Okay, so your long-term tenants have just moved out, the property is currently vacant and now is the perfect time to take it off the market for a few days or weeks until you’ve reinvented the interior. Why make such an investment, you ask? Because this is your opportunity to elevate the value of your rental property and generate much higher rental yield in the long run. Plus, you will be able to attract more affluent long-term tenants and inspire them to stay at your place for years on end.
This is the kind of financial stability and security you’re looking for. Now, whether you’re selling a property or renting one, it’s important to combine form and function in your renovation project in order to appeal to the emotional and analytical side of buyers and tenants. With that in mind, let’s take a look at the five tips that will help you boost the value of your rental.
Pick a theme and stick to it
Rustic, futuristic, sleek, or turn-of-the-century, it doesn’t matter so long as the design scheme is consistent throughout the interior. Tenants want consistency simply because it frames the design of the property and paints a unique picture they can relate to, and imbue it with their own style and décor choices later on.
While you should be a flexible landlord and allow your long-term tenants to decorate the place to make it feel like home, you should also set the stage by choosing a theme and sticking to it. There’s nothing that puts a modern tenant off like a mismatched interior, where nothing seems to make sense and amenities range from spaceship-like to Victorian-era models. Unify the design, and you boost the aesthetics of the interior.
Upgrade fixtures and appliances
Of course, one of the best ways to elevate the value of the property, not the perceived but the realistic value, is to literally add valuable items. You can start small by upgrading all of the fixtures, improving the plumbing and fixing all of the pending repairs. Next, it’s time to start introducing the new appliances and amenities in the kitchen and the bathroom.
The key here is to shift your own mindset from “this is a costly investment” to “how can this improve the value of my rental in the long run” in order to make the process efficient and effective. Replace all worn-out and inefficient appliances and replace them with their energy-efficient counterparts. In the bathroom, why not install low-flow toilets and shower heads, as well as faucet aerators to cut extraneous spending? In turn, this will attract mindful tenants and allow you to increase the rent due to lower utility bills.
Light the place up
Speaking of reducing the energy expenditure of your rental property while at the same time boosting its perceived value, it’s time to reinvent the lighting scheme. This is one of the best things you can do to optimize the design of the interior, create that highly sought-after homey vibe the tenants will love, and reduce the electricity bill in the process. This is also a remodeling concept that Australian landlords have been capitalizing on in recent years, so let’s follow their example.
High-cost areas and residential regions such as New South Wales have made it very difficult for landlords to rent properties to long-term tenants simply due to the sky-high bills and upkeep costs, which is why they make sure to have their local Sydney electrician optimize the lighting scheme for maximum savings. While you’re at it, your electricians should help you create an aesthetic lighting design in order to bring form and function together, and appeal to the modern tenant.
Give it a fresh coat of paint
Another great way to appeal to new tenants and slightly increase the value of your rental is to simply give it a fresh new coat of paint, a hue that will breathe new life into the interior and bring it back to its former shining glory. This is a quick-and-easy project that never fails to appeal to new tenants and make you stand out no matter how saturated your local rental marketplace might be.
Make it more functional with smart storage
On a final note, you needn’t expand the interior to create more room in order to increase the price – you simply need to create the perception of a more capacious interior. It’s no secret that every tenant is looking for the biggest place at the lowest price, but the hidden meaning behind this mindset is that they are looking for more space to put their stuff.
So, just invest in more smart storage space! Expand the wardrobe, replace the old bed with a storage model, add hollow ottomans to the living room, and use other nifty storage ideas to make the interior seem more flexible and capacious.
Over to you
The truth is that it’s about time your rental property started generating more income on a monthly basis. Seeing as how you can’t simply slap a higher price tag without investing in your rental, be sure to use these tips to boost your rental yield quickly and attract new tenants with ease.
