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16
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7
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Algerson Andre
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
7
Votes |
16
Posts

House Hacking While Living In and Budget Improvements

Algerson Andre
  • Investor
  • Chicago, IL
Posted

My wife and I just closed on our first investment property, which we will be house hacking a dupelx for the next couple of months. The goal is to live in one unit (3bd/1bth) and make updates while living in, and at the same time, rent out the bottom unit (3bd/1bth). Since this is our first go around at house improvements and landlording, I thought this would be a good forum to pose the question to folks who've been doing this for a while.

My main question is... how did/do you approach creating a timeline and budget for making certain updates while you're living inside the unit. For example, here's a short list of things we'll be looking to update while living in the unit:

- Clogged upstairs bathroom drain

-Need bathroom fan

- Bathtub porcelain chipped

- Broken balcony door

- Broken kitchen window

- Missing smoke detectors

- Redo kitchen floors

- Refinish living room floors

- Paint in all rooms

- Improve kitchen cabinets

We don't have a specific $$ budget, but we're always looking to keep costs low while providing quality. Based on the list above, are there certain areas/tasks that you would tackle first before others? What's the best approach to set a budget if you've never done home improvement projects? Appreciate any responses on this!

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