Preparing your property for rent.
Just bought an investment property or thinking about putting your existing home into the rental market? If so, it begs the question, what should you do to prepare your property for rent?
Renting a property involves ensuring it’s clean and fit to live in, sets a standard you hope your renters will maintain, and requires as little maintenance as possible.
With that in mind here’s our guide to preparing your home for rent…
Clean, safe and liveable
As a rental owner, you have a legal obligation to ensure the property is clean, safe and fit to live in. That means undertaking an audit of the home to ensure there’s no potential problems that could impact the safety and liveability of the rental home.
What do we mean? Well, some of these things are covered specifically by law, such as having compliant smoke alarms, pool fencing, and secured cords on any blinds.
But others involve common sense. For example, if something’s broken that might pose a hazard at the property, fix it – whether it’s wood rot in the stairs, loose balustrading, or unnecessary tripping hazards.
Low maintenance
In your interests and those of the renters, a rental property should be as low maintenance as possible. After all, you want it to be easy for them to look after, and they’re unlikely to enjoy living in a property that needs constant repairs.
Before putting your property up for rent, consider the ways you can make it as easy to look after as possible.
This might involve irrigating the gardens or planting low-maintenance gardens, organising a professional to undertake pool testing and maintenance as part of the lease, or having the lawn mown regularly if the property has large grassed areas.
It also involves turning your attention to the fixtures and fittings in the property and considering are they hard wearing?
If not, then maybe an update is required to ensure they’re as maintenance-free as possible and unlikely to break during general use.
Clean and tidy
A clean, tidy and fresh rental property is likely to appeal to more prospective renters. It also sets the standard for how you expect the home to be looked after.
If parts of your property are aging, dated or tired, consider a refresh to bring them up to par. This doesn’t need to be a major renovation but could involve:
- A fresh coat of interior paint
- New cupboard, drawer and door handles
- New taps, or bathroom and kitchen fixtures
- A carpet clean
- Pest control
- An exterior clean or water blast
- New fans (if they’re noisy and the blades are rusting)
- New blinds or window treatments
- A gutter clean
- Pruning the garden, trimming overhanging trees and mulching the garden beds
Each of these helps give your rental greater appeal and allows it to command a higher rental price.
Importantly, it sets the standard as to how you would like the property to be looked after during a renter’s tenure living there.
Insurance
Every rental owner requires adequate insurance to protect their property and also the people who live in it or access it.
Before you consider renting out your home, speak with your preferred insurer about landlord insurance, which also often covers public liability and building replacement value.
How we can help
Our experienced property managers pride themselves on establishing great relationships with both rental occupiers and owners.
We manage every property as if it were our own and you can learn more about our property management services here.
Alternatively, if you are looking to rent a property, you can view the properties we currently have available here.
