What should you do before showing a vacancy to prospective clients? If you want to make more money from your rentals, here are a few things you need to do to help you prep the vacant rental property:
- Rekey the property. This is often an overlooked item. It may not be required by law, but best practices say you should do it. This avoids jeopardizing the safety of your tenant. You don’t want a break-in or robbery to happen because you had the spare key floating around somewhere.
- Check if everything is functioning properly. If only five of your six-burner gas cooktop work, don’t rationalize and think that should be enough. Good tenants pay good rent; they want to ensure they’re getting what they pay for.
- Clean the property. Quality tenants want clean properties. If your rental property is dirty, the prospective client will move on and find another place to live; or worse, you could be attracting messy, lousy tenants.
- Have it 100% rent-ready. Many landlords like to show the rental to would-be tenants too early. You may have a great vision for the space, but the truth is most tenants don’t. They can't see what’s beyond what you show them. If you make promises such as cleaning the carpets or painting the walls before the tenant moves in, this can lead to unmet expectations.
This is the path to finding the best tenant that renews year after year, which minimizes your vacancy and maximizes your rent. If you have other questions about how to prep your vacant rental property or anything real estate related, call or email me. I’d love to help!
