Landlords: Should You Include a Washer and Dryer in Your Rental?

What do I do with my Washer/Dryer?

I see this question ALL the time in the many forums.  In the beginning I was buying a washer and dryer for my tenant. This was a large out of pocket cost of $1200+. Then I tried to reduce the costs by getting a used washer/dryer. While this sometimes worked out, there were other times it did not! So now I was replacing them in addition to the service calls and cost! Which was not cheap! So offering washer and dryers became very expensive.

So I tried an experiment. I stopped offering washer/dryers.

Side Note, as always,  it REALLY depends on your market and tenants. Some markets demand washers/dryers; many many others are perfectly fine with just hookups as it is standard for them to bring there own.

I no longer offered washer/dryers. Guess what? I did not have a single bit of trouble renting out our place! No one turned down our house, no one “demanded” a washer/dryer. So it had no affect but saved a large line item on my account.

So for me:

At the end it came down to value versus cost. As discussed in are you being eaten alive by unexpected costs, extra costs add up. The key is to offer a great product that your market expects without losing on unproductive “extras”. In my experience a stove, dishwasher and in SOME places a refrigerator is expected and required. Everything  else is just that- an “extra”. So the question is for the extra money you put in you want to make more money. As discussed previously there are ceilings. The market will only bear so much, therefore it is important to weigh what offers more money and what doesn’t.

It also reduced my stress as the number of service calls were reduced. The washer/dryer made up a predominate number of my issues. They broke and got lint stuck in them. While I now have the deductible which “magically” has reduced many of these issues they still exist.

Do you offer washer/dryer? What has been your experience?