The building I rented in until a year ago, which billed itself as "luxury apartments" and which was certainly swanker than average, had white top-freezer fridges and they looked fine.

When you're renting you expect standard appliances. I would keep it simple.

Agree with colin3. Your renters will be happy to have something new that works. I wouldn't get too excited.

I don't know your rental market. If you think a fancy-dancy ref. will make the difference, go for it. But don't pretend any of you has the "consumer preference" thing nailed down. Consumers are as fickle as the summer rains. I encourage you not to chase that chimera.

I use top freezer models for my 2 rentals. I think most of the public still view these as "Normal Fridges".

"Many" of us here on GW are into the "The latest Stuff", some, "only the "Highest Brand names" (SZ, Liebherr Miele) etc etc---will do.

We even have some "Esoterics" Here (LOL).

I dont think "We", for the most part, are representative of the "Average Joe/Jo" out there.

In fact I have seen posts by folks posting on GW, that say,
"Not much help here, (GW) for the appliance market
we (They) are in",(meaning your "run of the Mill"--
--Whirpools, GE, etc etc.

So as colin3 suggests, "Follow the Kiss Principle"!

Gary

My DD, an Army wife, has a side-by-side fridge in the house they are renting now, and she much prefers it to the top freezer fridge they had in their last rental. She finds it much more versatile than the top freezer.

She and my two grandchildren spent the summer with me and the kids loved my bottom freezer fridge, it was very easy for them to open and get Popsicles. The side-by-side is a little harder for them to open!

Sigh. 'Tis as I feared -- that you would all agree with Dear Ole Dad........MomJ: the only thing he and I agree on is our mutual dislike of side by sides!!!! (g)

umm....you got "agreement" out of that?

The above aren't agreement that top freezer is better. Rather, they say that you aren't going to lose renters because of it. Where I live, you don't get a fridge with your rental. You have to provide your own. This has been true at least since the mid-'80's.

A bottom freezer could make me prefer one apartment between two equal ones, but location, windows, closets, room sizes, cleanliness, quiet neighbors, etc., are all much more important.

Bottom freezers have been around at least since the early '60's. Maybe before. People tend to prefer them because the fresh food is more accessible. Dear old dad might prefer the ice cream at eye level, but for everything else, it's better to have the fresh food on top. Side by sides were invented for tight spaces where there isn't enough room for full width doors to open. French door/bottom freezer models do the same thing, with a more accessible shape. You can store more and larger things in a French door model than an equal volume side by side, because the shelves aren't all chopped up.

While my personal preference would be a bottom freezer I can honestly say the configuration of a refrig would not be a deal breaker in a rental to me. A nice clean one would be a plus and sized to meet what you would expect for renters.

I'm thinking you're both wrong about the white. The appeal of SS appliances has trickled down to even to the entry level. Thar's why you see the SS look alikes with -no fingerprint- finishes and the like.

Now, I wouldn't put a nice new SS fridge in a tired kitchen with a white stove and black DW but I think a lot of renters are looking for that xtra style especially near the upper end of the market.

What is the competition doing? That's your barometer , if your market doesn't require fridges like pllog's then your argument is moot. If the units that you're competing against in the price range all have built in Viking's and SubZero's then a white top box just isn't going to cut it.

The bottom line is this is a business, so if the demand for that apt. is is great it won't matter a hill of beans what kind and color of fridge is in there.

I hate hate hate my top freezer fridge. Every time I open the stupid freezer stuff slides out and tries to take out my toes. And I have to constantly bend down to find the milk jug. I think most people feel similarly and your dad is off in that way.

That said, I don't know that a bottom freezer model would really make that much difference in which apt I rented. If it's going to cost you extra money for something that you personally won't enjoy, I'd probably just save the $300 and get the top freezer.

