Same finish spec in every unit, or match the finish to what each unit can rent for?

The tiered version has an assumption in it that I'd want tested before I spent the money. You're saying the top unit goes from 1,400 to 1,525 for 4k extra. Where's that 125 coming from, comps or hope? If it's comps, is there actually a 1,525 unit within a mile that rented in the last six months, or is it a listing that's been up since August?

Standardize. I've done both and the tiered buildings cost me time I couldn't get back. Every decision you make twice is a week.

Dumb question from someone with nothing yet. Does the 7 foot 2 ceiling matter legally, or just for rent? I thought there were minimum ceiling heights for habitable rooms.

@rigging there generally are minimums in building codes, and older basement units often sit under them and get grandfathered or get treated as legally nonconforming. That's entirely a local question, the ordinance and the certificate of occupancy will tell you, not the seller. @harrow presumably already knows what his says.

On the actual question, I run a small crew and I'd standardize every time, for a reason nobody has said yet. My guys make fewer mistakes on a repeat spec. The second unit is faster than the first and the fourth is faster than the second, and that only happens if the fourth is the same as the first.

Agreeing with @cobalt from the build side. Labor learns. Materials don't care but labor learns.

The one exception I'd carve out is anything below grade. Moisture behavior is different down there and putting the same floor in a garden unit as a top floor unit is how you end up back in that unit in three years. Spend differently there because the building is different there, not because the rent is lower.

Mostly lurking but the resale point stuck with me. Does an appraiser actually price a matched building higher, or is that folklore?

@vellum I've wondered the same. My understanding is the appraiser is mostly working off gross rent and comparable sales on a 2-4, so matched finishes help by making the rents defensible rather than by scoring points for tidiness. Someone who's ordered more appraisals than me should correct that.

The tenant-comparison thing @harrow raised is the part I'd worry about most and it barely came up. If the cheap unit's tenant can see the expensive unit's photos, and the difference is a cabinet door rather than a floor plan, you're going to hear about it at renewal every single year.

@plumb that cuts the other way too though. Tiering by rent is defensible right up until someone reads a pattern into who lives in which unit. Keeping the standard uniform across units removes an argument you'd rather never have. Fair housing questions like that go to a lawyer, but the cheap prevention is a spec that doesn't vary by tenant.

Numbers on the tiered case, using @harrow's own figures. Extra 4k in the top unit for 125 a month is 1,500 a year, so about a 37 percent return on the marginal spend if it holds. Saving 5k in the garden unit costs nothing if the rent truly doesn't move. That's a strong case on paper and it's why people do it.

What's wrong with it: the 125 is a forecast and the 5k saving is certain. If the top unit only gets 60 more, the marginal return drops to about 18 percent and you've also built a building that's harder to run. I'd want the comp @windlass asked for before I'd sign off on my own math here.

@ledger that's the cleanest framing in the thread. The certain saving beats the forecast gain unless the comp is real.

Four buildings in and I've landed on upgrade-at-turnover with a fixed spec, which is the boring middle of your poll. I don't renovate units that are occupied and paying, and when one turns it gets the standard. Building three took six years to fully converge and I never once had all my cash out at the same time. @harrow, the version where you do all four at once is a financing decision as much as a renovation one.