Rental Property Investor · NH · Member since 2023 · 443 posts · 417 votes
On closing day, my contractor and I walked the same building and saw two different things
He was looking at code. Clearances, wiring, a joist that needs sistering, whether the steam heat is weak.
I was looking at the renter and the buyer. What they'll touch, what they'll notice, and what they'll pay for.
That's the part of the scope your real estate license helps with, and most investors skip it.
Here's where that showed up on our Portsmouth 4-unit:
→ Countertops go to stone. People notice them in the first 10 seconds.
→ We're looking at opening a wall so the kitchen feels bigger, and moving the stove to fit a bigger fridge.
→ The cabinets stay and get refreshed. Replacing them doesn't change what someone pays.
→ The walls get something bolder than flip gray. It's a historic Portsmouth building. It should look like one.
I've shown enough units to know what makes a renter say yes, and what a buyer's agent will point at. That's knowledge you build as an agent whether you invest or not.
And so when you do start investing, it shows up in every line of the scope. Your contractor protects the building. You protect the exit.
If you're an agent thinking about your first project, what would you want to know before your first scope walk?
We work through real scopes and budgets at our free monthly NH investor meetups. No pitch, just real talk
