one, and it lasts for 12 to 15 years. I thought of service contracts once, but with what I'm charged, I'm better off buying them when they conk out, and so far I'm ahead of the game.
About 15 years or so ago, there was a movement here where landlords had tenants buy their own. I was glad the trend didn't last. I had tenants bring refrigerators from their last place, where landlords didn't supply them, and for the smaller 3 plex's I have, it's a project the bring it up the narrow stairs with a 90 degree turn up to the 2nd and 3rd floors. Then I have to take my existing fridge out, move it to storage, and move it back when they leave, something I stipulate in my lease, and I have to make sure my staircase isn't damaged from all the moving. I had cases where it was too much trouble for the tenant and me moving my fridge out, they like the fridge they had, move theirs in, and my fridge is then moved into the living room. What a pain.
It would have been a nightmare if all new tenants in my triplex lug in their own and I have to find room to store my own, all 3 of them in each building. Thank goodness the trend did not take hold and so far I don't have tenants lugging their fridges in and out of the place and the problems it caused.
@Jim K. I have to disagree with you on LG, I replaced 3 in 5 years and the compressor just failed on another in a house we just sold. They do have that 10 year compressor warranty under which the compressor on one was replaced, one fridge was replaced a month after purchase under warranty also for compressor failure and 2 control panels failed so those were just trashed (<5 yrs old).
@Jacquelyn First Why would you want your tenants to move a large appliance like a fridge in and out of your property, potentially causing damage? You can get a very basic top mount freezer unit on the cheap - no ice maker to break.
@Jim K. I have to disagree with you on LG, I replaced 3 in 5 years and the compressor just failed on another in a house we just sold. They do have that 10 year compressor warranty under which the compressor on one was replaced, one fridge was replaced a month after purchase under warranty also for compressor failure and 2 control panels failed so those were just trashed (<5 yrs old).
No, I wouldn't buy an LG fridge. Just an LG electric range.
@Jacquelyn First Folks moved in with no refrigerator there and now they're asking for one? I'd look at my cash flow and include it, right it down over X years. Also I think you can get a Home Warranty that covers appliances, if it's not too expensive...
Buy a good fridge and get it interest free if possible. set up washer dryer hook ups and supply the washer dryers, also interest free. and charge premium rent. Make your rentals desirable above the rest. if you have good cash flow they will pay for themselves in no time. Who wants to buy a refrigerator that fits that kitchen then have to move for whatever reason and is stuck with a fridge. not supplying a fridge gives bad vibes about what kind of landlord you'll be.
Buy a good fridge and get it interest free if possible. set up washer dryer hook ups and supply the washer dryers, also interest free. and charge premium rent. Make your rentals desirable above the rest. if you have good cash flow they will pay for themselves in no time. Who wants to buy a refrigerator that fits that kitchen then have to move for whatever reason and is stuck with a fridge. not supplying a fridge gives bad vibes about what kind of landlord you'll be.