In this YouTube video, Chandler Smith discusses whether it is better to renovate your home or buy turnkey. The bottom line for Chandler is that you should prioritize your investment decisions as follows: turnkey, raise rent, make minor renovations.
If you find real estate that is turnkey—ready to rent as it is and yields the return that you want, you should buy it. However, turnkey homes are hard to find. You should instead look for properties that you can add value to.
This is the best way to get the right scale of return.
Some of the best deals involve finding homes that are undervalued. If you find a house in which the rent is too low, you can simply raise it to what you think it should be, given its location, condition, etc.
If you need to renovate a property, then you should start with properties that need minor things done such as painting the interior, replacing the floors, or other little tweaks. However, you should not carry out renovations unless you must.
As a rule, you should stay away from properties that require major renovations. Don’t assume that buying a low-value property will get you a great return after you invest large amounts of cash in renovating it. This one of the ways that real estate investors get burnt.
