You’re excited to list your new investment property on your local rental market, but before you find your first tenants, you have some work to put it. These tips from Trust Inventory will guide you through making repairs, designing your rental, and marketing the property to prospective tenants.
Take Care of Repairs
As a landlord, you have an obligation to your tenants to take care of certain repairs and maintenance issues. This is a good time to essentially “audit” your rental to identify any maintenance problems and remedy them before you begin advertising it. Check the laws in your state to find out which repairs you’re responsible for, and ensure you include accurate language around this in your lease.
Make Modifications
Hop online and check out photos from other rentals on the market in your area. What features seem to be most popular amongst tenants at the moment? Take note of the amenities that renters are interested in, and consider how you could upgrade your rental. Turbo Tenant recommends adding a sleek new bathroom vanity, including modern plumbing fixtures, replacing your doors, and upgrading your countertops. You don’t want to stretch your budget for the sake of modifications, but setting aside funds for just a few of these projects may allow you to bump up your rent.
Have Fun With Decor
Naturally, you won’t be putting up much decor in a rental property, as your future tenants will want to decorate it themselves. However, you can add some colorful touches by painting an accent wall, adding eye-catching door handles or light fixtures, and even updating your curtain rods.
Landscaping Your Yard
Does your property have a front or backyard? If so, you’ll want to spend a little time on landscaping so that your rental looks great from the street – you never know when a passerby who is looking for a new place to live will notice it and give you a call! You don’t need to take on any time-intensive landscaping projects, but sprucing up your yard is a good idea. You may want to trim back shrubbery and mow the lawn.
Hiring a Property Manager
If you’re concerned that you won’t be able to handle all of your responsibilities as a landlord on your own, you should think about hiring a property manager. They can help you with a long list of tasks, including screening tenants and running background checks, gathering rent payments, and contacting contractors when maintenance requests come in. Investing in their services is a great investment for time-strapped landlords.
Advertise Your Property
You could have the most beautiful rental property on the block, but if you don’t let people know that you’re accepting tenant applications, you probably won’t find great long-term renters! You may want to create a website, as well as advertise your rental in local social media groups, in order to reach as many people as possible. For instance, if you have a Facebook business page, you may be able to upload a PDF that contains more information about your property.
You could also supplement this with some old-fashioned methods, like putting up flyers around town. It never hurts to put up a “For Rent” sign with your phone number, either. In addition, you can create an informative brochure about your rental to send to prospective tenants when they inquire about your property.
After closing on your investment property, you’re probably looking forward to the day you can rent it out. But it’s important not to rush into that process. By working with a property manager, handling repairs and modifications, and thoroughly advertising your property, you’ll be able to ensure that your rental is profitable and in-demand.
Trust Inventory provides landlords, tenants and agents with someone they can turn to for an honest, impartial assessment of their property to help every tenancy go smoothly. Contact us today for a quote!
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