I was a renter not all that long ago, and went through something like eight apartments in ten years...I can say that I never noticed or cared what kind of refrigerator was in the apartments when I looked at them, provided it was full-sized. What I *did* care about was whether the kitchen had a gas stove, whether it had a dishwasher, and whether it on balance was "renovated" or not. I think I was unusual in caring about the stove, particularly when I was younger, though. And about half of those apartments did not have any of the above, but were rented because location/layout/price/"period charm" outweighed the lack of kitchen amenities.

The only dealbreaker I had as a renter was hardwood floors, which I did have in every apartment.

antss -- you make a good point about what the competition is offering.

DOD and I agreed about the white cuz of the existing kitchen and appliances. I'm a SS fan, but I think it would look odd in this space, and wouldn't be worth the extra $$.

And yes -- re my sense of 'agreement': what I'm hearing is that fridge style is probably much less important than I thought it was, whatever the relative functional merits of the toppers vs the bottomers. (g)

You guys are all missing the point... He who pays for the fridge gets to decide... so who's paying for it? You or your dad? :)

Speaking as a LANDLORD: Auto defrost, used one from a good appliance resale place.

I have had side by side, top, and bottom ... what counts to the renters is that they are spotlessly clean, and mentioning that they are auto-defrost is a good idea.

I've never like bottom freezer style refrigerators (which is my only beef with the french door models) because I have back problems, so I'm with your Dad on this one. It wouldn't be a deal-breaker, though.

We rented for 17 years, for a fridge the most important thing to me was that it was clean and easy to keep clean. Meaning it wasn't old and rusting, etc LOL.

I agree with Plllog- "A bottom freezer could make me prefer one apartment between two equal ones, but location, windows, closets, room sizes, cleanliness, quiet neighbors, etc., are all much more important."

those were our priorties when we rented.

honestly if it were me having to buy a new fridge for a rental, I would get the less expensive one. there is really no way to tell how the fridge will be treated by the renters, and the more expensive one you buy, that could be $ lost later on. If I was the renter, I'd be very happy to have any new, clean fridge.

I concur on auto-defrost. The first condo I rented in grad school had a manual defrost fridge and it was awful. That fridge was also apartment sized, so very small.

You might want to look into places like Sears Outlet or other "outlet" areas of the big box stores.

As a renter, these would be features that would be nice to have.

Auto defrost is a must.
Next: make sure you have glass shelves and you advertise that. It is PITA to clean spills onto the lower levels. I don't even know if newer refrigerators have wire shelves now days.
Next: It would be nice to have an icemaker. I have never had rental that had an ice maker. Again, a total luxury in a rental market since ice maker tends to break down alot and experienced landlords know it.

Top/bottom versus side by side are preferences. Each camp has followers that swear by that configuation.

As a renter, the type of fridge doesn't matter as long as it works. 18cuft or larger.

I would care a lot more about cleanliness of the kitchen, not the appliances in it.

"It would be nice to have an icemaker."

Agree with kaismom about that. Agree, nice. However, too much grief. The damned things are too trouble-prone for a landlord to live with.

Keep it simple, clean, and trouble-free....the stuff of which happy tenants are made.

I would care a lot more about cleanliness of the kitchen, not the appliances in it.

LOL!!! So says the person who has never gone into a rental to find grotty green fungus growing all up the inside of the fridge or burnt on effluent inside the oven. BLEEEECH!

Cleanliness of the appliances is a big turn-on. I don't mind scrubbing down the cabinets if they have sticky varnish (assuming everything else is just right including the price), or even build-up of cooking grubbiness, but nasty appliances leave or I do.

Agreed on the ice maker. Anything you put into a rental, the tenant is going to expect to have fixed when it breaks. By law, at least here, you only have to provide things that relate to habitability: heat, security, plumbing. But if you give them an ice maker to use as long as it runs, but not if it breaks they're going to decide you're a lousy landlord and stop taking care of your place because you seem disinterested in taking care of it. Unless, of course, we're talking about the SubZero uberluxury rental someone above posited. That would have to have an ice maker, and have to have it fixed every 5-10 years.

I just want to thank everyone for your input on this! (Even if I do have to tell my dad he is right.)