I renovate to increase rent and also to get an old property into nice shape, ie getting the walls sanded down smooth and painted properly so in future I can easily spuce the paint up. When the market is right I would do major reno work like cutting out walls, bathrooms etc and then sell it.
I'm doing an apartment now that had already had a new kitchen bench and cupboards put in a couple of years ago as well as the bathroom is pretty new. But the walls were in bad need of a proper sanding down and painting. The carpet in both rooms also needed replacing. I was lucky the previous owner rented it out from exchange for 2 years. I just moved in 2 weeks ago and will have to all painted and the rooms are newly carpeted, I done the lot myself. Cost: roughly $25o for carpet (lucky to get it on special from $59 down to $39 sm). paint and other bits & pieces like brushes etc cost around $400. Overall it will be less than $1,000 and I hope the rent will increase from $290 to the mid $300's. Ideally I would rather have someone else do the sanding, I enjoy the painting but not the prep as it's too dusty. I will also take out the wall between the kitchen and lounge but that's a future job, this is OK for now...
