When a tenant leaves your property, you will have to list your rental as soon as possible to prevent long-term property vacancy. However, before listing your rental property, you will have to ensure that the property is rent-ready. For this, you will have to eliminate the trash, repair the broken appliances, repaint, etc.
4 Things to Do to Prepare Your Rental Property for New Tenants
1. Cleaning
As part of the home preparation, you will have to clean the house thoroughly. You wouldn’t want the tenant to feel like they just moved into a garbage can, right?
While cleaning the house, give more importance to the kitchen and bathroom because these are the areas that are prone to dirt and grease.
To eliminate pests from your house, you can hire a pest control company or an expert.
2. Check the Appliances & Utilities
When you are done cleaning the entire house, you will have to check the home appliances and the utilities, especially the oven, washer, water heater, HVAC etc. If you find out that any of the appliances aren’t functioning properly, you should repair or change them.
3. Repaint the House
Repainting the rental property isn’t mandatory, but you wouldn’t like to hand over a faded and old-looking house to the tenant, right?
When the house is in tip-top condition, you can attract good tenants who will take care of the house. On the flip side, when the rental property is in bad condition, you won’t be able to get the desired rent. So, you should always repaint the house whenever a tenant leaves; unless the current paint is in good condition.
Usually, it will cost you around $4,000 to repaint the exterior of your house professionally. However, if you can manage to repaint the house by yourself, you can cut the cost in half.
Apart from repainting the house, you will have to pay attention to landscaping. If the landscape looks messy, it will create a negative impression on the tenants. So, after repainting the house, you can hire a professional landscaper to mow the back and front yard of the house.
4. Replace the Broken Tiles
When there are broken tiles in the house, especially in the kitchen or bathroom, it affects the overall value and appeal of the house. Besides, most tenants wouldn’t rent a house that has broken tiles. So, if there are any broken tiles or gaps between the tiles, you should fix them before you list the house for rent. Again, if your house has a damaged wooden floor, you should consider restoration or refinishing.
