Making upgrades to a rental house need not be expensive or difficult. In fact, there are numerous inexpensive or free ways to improve a so-so rental property’s appeal and make it something that prospective tenants want. You can do a lot to improve your rental home by doing a bit of low-cost resurfacing, and also swapping out some hardware or fixtures. These simple touches can turn your single-family rental property into a home tenants want to rent. In fact, with just these five simple upgrades, you can significantly boost your Dover property’s appeal.
1. Don’t Forget the Details
Interior decorators know very well that a little goes a long way. They know that by adding just a few small touches to a home, you can make such a huge impact. It’s no different for single-family rental homes. Installing new cabinet handles and drawer pulls to a bland kitchen can add both beauty and function, immediately upgrading otherwise tired old cabinets.
Another detail you can look at is faceplates. They can make a home interior feel more put together. Cracked or mismatched faceplates can really affect the feel and visual appeal of a room, dragging it down significantly. Just by simply replacing each faceplate with new, matching ones, you can make each room in your rental house much more attractive.
2. Changing Hardware and Fixtures
Just as small details like faceplates and cabinet handles can have a big impact, so too can replacing small hardware items (like doorknobs) and light fixtures. Over a period of time, hardware and light fixtures can tarnish and start to look old and worn. This can affect the way a prospective renter looks at a rental home’s interior. It may give them a negative impression. But all you have to do is update old light fixtures in key rooms, add a ceiling fan in a bedroom, or add matching doorknobs, locks, and other hardware, and you will produce a visual appeal far in excess of the costs. Hardware and light fixtures need not be expensive or ornate. A basic fixture that has a clean and modern look will do just fine.
3. Spot Paint the Walls
Repainting a rental home’s walls is one way to achieve that fresh, clean look that tenants love, but it is also possible to achieve a similar effect by doing small touch-ups. Ultimately, it depends on the wear and tear that has affected your walls, but you wouldn’t really need a full paint job between every tenant. If you’ve saved paint or paint chips from your last paint job, then you could simply fill in any nail holes or other damaged areas with putty and then paint over the repaired patches. This can give you the look of freshly painted walls without spending too much time or money.
4. Resurface the Countertops
The overall appeal of a property can be significantly changed by the look of its countertops. For a rental home, a beautiful countertop can give a kitchen or bathroom a custom look and an upgraded feel. Fortunately, it is not necessary to install granite or other expensive options to achieve this same result. There are many different countertop resurfacing kits available that can give your old countertops an instant facelift without the designer price tag.
5. Landscape for Free
A rental home’s landscaping is a very important part of a property’s curb appeal. In fact, it may even be the driving factor that convinces a tenant to choose your property over another. A clean, low-maintenance yard is ideal for rental homes, but tenants enjoy trees, flowers, and other beautifying elements as well. To add some low-cost color and green to your rental’s yard, one of the things you should do is to check your local utility or city website. Many cities have programs to help the environment where they give away free trees or plants to people– property owners included. Also, make sure to check the “Free Stuff” section of your local classifieds. In these ads, people would advertise things they no longer need– including shrubs and trees– in hopes that someone would take it off their hands. In this way, you can upgrade your property’s landscaping for no more than the cost of a little elbow grease and a shovel.
In Conclusion
When it comes to the rental market and how to stand out, small upgrades can truly equal big returns. With a bit of time and some low-priced acquisitions, you can upgrade your Dover rental property and your potential to draw in the types of tenants you desire.
Need help? Give Real Property Real Estate a call. Our aim is to always protect and maximize your real estate investment whether you own one or several rental homes. Assisted by over 30 years of nationwide experience, our group of Dover property managers is qualified to render aid to rental homeowners interested in maximizing rental income while minimizing expenses and inefficiencies. Contact us online or give us a call today.
