My SFH's tend to rent to low-income, blue-collar people who don't always take care of stuff. I always put those cheapie little $4 blinds into all of my windows. It's nice, clean, and makes things look sharp.

As I get houses turned over, I keep seeing that people have stapled bedsheets over my nice, clean blinds, or installed their own curtain rod hardware catty-wonkus. In the past, I've just picked up cheapie little curtain rods from the Dollar Store for about $6.50 a pop, and some nice sheers for another $4 or $5 each. It also made things look really sharp.

With my current house that's turning over ($430/mo), I have eight or nine double and triple windows, where I'll need 70"+ and 100"+ curtain rods if I'm going to do my curtain rod thing. And those tend to go for $20 and $30, respectively, at the cheapest I can find (Wally-world... Dollar General only carries the shortest lengths), on top of the price of the curtains.

Does anyone have a place they'd recommend I look for bargain-priced medium and long-length curtainrods? Or is this just a case where I need to remind myself that I'm not living there, and if they want to hang bedsheets, it's their business, because the miniblinds are sufficient to keep the house looking great from the street?

I have cheap curtain rods in almost all windows. I install them where they are sturdy. If a tenant wants to hang sheets over them, I don't care, if they take them down, they need to put them up before they leave.

I have used spring tension rods with sheers at times. I would think if you have double or triple windows, you could put up individual rods on each window. I have used dowels and piping for rods occasionally. I never put it expensive fancy decorative rods.

Look at consignment shops and yard sales

One can always start to shop at the Habitat for Humanity restore where one can go online then find a store near you. Have bought a lot of merchandise at the restore such as blinds, bathtub faucets, kitchen faucets, kitchen double sinks, paint, tools, power tools, plumbing supplies, ceramic,porcelain tiles.

While everything seems more expensive in NJ (rent, tax, plumber, handyman etc), I am very happy when I found a decent curtain rod including brackets and other belongings at Bed, Bath, and Beyond at $ 20 a piece. The package includes 3 pieces of extendable metal rod. Curtains are additional.

I like the idea of conduit. Lowes has 1/2" by 10' long PVC conduit for $1.32 each; metallic conduit pipe (same size/length) for $2.00 each.

Extra brackets can be purchased over in the blinds/curtain rod section.

I have one window that needs a rod at least 104" wide. I'd choose the PVC conduit as it would be easier to cut to fit.