HOW TO SPRUCE UP YOUR RENTAL PROPERTY


 

Are you spending too much time trying to attract tenants to your property? Have the online ads lost some of their appeal? Maybe the time has come to learn how to spruce up your rental property.

Yes, it is going to take a little bit of money and a few days to make heads turn. However, the investment of both time and money can pay you back in the form of 100 percent occupancy.

Let’s see how you can spruce up your rental property.

Add Color to the Walls

What is the first thing a prospective tenant notices when he or she walks into one of the rooms in your rental property? The answer is each of the four walls. You can make a positive first impression on every potential tenant by adding color to the walls. You do not have to be Da Vinci to bring a room to life. All you have to do is enhance the ambiance of your rental property by using brighter colored paints. You can also add color by applying colorful, yet tasteful wallpaper.

Treat the Windows

Tired-looking white blinds that often come with rental properties do nothing to inspire prospective tenants. Remove the old school window treatments and replace them with contemporary window treatments that exude panache. A small investment can go a long way towards making your rental property stand out in the community. One of the purposes of any type of window treatment is to maximize the exposure each room has to sunlight.

Wood Doors

Remember you are not rewriting the book on interior and exterior design. You are simply sprucing up your rental property by implementing a few tried and true strategies. One of the most effective ways to spruce up a rental property is to install wooden exterior doors. Natural wood presents a rustic look, while offering modern sleekness that appeals to most tenants. If you take care of wooden exterior doors, they can last a lifetime.

The Art of Interior Design

Even if you add color to the walls inside your rental property, you should consider hanging pieces of art to complement the boost in color. Instead of your tenants banging dozens of holes into the walls, you find the best type of artwork for each room and strategically bang the holes yourself. Hanging attractive pieces of art should enhance the ambiance of your rental property.

Create an Outdoor Living Space

If your rental property includes an outdoor space, optimize the space by creating an area where your tenants can socialize. Installing a pergola or a gazebo creates an outdoor living space that tenants can use throughout the year. Adding outdoor furniture, as well as plants and flowers, should increase the attractiveness of your real estate investment. One popular way to optimize an outdoor space is to build a deck that overlooks a scenic vista.

Rugs Tie Everything Together

Look at rugs not as an accessory that hides unattractive floors. Instead, look at the home accessories as a way to accentuate the beauty of a rental property. Rugs work well at entrances to the rental property, but their true value shines when you place the right style of rugs in the right locations. Adding rugs also protect high-traffic areas of your rental property.

Replace Shower Heads

It might seem like a waste of time, but to the savvy renter, the performance of a shower head indicates how much an owner cares about a rental property. Spend the little time and money it takes to replace every shower head. You want to upgrade the shower heads in terms of appearance and performance. Nothing turns a potential tenant off faster than a rusty shower head that produces little water.

Let There be Light

You have added warmer colors to the walls, as well as hung tasteful artwork that brings a rental unit to life. Now, you should install brighter overhead lighting to generate the warmth that attracts tenants. Switch out existing lightbulbs, even if they seem to produce plenty of illumination. Change up the color scheme of your rental property’s lighting system to create a contrast in colors. Lighting is one of the most important elements that help you spruce up your rental property.

Add Furniture

Most rental properties are unfurnished, which gives tenants the design flexibility to create the ideal living environment. However, you can make a lasting positive impression on prospective tenants by adding the right type of furniture. Think a mahogany table that fits the size of a dining room and a living room coffee table that works well sitting near a sofa of the same length. Make sure to add furniture that lasts for years, while not going out of style.

Leave the bedrooms empty to allow tenants to select their furniture.

The Bottom Line

Every rental property eventually takes on a stale appearance that makes a negative impression on potential tenants. You can avoid a stale appearance by knowing how to spruce up your rental property. It does not cost much money or take much time, and the reward is attracting tenants that want to live at your rental property for several years to come.