My Tenant Just Moved Out | The Aftermath

What's up guys, it's Graham here. So this is something I have not done in quite some time here on the channel, and that would be a remodeling video because, as the title says, here's the aftermath of a tenant who's been living in this unit for the last 12 years, and it's in drastic need of a major facelift and update.

Now, I just want to preface this by saying that the tenant just moved out a few hours ago and left a lot of stuff behind that I'm going to be throwing away. So it doesn't look pretty at all; just be warned of that because what you're about to see is a bit of a mess.

So let's start here. I purchased the unit with the tenants still living in here, meaning I bought it in the current condition you see it in now. Now, between you and I—and I guess I shouldn't say that because now this video is public on YouTube and pretty much the entire world can see this—but between me and the entire world, the last owner of this place was really, really horrible about making any repairs. And when any repairs did need to be made, the owner would come personally to try to fix anything because they didn't want to spend any money.

So needless to say, the unit was in quite disrepair before I took over. Now, most real estate investors love buying places like this with the intention of kicking out the tenant, renovating the place, and then raising rents. For me, I don't feel good about doing that, so the current tenants were able to stay as long as they would like, even though I was getting significantly below market rent. And I'm all about getting that real estate cash flow. These were such nice people and such amazing tenants that I figured that whenever they do move out, I'm gonna have the option at that time to renovate the unit and to turn it into something amazing. And now that time has come, and here's what's about to happen.

First, when you walk in, you have a small entryway that leads you to the living room. Because originally this was a 1920s Spanish-style design, I'm going to be placing down 8-inch terracotta tile. Right now, this is really awful looking laminate. This way, when people walk in and have their shoes on, and maybe their shoes are a little dirty, walking in on tile is a lot more forgiving than walking into hardwood floors. It also separates the entry from the living room, so it'll give you the feel that you're walking into a new room rather than having this awkward random space when you enter. And then, of course, this awkward room divider is going to be removed.

And then we have the living room. This is a room I believe has a lot of potential. Now, the first thing to go is this old, disgusting carpet, which I believe has been here for about twelve years. Plus, as a rental, I have learned my lesson with carpet. Back when I first started renovating properties, I decided to cheap out in one of the units of my triplex, buy carpet into the bedrooms because that would save me $1,000 upfront. And at first, it was really nice. But guess what? When the tenant moved out two years later, both bedroom carpets had to be entirely replaced.

So my initial cost savings of putting carpet in the units ended up being more expensive because I had to replace them after two years. Then how did I spend more money upfront doing laminate floors and then not having to replace the carpet? So now, I think it's pretty safe to say I'm never gonna use carpet ever again. It almost always ends up being more expensive when the tenant moves out.

So given that, my plan is to remove all the carpet throughout the unit and then evaluate the condition of the original hardwood floors underneath. If they're in really good condition and I could just refinish them, that's the route I'm going to be taking. Because not only is that going to be less expensive than having to replace all the floors throughout the entire unit, but I also believe there's something classic about trying to keep as many of the original features of the unit as possible, and that includes keeping the original hardwood floors. There's something nice about it that you don't get with modern floors these days.

So if that happens, that to me is a win-win. Then, in the 50/50 chance that the floors underneath are not salvageable, I will be laying down new engineered hardwood floors to brighten up the unit. I'll likely go with a wider plank, something with a yellowish, earthy tone to it that'll give a warm and inviting feel.

Now, one of the biggest concerns that I have, that I take into consideration, is that the unit and most of its windows face north, which means it doesn't get a lot of direct sunlight until about 4:00 p.m. So I'll need to do my best to overcome this by using lighter colors and try to make the unit feel a little bit less restricted. Going with lighter colored hardwood floors is a really great way to do this.

Now, in addition to that, I'm gonna be adding in recessed lighting throughout the entire living room and the entire unit to brighten it up even further and give it a much more modern aesthetic. Plus, it's pretty much the same cost as adding all of those lights on dimmers, so that's absolutely going to be done. So you could set the right mood the next time you want to smash the like button for the YouTube algorithm.

