Help me figure something out...

allymp13

Also, we replaced (FI did himself) all our baseboards and while it wasn't cheap it made a HUGE difference, we also replaced all the thermostats with new covers, again just made things cleaner and newer.

mrs.spunky1508

I like Ally's idea. A girl on the MM board on the nest posted this a few weeks ago, it's her house remodeled on the cheap: http://pugsnotdrugs.wordpress.com/2009/11/07/kitchen-budget-breakdown/

alliecarrie41

i would update the kitchen and bathroom but not go all-out renovation... just more like staging, new paint, make it look new without being too new.  that said, you are living here... there is something to be said for just making someone desirable for you NOW.

kewltif

I have been around the renting industry my whole life. My dad made a good chunk of his money from buying apartments, fixing them up, renting them for more, and eventually sold a lot of them during the bubble. He's now starting over buying property while things are cheap again. He's a builder though, so he knows the absolute cheapest/best way to do this. The average person is probably not as handy. It's not always easy. Some people are pieces of shyt. It can work though. If you can break even, think of it this way, it's like a forced savings account. Every month you are putting x dollars towards your mortgage. This money is coming from someone else. When you go to sell, you'll get that money back. I would definitely like to have investment properties some day. The only thing that stops me right now is we haven't even bought our primary home yet (DH keeps insisting to wait one more year for the market to drop further) so we don't want to tie up our capital when we haven't even made that purchase yet. From an investing point of view, I would not buy this house for that purpose. The numbers are too close. If you could muster up another down payment though, I think it would be better to rent this out than take a major hit on it.

JeannineG122

I own a couple apartment houses & only rent to young professionals/couples without kids or pets. I too come from a contractor family, my grandfather built most of the homes, that I rent.

justkris10

Might I add, that I will not under any circumstances sell this house if I am going to lose money...everyone says "you'll definitely lose now", but I won't...I seriously got this house for a STEAL and there is no way, even in this economy, I wouldn't make at least $5K on this house

...and NO I don't need a real estate intervention, it's just simple math