Are you ready to rent out your single-family home in Parrish? If you’ve been living in this property yourself, you’ll need to make sure you’ve removed all of your personal belongings before you allow tenants to move in. You might think you’re doing them a favor by leaving behind a blender or a set of towels.
You’re not.
When tenants move into a property, they’re expecting to find a home that’s empty and ready for their own belongings.
You’ll also need to convert your insurance if you’re transitioning this property from an owner-occupied home to a tenant-occupied home. Talk to your agent or a Parrish property manager.
Whether you’re renting out a single-family home that once belonged to you, a home you inherited, or a property that you’ve recently invested in, there are a few key steps you need to take before you can begin marketing your home, placing great tenants, and collecting consistent rent.
Preparing for tenants means ensuring the rental home is in the right condition to be listed on the market. If it’s an attractive, well-maintained home that’s priced competitively and being widely advertised, you’re probably going to generate a lot of interest as soon as it’s listed.
But, there’s a danger in allowing prospective tenants to go and see the home if it’s not move-in ready.
These are some of the steps you’ll need to take right now.
Parrish Rental Homes Need Great Curb Appeal
Start with curb appeal. Your tenants will form some opinions and make some judgments just by the way your home looks from the outside.
These first impressions are important, so make sure you’re offering an attractive, welcoming home. When tenants rent a single-family home instead of an apartment, they want to feel like they’re getting all of the benefits of home ownership without the expense and the maintenance.
Show them what that means with great landscaping and an inviting outdoor space.
Good curb appeal taps into the emotions people feel about their homes.
- Start with the landscaping. Your single-family home likely has a bit of yard space, maybe a front patio or a backyard. Pay attention to the grass. You want to keep it mowed and healthy. If there are trees and bushes, make sure they’re trimmed and pruned. You don’t want a lot of branches covering the windows of the house or dropping onto the roof.
- Keep the exterior clean and pretty. Remove any debris or trash, and consider a fresh power wash before you list your home for rent. It has to look great even before you list it because once you do, prospective tenants are likely to drive or walk by before they contact you to schedule a showing.
- Keep the front door and the walkway clear, clean, and easy to see. You need sufficient, bright exterior lighting and an easy, well-marked path to the home’s entrance.
Stand on the street or the sidewalk in front of the home. Does this look like a property that good tenants will want to enter and inspect? If it does, then you’ve created some great curb appeal.
Look for Potential Repairs and Replacements
Now that you can be sure your curb appeal is going to create a fantastic first impression, you need to conduct a thorough inspection of the property’s interior.
The property needs to be empty and well-maintained. Look for both functional and cosmetic issues that need to be addressed. It’s tempting to blow off things that wouldn’t bother you much, like a screen with a tear in it or a closet door that doesn’t close all the way. But, tenants will notice those things and request that they be repaired.
You don’t want to see chipping or fading paint or carpets that are scuffed and worn. Everything needs to look fresh and smell good. This is the way to create a rent ready home.
Inspect every detail. Go inside every room, open every closet and drawer. Test the appliances and make sure the doors and windows open, close, and lock. Turn on all the faucets and flush every toilet.
This gives you the opportunity to check every inch of the home. You can look at every outlet you pass, you can test each set of blinds that you encounter. Take a look at every bit of the property, and then figure out what needs to be done before your tenants move in.
Put Together a Reliable List of Preferred Vendors
You’ll need some help once you’ve identified the things that aren’t quite perfect at your property.
Perhaps there was a light bulb that had burned out or an outlet that wasn’t working. Maybe a toilet seemed to be running or the air filter was caked with dust.
You’ll need to keep and update a checklist so you can organize a detailed record of the things you encounter that need attention. Taking pictures is also a good idea so you can make before and after comparisons. Anything that documents the property’s condition is useful now and in the future.
This list will also help you when you’re scheduling vendors and contractors.
You need a great team of reliable people to help you prepare your property for the market and maintain it over time.
Time is money when you’re a landlord preparing a property for the rental market. Make sure you’re minimizing the amount of time you have to spend preparing your rental property for the tenants you hope to attract. If you have great relationships in place with vendors in Parrish, you’ll be able to make these repairs and updates quickly and get that property on the market as soon as possible.
Here are some valuable tips when it comes to who you hire and how you do the work:
- Don’t do it yourself. A lot of owners want to make repairs themselves. This may save you money, but are you saving time? If you can’t get over there until you have a few days free, you’re going to delay your ability to rent out the property. You also want a high level of expertise when you’re making repairs. Don’t hesitate to hire licensed and insured professionals when there’s something that’s needed and it’s outside of what you can reasonably accomplish.
- Make replacements when necessary. Sometimes, landlords will over-repair a system or an appliance that should really just be replaced with a new one. If your refrigerator keeps breaking down and the appliance is 20 years old, don’t spend the money to repair it. Buy a new one instead. This will cut down on the maintenance that’s required for your fridge, and you’ll have a brand new appliance that will really appeal to prospective tenants when they’re looking at your listing and visiting your property.
- Be thorough. Check every system and every detail. Make sure the home is ready for tenants to see. Repair and replace all the major things you notice, but make sure you’re also catching even the small issues. It’s worth your time. You don’t want to be called over to the home in the first 30 days after a tenant moves in to fix something that you could have fixed before the move-in day. And, you don’t want your rental home to be vacant for longer than necessary because you forgot or neglected to do something critical in the property.
When you’re offering a well-maintained home, you’ll have an easier time renting it out, and you’ll bring in higher rents.
Send Professional Cleaners through the Property
Your best tenants will have high standards for cleanliness. Cleaning is critical when you’re getting your property rent ready. The home should be clean and free of dust and debris when you’re inspecting the home. You don’t want any stains on the carpet or the floor.
Hire a cleaning crew to really do a deep clean, which should include pulling the appliances away from the wall to clean and dust under them and behind them. You’d be amazed at the crumbs and dust that can gather around appliances.
While the initial cleaning is important, you also want to clean after the work is done. When you have to repair people coming and going through the property, additional cleaning will probably be necessary before you put the home on the market.
If you don’t pay attention to the cleaning, you’ll have a longer vacancy. Good tenants will never be willing to move into a single-family home that hasn’t been recently cleaned.
If you don’t have the time or the resources to make your home ready for the market, your best bet is to partner with a team of experienced property managers in Parrish. Our experience in Parrish real estate and property management allows us to take care of these things quickly and thoroughly. We can get your home ready for the market and occupied by great tenants right away.
Would you like some help getting your home ready for the market? Please contact us at Anchor Down Real Estate and Rentals. We’d love to be your resource when it comes to Parrish rental properties.