And finally, this wall is going to be taken down right here. There's no need for it to be here; it makes the room feel a lot smaller, and this wall heater will instead be replaced with a floor heater.

Next, we enter the dining room, and a few big changes are gonna be taking place here. First, we're gonna be drywalling the ceilings. I have no idea whoever decided this type of ceiling was appropriate for a rental unit—they're absolutely awful looking. So, needless to say, that's gonna be the first thing that goes.

I'm gonna be going with smooth drywall, recessed lighting, and making it look like a brand new spot. In addition to that, I'm gonna be removing this wall that separates the kitchen from the dining room. As it is right now, the entire kitchen layout is really weird. We also have some really weird floor plan issues towards the end of the unit that can only be fixed by taking down this wall, moving up the kitchen a little bit, and I will explain that shortly.

But as it is right now, this entire wall is going to be taken down, and the entire kitchen is going to be rearranged. That way, the kitchen is going to be opening up to the dining room to give it a much more open environment because right now, I'll tell you, the kitchen is not looking pretty.

But really quick, before I show you the kitchen, I'm going to be turning this closet into a pantry or additional storage for the dining room because, as it is right now, it doesn't really have any dedicated use. So I may as well make it something a little bit more functional.

And then you have the kitchen, and as you can see, the entire layout makes absolutely no sense. It's so weird, and the entire thing needs to go. The plan is to take down this wall and replace it with a center island with the built-in stove over top of that. There will be some hanging lights or something that makes it a little bit more formal-looking for people who want to sit around and maybe do some kitchen ooh things.

Then this entire area is going to be replaced. I'm keeping the sink exactly where it is now, except I'm just replacing everything with modern stainless steel appliances, a built-in dishwasher, and some other nice stuff.

Now, here's where things get weird, and yeah, we're gonna get a little weird here. We need an extra five feet of space to rearrange a bedroom layout towards the end of the units that is so strange that I will explain shortly.

So the plan is to wall off this area right here and turn this space into a guest bathroom. It's gonna turn into a shower, like right here where I'm standing, and then there's gonna be a toilet over here and a sink over here, and the door is gonna be right over here.

This is a much-needed renovation because, as it is right now, there's only one bathroom in this entire unit. So just going in and putting in an extra bathroom in a unit like this can get you an extra few hundred dollars a month in rent for a pretty low investment.

However, because adding a bathroom means I'm gonna have to get rid of this side door here, which exits to the backyard, I'm replacing this door with a sliding glass door in the dining room so that way people could still exit to the side or to the backyard. Problem solved.

But now I'm sure you're asking yourself, "But Graham, where is the washer going to go?" And I thought of that. It's gonna be moved instead to the closet space next to the guest bedroom and then next to that is going to be the linen closet.

So now we have the really weird part, and the reason the entire floor plan had to be rearranged because we got the two bedrooms. Now, this first bedroom is really dirty. I know I could see the tenants left a lot of stuff behind that I'm going to be throwing away, but in terms of this bedroom's location and size, there's really not much that needed to be changed besides the ceilings—adding in recessed lighting and adding in a closet along this side of the wall.

But then we go to the second bedroom, and that's right through this wall right here. And this was all done and permitted in the 1970s when people were so zapped out to realize how ridiculous this is, but in order to get to this bedroom, you have to walk through either the bathroom or the other bedroom just to get here.

That means if one of your guests is using the bathroom and doing their thing, too bad. You can't get to your bedroom, or you could walk through the guest bedroom to get here, which also makes absolutely no sense. So that's why the kitchen is going to be moved up five feet to get this first bedroom its own dedicated bathroom. And that allows me to move everything else up to have a floor plan that actually makes sense.

So now where this current bathroom is is going to be turned back into what it should have been this entire time, which is part of a hallway. That way you can walk through this and into the master bedroom. And this is another bedroom that's going to be completely rearranged. To start, I'm going to be building a walk-in closet along this side of the room and then keeping part of this wall for people who want to place a TV up here or a dresser or anything else.

And now this room was previously used as a walk-in closet, but now I'm going to be turning it into a master bathroom. That's right; this unit will finally have its own bathroom, and then the other bedroom can use the guest bathroom. Genius.

