If you’ve just bought a rental apartment and plan to turn it into a steady source of passive income, it’s imperative that you bring it up to date. What you need is to ensure that the place is more than livable. The greatest adversary of every landlord is the concept of vacancy. By making your apartment more appealing, you will drastically reduce any potential vacancy but also do more than just that.
Namely, a decent apartment will ensure that you have an easier job at retaining desirable tenants. It ensures that they respect you more and take you more seriously as a landlord, as well.
The problem is that overinvesting in a rental apartment leads to one of two unfortunate scenarios. You will either increase the value of the apartment so much that you will have to increase the rent in order to break even. This will make it harder to find tenants. The alternative is to face a much worse ROI.
With all of that in mind, here are several tips for renovating your new rental apartment in order to get the most value out of it.
Simplest electrical work
The first thing you should do is work a bit on the power grid of the apartment. For instance, you want to replace light fixtures with LED. This will generate quite a bit of value while costing you tens of dollars. Remember that LED bulbs burn out less frequently, which (in the case of non-self-reliant tenants) means less work for you. LED bulbs also reduce the power bill. This is another bargaining chip that will make your apartment seem more appealing (thus more effectively avoiding vacancy).
Another thing you could do is replace light switches. Old, light switches cannot be properly restored. If you decide to paint the place (which you should), they will draw even more attention. While you’re having your electrician over, simply ask them to make the necessary replacements.
Tear down the walls
According to renovation veterans behind Konnect Building, open floor apartments are far more appealing to potential tenants than their traditional counterparts. However, this kind of project is:
- Expensive
- Potentially illegal
Some internal walls are integral for the structure of the building which is why they cannot be torn down. Still, it’s worth your while to inquire whether you’re legally allowed to tear down some of these walls. This project would also allow you to rearrange the internal layout of the area.
Cover your floor
Chances are that your flooring options are not hardwood or marble. The problem with lower-cost flooring options is in the fact that they’re not as resistant to wear and tear. Your cork, laminate or linoleum floors might have dents and scratches. The simplest way to handle this is not to fix them but to cover them up. For the first time in your life, you’ll have a chance to literally sweep your problems under the rug. A quality rug is comparatively inexpensive when you take into consideration the value it brings.
Buy a washing machine
People are more likely to rent out a place that has its own washing machine. The concept of not having to leave the apartment in order to do your laundry is appealing for quite an obvious reason. Remember that while this may be a sizable investment, there are a couple of perks that you aren’t keeping in mind.
You see, the majority of malfunctions in the apartment fall under the jurisdiction of the landlord. This means that when (for instance) a radiator gets broken, it’s your responsibility as a landlord to fix it at your own expense. This rule doesn’t apply to appliances (no pun intended) like washing machines, dishwashers, etc.
Blinds and curtains
When transforming the room, it is essential that you understand the importance of replacing your blinds and curtains. Natural light will have a major impact on people living there but there’s more for you to focus on than just the function behind these elements. Curtains can make your room look higher or lower. They also add a tactile dimension to the impression that this area makes. Most importantly, they cover a huge area of your home, which means that they can set the tone for an entire room.
Adding bamboo blinds is a visually pleasing, frugal and eco-friendly way of changing your rental apartment’s interior.
In conclusion
In the end, there are a lot of other things you should do in order to improve the appeal (and therefore money-making capacities) of an apartment that you intend to rent out. The thing is that being a landlord means combining the responsibilities of a homeowner and a manager into a single function. This is what makes it so unique and why there are some who greatly profit from rental properties while others do not.
