How to prepare your property for the letting market

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How to prepare your property for the letting market

The term “letting market” immediately makes some people sit up and think of professional landlords. Well, it doesn’t have to be like this, and more and more “normal people” are opting to rent out their house. It might be for a temporary move away, or even if it just makes financial sense to do so when you move house.

Regardless of the reasons, there tend to be a few areas you need to focus on before you allow your tenants to move in. Unfortunately, these issues will probably differ depending the area in the world that you are based in, but for the purposes of today we are going to be as general as possible and look at some of the key parts of your property that you need to keep on top of before renting it out.

The washing machine can be a deal breaker

It sounds over the top, but most renters nowadays need the basic white goods. This includes a washing machine and if you know that yours doesn’t work, you might struggle to shift your house off the market. Not only does it need to work, but it needs to be suitable for your market. For example, a 3kg washing machine just isn’t going to be enough for a large family, so make sure your property is well equipped in this regard and even turn to Zanussi appliance repairs if the need arises.

Is the rest of your furniture suitable?

We spoke about the suitability of appliances in the last section, but let’s now move onto furniture as a whole in this next part.

This is going to vary depending on whether or not you are going to offer furniture to your tenants. While it might bring in a little more rent, let’s not forget that it can bring its headaches in terms of maintenance while you might have to pay higher insurance premiums as well.

If we look at it from a legal perspective, in a lot of areas of the world you have got to make sure that it is fire resistant as well. It can mean that the whole process becomes very expensive although if all of these areas are covered, it goes without saying that it’s an easy source of additional income.

Is the garden suitable for tenants?

This is again going to vary depending on your market. If you are letting your home out to families, there’s every chance that they will want to make use of the garden and properly maintain it.

However, in the case of students, this might not necessarily be the case. It’s in markets such as these where you might return to your property to see an overgrown garden, which obviously isn’t desirable. While their deposit might cover the costs to “repair” this area, if you are letting out to such a market it might be advisable to make the garden as maintenance-free as possible.

Invest in appropriate renovations

While you might be one of the “nicer” landlords in the market, you should still act smartly when it comes to renovating your property. For example, unless you have a hugely expensive property, investing in marble worksurfaces isn’t going to benefit your end rent tremendously – while you are of course opening yourself up to expensive repair costs later down the line.

Instead, turn to sensible renovations. Make your home pleasant and inviting, but turn to durable materials that are going to survive the test of time.

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