patrick.net

soeren says

improvements

These don't sound like improvements.

I don't get it. Why would you pour ten$ of thousand$ into a place you're renting? And going to leave eventually anyway. AFAIK, the tenant won't even get a tax write-off for his/her investment.

Because rental or not, it's still the place you call home, and you may want to make it a nicer home. It sounds like the person in that article is quite wealthy and the money wasn't a consideration.

Very wealthy. For them, this sort of spending is discretionary. You drop $200 on an Xbox, they drop $200,000 on renovating their apartment.

I have a friend who lives in Manhattan, and the people across the hall from her did this. They put a new kitchen & bathroom in their rental, plus painting and refinishing the floors. In their case, it is a rent-controlled apartment and I think they'll probably be there for a long time, so maybe it's worth it.

Tim Aurora says

My renter painted the house to his liking ( with my permission) when he moved in and painte them back to the original color once he moved out after 18 months.

I got free painting out of that

And you refunded his full deposit?

soeren says

I don't get it. Why would you pour ten$ of thousand$ into a place you're renting? And going to leave eventually anyway. AFAIK, the tenant won't even get a tax write-off for his/her investment.

Total cost of housing versus other alternatives and being able to enjoy your living conditions

With the landlord's approval my wife had the horrid carpet removed from our last rental, original hard wood floors refinished, and new vinyl installed in the kitchen. I hung new window coverings in every room.

$2000 / 36 months = $55 / month.

$1400 rent + $55 in improvements = $1455.

Nice apartments on the same street were renting for $1800 - $2000 but didn't allow pets, and the mortgage+taxes on place we'd own would have been $4000 / month or about $3000/month with the tax deductions.

With that sort of price spread we could have done a lot more and still come out ahead.

We did something similar with our 1200 square foot $90K mobile home and put in $90/yard carpet. It's awesome - like walking on the wet sand at the ocean's edge. While we'd never get the money back out

$9000 / 48 months (we can't see not staying another 2 years) = $187/month which is like 2-3 dinners out and inconsequential.

$1687/month net cost on housing is a lot less than renting a 1950s 3/2 ranch ($2300/month), nice 2-bedroom apartment in the neighborhood with common walls ($3000), or buying a $650K town house.

Where rent gets expensive you can spend a lot more without making a large change in proportion to the total. One renter in the article spent $50K making a place suit his tastes and $30K undoing it which isn't much when one month's rent is $30K. Where you pay $10K/month in rent but buying a property would be $20K you can spend $100K and break even in the first year.

30k/mo rent is pretty lulz-worthy

unless it's this

http://www.frontdoor.com/coolhouses/rent-the-scarface-mansion

^^Does the tiger come with it?

finehoe says

^^Does the tiger come with it?

Yes, when you're late with the rent.