Ok, OK, for those have followed me on the 2 bedrooms or 3 bed rooms thread. I now announce that I gave up on that house. I don’t want to have that expense to eliminate the 3rd bedroom and redo the kitchen. It does not make economical sense. The area is not THAT great to warrant the price plus expenses.
This house has much better layout and priced reasonably. I was lucky to bid high enough to get it. It was one of those “intentionally priced under the market deal”. SOME TLC is required, though. I took the suggestion that I make sure I get 2 bathrooms.
My $3 million dollar question: Do you think I should remove all the wall panels? It is out of style, yet, I was going to rent it anyway. The kitchen cabinet is old and warn, it does not even have a space for dish washer. However, I am not sure replacement should be in the budget.
If you plan to rent anyway, I don’t understand why you’d renovate first? Often after a rental, repairs would be required anyway. I’d opt to rent it mostly as-is instead of renovating and maybe needing to do it again after tenant damage.
It is a nice place, tho I’m not a fan of yellow carpet.
I would take down the panels. They are ugly. I would also remove the hanging cabinet between the kitchen and the living area to open that up visually.
I’m not a fan of beamed ceilings, so I would minimize that look also…by maybe painting the whole ceiling the same color…including the beams.
Paint everything, and try to lighten things up. Take the key from the person who staged that condo that sold. Brighten everything up…and open up as much as possible.
It looks like you could take out a cabinet in one of the runs at right angles to the sink if you wanted a dishwasher. For a rental I don’t know if it matters. I’m more bothered by the 1950s traditional hardware with the more 1950s modern elements. I’d love to see it all go in a midcentury direction. (See the other thread for nice examples.) I don’t mind the paneling except that there’s so much that doesn’t go with it - like the pale wall heater. So you’d probably be better off painting it all a light color or removing it all together.
I actually like the wood paneled look, but agree it would be nice if the beams and ceiling all were a light color and the wallpaper on the top was taken off and the same paint used there as well. The house a relative bought had paint over wallpaper. They had to rip off the wallpaper to repaint properly & it was an ordeal! i think the laminate floor and woodpaneling adds some warmth that would be nice as a contrast to the light paint used for everwhere and everything else.
Actually, we still have paneling in our house – kitchen window wall, laundry room, part of the basement, and family room. Most of it is painted over. We have textured ceilings in the family room and computer room, too.
Aren’t you in the Bay area? I’m not sure who your target tenant is but I would guess most rentals command top dollar. I might take down the upper cabinets between kitchen and dining as someone said. However those cabinets have sliding doors and are very mid century modern so consider keeping them but pull off the funky brown spindles below. If you have a good carpenter I think the cabinets can be altered to fit a dishwasher. Bosch has the shallowest dishwashers. Get rid of the hardware on the cabinets and paint. You can use Bondo to fill the old handle’s holes. New countertops. Consider laminate.
Instead of laminate floors I would use real engineered hardwood. Laminate feels like a cheap entertainment unit to me. Engineered hardwood has such a hard finish it is nearly indestructible and at least looks real. I would spray the ceilings and beams white and paint over the wood paneling with a neutral greige and white trim. Kitchen cabinets painted light gray or white. I really like that house! That carpet looks like what we had when I was little; circa 1961! It’s sculpted isn’t it?
Nice space. I would play up the mid century look. Lighten up the place with paint. Replace the range, faucet, cabinet hardware, overhead lighting, and those turned (round) elaborate uprights under the upper cabinets with something simpler but keep the cabinets. Put in a dishwasher. Laminate flooring is fine for now.
The house is very dated, and everyone’s ideas so far are good ones, from a design standpoint. But you have to evaluate the market for a rental where you are. If you can get close to top dollar for renting it “as is,” then why would you bother to make any changes? (And I agree that renters can be hard on a place, so updating it before renting might not be a good idea.) On the other hand, if you’ll increase the amount you can rent it for by even 20%, and if the updates would bring in a higher class of renter, then I’d go ahead and update it. You’ll have to do a cost/benefit analysis of when you’ll break even by spending some $$$ first.
There used to be a show on HGTV called “Income Property,” with a fellow named Scott McGillivray. He would update the rental apartment in a house to be absolutely spectacular and would point out that one could then get the “executive renter” and charge a premium – for the well-designed space and for the brand-newness of it too.
I’d remove the carpeting, the wood panels, and the hanging cabinet between the kitchen and LR. If you want to make the area look larger, you can paint the ceiling beams. A coat of lighter color paint on the walls would do a lot to visually open the space too. We have a smallish BR with one window that has a load bearing beam that cuts across the center of the ceiling. I painted the beam white to blend in with the ceiling and picked a light, warm toned color for the walls. Both make the room seem larger and brighter. Careful furniture selection helps too.
I agree with #15 and #14 too. You can do a lot with paint. Until two weeks ago my office had panelling painted white. The main reason I took it down was that I finally got around to insulating the room. (It was an enclosed porch in some earlier life.) As part of that project I finally got rid of the last bit of textured ceiling in the house as well. That’s probably made me as happy as anything has!
The wallpaper above the paneling in the living room bothers me ten times more than the paneling. The colors of the wood trim, paneling,beams, cabinets and brick all coordinate beautifully. So if you address one of those, you will need to address all, or it won’t look finished.
I agree with brightening it up. It just looks like a huge job, and I’m sure there’s expenses for the guts of the house as well, so you could end up spending a ton.
So much depends on your market. Look on Craigslist and see what houses are renting for in that area. Most ads have pictures.
In our area my H would probably put in new carpet, paint and remove the wallpaper. He would never move walls or paneling for a rental. He would feel the cost of updating he will not get back in rent. He would replace the appliances if they were not working. I would want to do more but that is just our different way of thinking.
For the most return on your investment dollar we have found that an apartment building brings in more cash flow. The problem being if you have just a million to spend it is hard to find an apartment building for that.
Another idea is to do the minimum and try to rent it as see what response you get.
What is your goal? Building up an inventory to hold long term to provide income in the future? Or renting with the idea that you will put it up for resale in a few years when the market climbs higher? Or a house to remodel and flip?
I also know several people who have purchased several homes when the market was low and are renting them out with the hope that at a later date they turn the home over to their children. This in Ca where young people are priced out of the market. My neighbor has done this with two of his kids and has a third that he will offer his S once the S is married.
