Dear Friends,

Happy Fall! After a warm September, we're finally in for some sweater weather. Who doesn't love autumn in Boston? It's that happy (and sometimes hectic) time of year for back-to-school craziness, apple picking, flag football and, of course, September 1st move-ins!

As some of you may already know, in 2015, we excitedly jumped on the opportunity to purchase Unit 2 in our building. We paid $475,000 ($842/SF) for our upstairs neighbor's 1-bedroom condo. Our hope was to keep it as an investment property only until we could save up again, at which point we'd combine the space as a new 3rd floor of our home. Though we thought we'd need the extra room for our 3 rapidly growing boys -- we've gotten along just fine in our duplex and enjoyed the rental income enough that we never combined the 2 units.

...and maintaining the rental unit has definitely been worth our while! Even without needing to make significant improvements, we've been lucky to have great, consistent, long-term renters over the years. This season, we had a lease break (which was, thankfully, caused by an exciting new career opportunity that our great tenant couldn't turn down -- nothing negative!).

Of course, I got the apartment listed as soon as I could -- and ended up receiving 4 rental offers within about 24 hours (even though it was quite late in the season).

Since the outgoing tenant moved out a little early, we had down-time between leases for the first time since 2015. So, we used this time to spruce things up! For $6,000, we had the entire place painted, including the cherry kitchen cabinets -- which I'm estimating will help fetch a minimum of +$300/month in the next rental cycle!

When looking at rental comps for Unit 2, I noticed that wood cabinets might actually have a real impact on the rent rate. Even when the cabinetry is high quality, most renters read wood cabinets as "dated."

Don't believe me? Here is what the comps for my rental property show: the average rent rate for similar units with wood cabinets was $3,200/mo. Comps with white/updated cabinets had an average rate of $3,395/mo!

Are you wondering how you can get the best return from your investment property? Or thinking you'd like to earn passive income from a rental unit of your own? Feel free to reach out! I'm happy to share more from my own experience as a landlord -- and help you find the perfect investment property to add to your portfolio!

Best,

Melanie

Before & After

A simple coat of paint can have a significant impact -- whether in an investment property or in your own home!

South End Case Study

How much of a difference can kitchen cabinets actually make?

"Unit A"

"Unit B"

The two apartments pictured above were listed right around the same time this year. Here's how similar they are --

✅ Same street, same block

✅ 1-bedroom, 1-bathroom, 1-floor condos, ~700 SF

✅ In-unit laundry

✅ Stainless steel appliances

❌ No parking or outdoor space included

❄️ "Unit A" has a mini-split for cooling, "Unit B" has no AC

✨Investment Property Inspo✨

Thinking about getting into real estate investing now that rates are decreasing?

Check out this collection of properties like my investment property!

Want to chat about how much you could make renting an investment property?

Thanks for reading and subscribing!

Melanie Olinto

Vice President

M: 617.817.0775

melanie.olinto@compass.com