It’s still February and the weather is still reasonably predictable, so now is the time to act if you want to improve the quality of your investment property. Here are five ways you can make hay while the sun shines and attract better quality tenants for longer terms.
While some of us look at a garden in full bloom and see absolute beauty, others look and see a hassle they’ll have to incur. Your tenants (existing and potential) may fall into the latter camp and not be too pumped on spending their “precious time maintaining the landlord’s garden, week in and week out.”
To help existing tenants last longer and attract new ones more easily, make your gardens low maintenance. Pull everything out and then start again, planting fewer plants that need any attention, and laying weed mat and covering it with bark or stones (or just leave it bare for a clean look).
If you really want to appeal to new tenants, you can employ a gardening and lawnmowing service and advertise your property as having ‘Zero-maintenance grounds’.
You won’t often notice how dirty concrete driveways and paths are until you wash them off with a waterblaster. The change in colour is usually a veritable transformation from dark an unassuming to bright and white. We’ve even seen people create Maori designs for a head-turning point of difference!
While you’re blasting the driveway and paths, have a crack at your rental property’s exterior, down where it meets the ground. This area can get quite grubby with splashback from rain. Just be sure to widen the jet and move back so as not to damage the cladding.
Cracked concrete on a rental property’s driveway or paths does nothing for the appeal of the place — especially if these cracks form trip hazards. Blemishes like these can tarnish the first impression made on prospective tenants viewing your property.
If the damage is in a path you can make clean cuts either side of the crack, break out the damaged concrete and lay a nice new section using ‘readymix’ cement from your local hardware store. If the crack is across an entire driveway; it may pay to get quotes from multiple concreting or bricklaying companies.
If done safely, pruning trees can be a cost-efficient way of improving the curb appeal (and potentially rent rate) of your property. Don’t be the landlord that neglects your investment property’s trees to the point that the branches are hanging over the roof, starving the windows of natural light.
Remove overhanging branches (and clean out the gutters which are now likely full of leaves), and strategically prune trees and shrubs so they look smart and tidy and allow light to shine through.
Keep privacy in mind while you’re at it though — you don’t want your tenants looking out the kitchen window, straight into their neighbours master bedroom!
You should now be well aware off your obligations under the Healthy Homes Guarantee Act. Hopefully you’re already working towards ensuring your property is compliant with the heating, insulation, ventilation, moisture ingress and drainage, and draught stopping elements.
If not, there’s no time like the present. The dry weather will make most healthy homes tasks much easier to complete.
If you’d like to know more about improving your rental property to reduce tenant turnover, please get in touch with us to see how we can help.
Images:
‘own style’ by Kay via CC BY-NC 2.0.
‘Design’ by Supplied.
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