Should I sell my duplex?

[Mike Ritter]

Hi,

I have a duplex that I bought in 2008 as my first rental property when I wanted to get into RE investing. 

Just would like some recommendations on what others would do with this property.

Details:

Both sides are 2 bd/2 ba - 900 sqft built in 1985

Gross Rent: $1475 ($725/$750)

Paid: $177k with 20% down

Recent repairs include - replace a/c in one unit, replace stove, replace carpet, paint

I have one tenant that is going to move out in the next month.  I was thinking about replacing the vanity's, faucets, vinyl floor in kitchen/bathrooms and possible the toilets as these items were old when I bought.  My thinking is this might help find someone that wants to live in one side and rent the other and possible help with the sale price.

Thanks

Mike

[Kyle Cabral]

Do you need to replace those things? One thing I learned relatively early is it really doesn't make sense to upgrade when something is working just fine and the lack of rent increase doesn't justify the cost to fix.  Don't eat into your bottom line. I mean if somethings unusable or if you say, hey, If i fix this I can charge 100+ more in rent and it eventually will pay off... ok makes sense.  

If you cash flow, keep as is, don't sell.  Key to wealth is to buy, hold, gain equity and repeat.  If you sell to reinvest in a better property with more cash flow... OK then that makes sense.  Every situation is different and we would probably need to analyze a lot more numbers to get to the real bottom line of answering the "should I do this?" question.