What’s the one upgrade you stopped putting in your rentals?

Question

Early on, almost everyone makes the mistake of renovating a rental like they’re going to live in it themselves. Beautiful subway tile backsplashes, fancy designer light fixtures, or delicate appliances that end up scratched, dented, or broken within the first six months.

Over time, you realize tenants rarely pay extra for the high-end touches, and the repair bills on turnovers eat you alive.

For those who have held rentals through a few lease cycles: what’s the one finish, feature, or upgrade you completely eliminated from your scope of work because it just wasn't worth the operational headache?

Ametria Chaney · Answer

Alejandro, the upgrades I stopped putting in rentals are the ones tenants don't pay for: premium countertops, designer light fixtures, and anything that looks great in photos but chips, stains, or breaks within a year. The flip side is what I never cheap out on — durable flooring, quality paint with a scrubbable finish, and solid plumbing fixtures. The rule I use with my investor buyers: spend on what reduces turnover and maintenance calls (tenants renew when the place holds up), and stop spending on what only impresses at the showing. Every "nice" finish is just a future repair ticket if it can't survive three tenants. What's been your most expensive lesson on finishes?

Matthew Morrow · Answer

@Alejandro Lopez me again! I learned the hard way that a lot of items most of us think of as necessities are really just conveniences waiting to become massive headaches. Hose bibs are a good example. Unless it's a single-family house in a rural area, an outside hose bib is just asking for floods, water theft, and abuse. Then you get into in-unit washers and dryers. They sound great from a tenant's perspective and add a few dollars to cash flow, but we've had several leak and cause damage that far exceeded their perceived value. If you want a strong business, you need good quality units, but there's a line where you're spending money on cosmetic niceties instead of actually running a business.

Drew Sygit · Answer

CARPETING!

Alejandro Lopez · Answer

Designer faucets with proprietary valves. Looked incredible on day one, but eight months in, an internal cartridge blew. You couldn't find a replacement part at any local supply house, so a $15 fix turned into an emergency plumber call, cutting into the drywall, and swapping out the entire rough-in valve behind the tile.

Runner-up was using flat paint to save a few bucks on turns. The second a tenant scuffs a hallway, you can't wipe it down without stripping the finish, which forces a full repaint instead of a 10-minute wipe down.

Your 3-tenant survival rule is dead on if Home Depot or a local supply desk doesn't keep shelves full of replacement parts for it, it has zero business being in a rental.

James Jones · Answer

The one we cut completely was the flip-grade kitchen. Early scope had upgraded cabinets, stone counters, and finishes picked like we were selling the house. On a rental, the rent does not care. My Section 8 rents run $1,395–$1,950 for 3BR+, and a $15K kitchen does not move that number one dollar — the payment standard sets it. So the kitchen is one standard line now: stock cabinets, laminate counters, stainless package, same on all 236 properties. Same finish package house to house means the crew prices it blind and turnover is a touch-up, not a redesign. Spend the upgrade money on roof and HVAC — the two lines that actually end a lease early when they fail.

Leo Stein · Answer

Alejandro, the one I cut first was anything with a delicate finish in a high-wear spot. Designer light fixtures and tile backsplashes look great in photos, but a scuffed fixture or chipped grout still has to be fixed at turnover, and the rent doesn't move much because of it. I now default to a short list: durable vinyl plank flooring that can be spot-replaced, semi-gloss paint in one standard color so touch-ups match, basic fixtures I can buy in bulk, and appliances that are common enough to find parts for. Standardizing across doors is the real win. When every unit uses the same paint, same blinds, same faucet, a make-ready goes from a scramble to a checklist, and vendors stop quoting you from scratch. Before adding any upgrade, I ask whether it survives two tenants and whether I can repair it for under an hour of labor. If not, it stays out of the scope. Happy to compare notes by message.

Rosina Persaud · Answer

The specific finishes matter less than the decision rule, but here's ours across 236 doors in Memphis: we stopped installing anything chosen for how it photographs instead of how it turns.

Early on it's tempting — the nicer faucet, the trendy backsplash, the upgraded fixture — because it feels like adding value. Then you run a few lease cycles and learn the math: tenants don't pay extra for it, and at turnover it costs you twice. Once to repair or replace it, and again in the extra days it adds while you source the matching part.

Now every finish gets judged on one question: does this shorten the next turnover or lengthen it? Durable, standard, and replaceable wins. The upgrade that needs a special order, a specialty contractor, or a YouTube tutorial to fix is the one quietly eating your margin.

Turnover and vacancy cost more than repairs, so we renovate for the turnover, not the listing photos.

What's the finish you keep repairing over and over?

Inder Singh · Answer

I stopped putting in delicate fixtures and anything "designer" after one turnover cycle's repair bill. Fancy pendants, trendy faucets, high-end appliances — tenants don't pay for them, and they break first. What tenants actually pay for: bedrooms, parking, in-unit laundry, and a kitchen that looks clean and modern. My rule now: every finish has to survive three lease cycles without a specialist. If it can't, it doesn't go in. Boring and durable beats pretty and fragile every time on a rental.

Vaibhav Puranik · Answer

I am not sure if there is one size fits all answer here. I think it really depends on the demographic of the area of the property. Things that work in one area may not work in another area. Owners / Operators experiment with these things and determine what to continue doing and what to stop doing.

What’s the one upgrade you stopped putting in your rentals?

What’s the one upgrade you stopped putting in your rentals?

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