Need advice on rental property that we inherited in New York
Hi everyone! I could really use some advice from people who have been in a similar situation.
I recently inherited a single-family home in New York, but I currently live in Florida. My goal is to renovate it, get it rental-ready, and hopefully use it as the foundation for building a real estate investment portfolio for my family’s future.
Before it’s ready to rent, we need to completely redo the kitchen and install new flooring throughout the house, along with a few other updates. Managing a renovation from over 1,000 miles away has definitely been challenging.
For those of you who have successfully renovated an out-of-state property, what worked best for you? Did you hire a general contractor to oversee everything, rely on a property manager, make frequent trips, or use another approach? How did you keep the project on schedule, stay within budget, and make sure the quality of the work was good?
I’d really appreciate hearing about your experiences, any lessons you learned, and things you wish you had done differently. My hope is that this rental will be the first step toward investing in more properties over time and creating long-term financial security for my family.
Thanks in advance for any advice you’re willing to share!
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#1 BRRRR - Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat Contributor
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- Collierville, TN 38017
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#1 BRRRR - Buy, Rehab, Rent, Refinance, Repeat Contributor
- Investor
- Collierville, TN 38017
Before any of the reno questions, one gut check: does this property actually make sense as your first rental, or does it just happen to be the one you inherited?
Inheriting it means your basis stepped up to today's value, so you can sell with little or no tax and take clean cash to buy something closer to you and better suited to renting. Managing a gut reno 1,000 miles out, as your very first project, in a tenant-friendly state you don't know, is the hardest possible way to start. Sometimes the right move is to take the gift as cash and start on your own terms. Worth pricing out both paths before you sink money into that kitchen.
If you keep it, here's what actually matters out of state.
Your GC is the whole game. Not the property manager, not the trips. A PM leases and manages, they don't run a renovation. You need a real GC and you need to vet them like you're hiring an employee, because you are. Licensed, insured, references you actually call, and go see a current job site if you can send someone. The cheap bid from a thousand miles away is a trap. You can't drop by to catch problems, so you're buying trust, not price.
Never pay ahead of work. Deposit to start, then draws tied to completed and inspected stages. The fastest way to lose money remote is funding a job faster than it gets built, then the guy stalls and you've got no leverage.
You need boots on the ground that aren't the GC. Someone whose only job is to walk in and tell you what's real. An inspector for milestone checks, or hire your own PM early just to be your eyes. The GC's progress photos always look great. What kills remote jobs is the stuff nobody photographs.
On scope, be careful renovating to your taste from Florida. You're not living there. Mid-grade LVP, durable finishes, neutral everything, built to rent and take abuse, not to impress you on a video call. New investors overspend on out of state units they never see because they're emotionally decorating instead of underwriting.
And know the New York piece before you commit. Which market, upstate versus downstate, changes everything. Some of it is genuinely rough on landlords, long evictions, strong tenant protections, and the local rules vary a lot town to town. Before you spend a dollar on that kitchen, know exactly what renting and, if it comes to it, removing a tenant looks like where this house actually sits.