Your home is ready for the rental market when it’s in excellent condition, full of curb appeal, and likely to attract both the best tenants and the highest rents.
How do you get it there?
We have some ideas on making your home rent ready, and they’re ideas worth considering. As professional property managers in Danville, we have a lot of experience leasing and marketing rental homes like yours.
Make Sure Everything Works
Start with a complete walk through of the home. You’re testing everything to ensure it’s safe, habitable, and ready for new tenants. As you’re walking from room to room, make sure you’re paying special attention to:
- Safety issues. Are the smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors working? Do the doors and windows open, close, and lock with ease? Are there loose handrails or floorboards that need attention? Are the outlets working? Does the dryer have any excess of lint building up in the vent?
- Maintenance needs. Turn on every appliance. Run every faucet and flush every toilet. Turn on the lights, open all the closet doors and kitchen drawers. Make a list of what needs to be repaired and replaced.
- Check the heating and cooling. Test the thermostat, check the air filters, and turn on the heat to make sure it’s available.
Before you market the home, you want to make sure it’s rent ready. If the property is missing a window screen or needs a new refrigerator, it’s not ready for tenants to see it yet. Make sure your prospective renters can imagine themselves moving right in.
Provide a Thorough Cleaning
You don’t want to market or show your rental home until it has been professionally cleaned. This will make your property look better in photos and it will allow tenants to feel good about the property when they come to see it.
Hire professionals who can work quickly and be thorough. You want them to pull appliances away from the wall so they can clean under and around them. You want ceiling fans dusted and baseboards scrubbed. Make a great first impression by dazzling prospective tenants with how clean your home is.
Pay Attention to Curb Appeal
Speaking of great first impressions, you need to pay attention to curb appeal.
If you are renting out a single-family home with a yard, make sure it’s mowed and green and tidy. Pressure wash the outside of the house as well as the driveway and walkway. Trim bushes and trees. Lay fresh mulch if you have flower beds. Remove any trash or debris from the front of the property. Consider a new door mat and maybe paint or replace the mailbox and the hardware on the front door.
These details matter. If your home doesn’t look inviting and welcoming from the outside, prospective tenants won’t feel great about going inside.
These are the first three steps in getting your home rent ready. Once you’ve managed all of these, you can think about pricing your property accurately and marketing the home in a way that’s strategic and most likely to attract the most tenants to your property. If you need some help, we’re here to provide support and resources. Please contact us at Stowers Real Estate.