Next, because there's no exit from the bedroom out to the backyard, I'm going to be installing a glass sliding door right here with steps leading out to the backyard. That's going to add a lot of natural light to this unit at the end of the afternoon, and it's going to give you something nice to look out to when you go to bed or when you wake up in the morning.

So now, if you're curious how much something like this costs, well, I budgeted about sixty-five thousand dollars for plans, architectural fees, permits, labor, materials, plus a contractor fee for someone to manage all the work. But I also know myself, and I'm probably going to end up being here every single day just monitoring the work and making sure everything goes according to plan.

The goal is that I can get all of this work done within 80 days. But here's what I always end up telling other people: Just always go into it with the expectation that it's going to cost more than what you expect, and it's also gonna take you twice as long as you expect it to take.

So if I just end up taking my own advice on this, it's probably going to cost me about 80 to 85 thousand dollars to complete. It's probably gonna take me about three and a half months for this work to finish, but I'm gonna be optimistic, and I'm gonna hope that we can finish it on time and on budget.

The good news is that once this is done, I will easily be able to get an extra twelve hundred dollars a month in rent for this unit. So even being able to get thirteen thousand dollars a year extra in profit for an eighty-five thousand dollar investment is a really good return on my money. Plus, that'll also help increase the overall value of the property as well, which would really help in the event I wanted to do a cash or refinance.

And now for anyone who wants to invest in real estate to renovate properties and then rent them out, here are a few main takeaways that I've learned along the way. First, always go for durability, even if it costs more money upfront. The last thing you need is something you're gonna have to constantly fix or replace just because it saves you a little money up front.

From my experience with tenants, if something can break, it will. Spend more money on things that are meant to last as long as possible, and that is going to mean more profit back to you long-term.

Second, always budget and expect that it's going to be costing you way more than you think it will. Even though $65,000 is how much I expect this to cost, just trust me, I'm gonna look back on this video and be shaking my head because I almost guarantee you there's gonna be so many other things that come up that need to be changed or I want to get done that are just gonna end up costing more.

Now, maybe I could be wrong on that, but I'm not wrong. Anytime you're remodeling something, always give yourself a 25% buffer to go over budget; otherwise, you might risk running out of money.

And number three: always monitor the work that's going to be done. So even though I trust my contractors thoroughly, sometimes if they're not around, constantly supervising, things tend to fall through the cracks. Like, I check on the progress every single day or every other day.

In the event I'm really busy, not only is this a great way to see how all the work is being done, but also that all the work is being done to your liking. Like I've walked in previous projects and seen things misaligned or screws sticking out of cabinetry or the wrong grout color being used—the list goes on. But overall, those are the main takeaways I always tell my clients, and I remind myself on anytime I go and remodel a property.

But overall, I'm really excited to show you the before and after of this unit because the real estate work I just really enjoy. There's something to be said about taking a place like this and then going in and putting your own creative touch on it and turning it into a place that people would really enjoy living in, and that is exactly what I intend to show you on this unit with updates every few weeks or so as things are getting done.

So with that said, you guys, thank you so much for watching. I really appreciate it. As always, if you have not already, destroy the like button. Make sure to destroy it, as is the subscribe button and notification bell. Also, feel free to add me on Instagram; I post there pretty much daily. So if you want to be a part of it, feel free to add me there.

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And anyway, with that said, thank you so much for watching. And until next time, before I end this video, we have something pretty interesting here that I've been curious about.

There's been this little cutout here of carpet, and then if you remove this, you have this weird piece of wood that's been cut out, and then it's been screwed on. You have some screws right there and right there, and I have no idea what's inside. So I brought over my nifty power tool here, and we're gonna see what's underneath this. Maybe there's gonna be some money or, like, something really cool hidden underneath.

So let's give it a shot and do it and see what someone was hiding below here. And these screws are off! Let's see what is underneath. I don't even know how to get this open here. Alright, I'm gonna have to put my camera down to do this. What? What is that?

Oh, and I think it just goes to the underside of the house.