Small Interior Investments
So we have talked about changing appearances of landscaping and and of exterior eye sores such as the fiber cement siding to a degree that fixes any problems and may gain you more monthly rent but does not raise your yearly taxes. Lets look a few small changes that can be done to the inside to really entice a potential renter to rent from you as apposed to another home they may have looked at previously.
Storage! Storage is a vital key point when someone is home shopping. This doesn’t necessarily mean a large storage unit or shed needs to be built on site and provided as part of the renters monthly payment. The kind of storage I am mainly referring to is closet space. Closet space can be a huge deciding factor on whether a family rents a place or moves on to the next rental. If your property obviously is lacking in the closet department, one small investment that may pay off big, is having a contractor install some kind of closet systems that will utilize every inch of the closets space. When a renter sees there is room for there wardrobe even if the closet is small, chances are they will take it regardless of the actual size of the closet.
Another point I wanted to touch on is the window and door treatments. For under 8 dollars per window you can supply your rental property with blinds and shades that not only make the inside of the rental look completed, but give an instant feeling of privacy. I have seen many times where potential renters will look at the windows and doors and think, well there is 100.00 dollars we are gonna have to spend right off the bat just to have some privacy when we move in. That 100.00 dollars could sway a potential renter out a 6 month or year lease. Remember to include the blinds and shades on the lease agreement, so that if they are damaged, you can take the funds out of their security deposit to pay for them.
These are only tips, and are not a must do when renting property. These small inexpensive interior investments will go along way to helping you find a renter fast.
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Rental Property Appearance
Does the way your rental property investment looks from not only the outside but the inside as well, affect how much you can charge on a monthly basis? Of course, but you have to reach a reasonable balance between the looks of your rental property and the looks of all the other properties on that particular street.
You dont want to have the nicest, and you don’t want the ugliest. Remember that you rental property land taxes are based on outside appearance just like your homestead home. So if you have the nicest house on the block, you will be paying more in taxes, therefore cutting into your overall profit margin gain for each month and year you rent a particular piece of property.
You must choose a solid balance between too nice and not nice enough. The house needs to look presentable to would be renters. This is a gimme but should be taken seriously. A fresh coat of paint inside between tennants, and a fresh coat of paint on the outside at least every 5 years. Make the effort to stop by your properties once a week to make sure the lawn is being watered so that it does not die. If your tenant is cluttering up the place with cars in the yard, trash everywhere, or not mowing the yard this is where you would need to step in as soon as possible to keep them on track before it gets out of hand.
Besides paint, you can fix drywall cracks and holes, fix the hardiplank siding, replace the windows and doors, replace the flooring such as the carpet and tile, along with pressure washing the driveway and sidewalk outside the rental property. These are all tasks that should be done at least at the time of purchase and may even need to be done between each renter. Choosing good renters is a hard task but can be done with patience and a good back ground check. A background check is not fool proof, but will scare away many of your unwanted tenants.
Yes they are renting the property, but you can have in your lease that they must upkeep the exterior as well as the interior of the property in the lease they sign. This gives you the right to evict them if they do not abide by the lease. Renting a peice of property is an ongoing full time job that can call on you at 3am because of a burst pipe or house fire. Always be prepared and remememer to find that proper balance in your investment as to get the most money you can each month while keeping your property taxes as low as possible.
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