One of the most challenging situations for a renovation is tenant turnover, whether long-term or AirBnb-type rentals. You want to get the unit back on the market quickly as to maintain income to pay mortgages, property taxes, condo fees, and yourself. At the same time, you need to address normal wear and tear, tenant damages, and possibly upgrades to keep or improve your unit’s place in the market.
It’s a situation that requires renter market and listing marketing savvy, strategic considerations for low-cost, high-impact renovations, and serious thinking for the long-term use of your property, such as pure rental vs. eventual personal or family home.
Here are a&a’s top unit refreshes between guests:
1. Fresh, crisp paint
Scuff marks, stains, holes – these are the basic repairs for any turnover or general maintenance. Wall patch work is an easy DIY with pink to white spackle putty and a putty knife, or mesh repair patches for larger damage. For short term rentals, Magic Erasers are essential for smaller fixes.
In selecting a color, I don’t care what anyone says, beige is boring and dated. If you’re looking to convey freshness, modernity, or even luxury, your paint color needs to be crisp. An off-white with slight gray, blue, or yes, millennial pink, tones with bright white baseboards, doors, built-in shelving, and other details makes your unit look clean and fresh.
2. Outdoor furnishings
Furnishings can be a hot topic of debate between owners who may have needed to keep furniture in their units, leasing agents who want the easiest leasing process, and tenants who can have peculiar preferences.
But everyone can agree that renters typically don’t factor in budget for outdoor spaces. If you’re fortunate enough to rent a balcony, a patio, a backyard, or say, a 500 square foot patio, a little help in filling in the space without paying big bucks will be much appreciated. As an owner, a simple patio set, especially during special Memorial Day weekend or similar sales event pricing, is an inexpensive way to provide a great amenity and allow your prospective tenants to visualize their fantastic indoor-outdoor lifestyle from their first visit. Don’t forget some fresh, hardy plants and planters for staging and amenities.
Add planters and patio furniture to an official “furnishings list” amendment to the lease to legally require your tenant to take decent care of them.
3. Recessed lighting
Any additional space you can create in your unit is valuable to a prospective tenant. And that’s not limited to square footage – think about the vertical footprint of your unit as well. If your unit is more than a few years old, it may have come with a row spotlight ceiling fixture or unsightly flush mount. The cost of making this more luxurious-feeling change repays itself.
4. Thermostat
Smart fixtures are all the rage these days, but you don’t have to make that investment if you’re not ready. However, if your thermostat is yellowed, has user-unfriendly buttons and operation, or is older than your actual AC unit, it’s time to make a swap. This is your visual representation of this great amenity, and a dingy fixture that you could replace for a relatively small sum will be your ambassador for your $6K+ investment in integrated AC. A straightforward thermostat also helps you avoid unhappy tenants who don’t know how to use it, think the AC is broken, or break it themselves.
5. Light switches
Socket and light switch covers should be new and match. If the socket or switch itself is dirty, yellowed, or broken, you may consider having a handyman or electrician switch it out as a next step or when you have budget for it.
6. Window coverings
My newest rental requirement are cellular blackout shades. I’ve lived in units with awkward spacing and other features that prevent adding curtains over the window, I’ve lived in units with dust-collecting wood blinds, I’ve lived in units with openings or breaks in the shades that let light nail you right in the face when you’re trying to sleep in – all of this to say that a blackout, cordless shade ticks some rental buzzword bingo and can be a crisp replacement to an older shade.
7. Light fixtures
Decent light fixtures will run you minimum about $100, but they can completely change the character of a room. Aim for designs that are clean, gender-neutral, and coordinating with other permanent aspects of the room (could be black metal to match a window frame, silver to match other hardware in the room, and so on). If you’re worried about getting those wires right, ask a handyman to do it when you have other larger projects for them anyway. Or, just look it up on the internet 🙂
8. Carpet
Changing out the carpet is really less work, and expense, than you’d think. You can tear up your carpet and the underlying foam, nails, and framing yourself, and leave the rest to the professionals. Always choose durability, and choose color based on marketability and your personal plans for the home. I selected a “Dove”, or very light grey color, to complement my cool off-white walls and bright white trim according to my own plans for the bedroom (a black and white space that’s booth masculine and feminine) as well as considering more neutral marketability.
Got some favorite mini-renos of your own? Something you wish your landlord had updated before you moved in? Had some general thoughts on this article? Leave a comment below or DM me @anchoredandadrift on Instagram.
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