Improvement Tips Prior to Renting

The following article seems like such common sense, but I see situations that don’t even come close to any of the suggestions below.  Enjoy the article and, if you are renting, please at least clean up before you show the place!

Are you thinking about renting your house and you are disappointed in its appearance? Do you think that you cannot spare the money and time that will be needed to fix things up? Well, regardless of the budget or schedule that you are on, whether you are a landlord or a tenant, you can now improve your rental property with the following tips.

Painting! – Retouching your house

For any property, wonders can be done with a fresh coat of paint and you won’t have to spend much. You will find a decent choice of basic paint colors for the inside and outside of your house in close-out stores at drastically reasonable prices. A simple single coat of paint will ensure that your budget won’t go overboard and you will get the job done. You can also use cheap products such as special rollers to create custom textured finishes to improve the visual appeal of your house.

Kitchen and Bath – A little upgrading

In any house, the kitchen and the bathroom are two of the most important rooms. In terms of improving a house for renting, these two rooms can either make it or break it. You should start by looking for affordably priced self-adhesive flooring options such as plank vinyl flooring or linoleum squares. You should give all the appliances in your kitchen and bathroom a good hard scrub. You can also save money by replacing the hardware on the drawers and doors of the cabinets.  You will be amazed at the impact a new drawer or door pull will have expecially if you are placing a piece of hardware that is 20-40 years old.

Landscaping – Planting some new plants

You will have to improve the exterior of your house just like the interior. If your house is really bare on the outside, you can beautify it rather quickly by planting mums if it is early fall or impatiens if it is late spring. If it is winter, lamb’s ear, pansies and stonecrop will all survive the frosty weather, while if its summer, then tall tropical cannas will grow to incredible heights quite quickly. You can also plant day lilies, hostas and tulips if you plan to rent your house after some time.  Even consider potted plants to make an instant improvement.

Cleaning! – Keeping your house clean

This one cannot be stressed enough.  Clean, people, clean!  I can’t tell you how many places I have gone in where there was so much dirt on the ceiling fan blades that it looked like it was covered in felt.

It might not be necessary to paint your house or replace the appliances after all. Maybe all your needs is a good cleaning and this could result in the most cost-effective yet dramatic improvement you could imagine. If you are willing to clean your house from the inside out on your own, then all you will need is a quality cleaning product. If you want to spend some money to improve the rental value of your house, then you can hire a professional house cleaning service too.

Landlords and tenants often overlook the importance of making basic improvements to their house. Then they are surprised when real estate agents are not able to come up with many interested buyers. So don’t make the same mistake, your house could end up getting rented at much higher price than you realize if you make these simple improvements.