So you have decided to let your own home with an online letting agent!
These are our fundamental top 5 tips when preparing your property for rent. Get these right and your prospective tenants will be banging down the door with offers!
- Preparing the Exterior – If the outside, or “curb appeal” looks good, people will more than likely want to see what’s on the inside. Hide the bins and toys, trim or tidy the lawn and any shrubs or bushes and add some colour to the exterior with tubs of seasonal flowers.
- De-Clutter – People collect an amazing quantity of junk, but tenants won’t want to rent a home they can’t see. Since you want your property to look as spacious as possible, pack up or get rid of anything you don’t need or use. If tenants see that your belongings won’t fit in the property, they won’t believe theirs will either.
- Really clean your kitchen and bathroom; Your kitchen and bathroom should be absolutely spotless and shining. Hideaway inessential clutter from the kitchen worktops including unnecessary appliances. Hide the toilet brush, cleaning products, toothbrushes and the barrage of nearly empty shampoo bottles and products!
- Remove all evidence of pets - Not everyone is going to feel the same way about your pets as you do, so make sure you remove all evidence of having a pet at all including food bowls and dog beds.
- Remove all evidence of yourself! - Make sure that only the bare minimum of personal items are on display – This will allow your tenants to “mentally move in” and imagine themselves living happily in your space.
These quick fixes are just as important and make the world of difference when presenting a property for rent
- Make Your Beds
- Put the Washing Up Away
- Clear The Kitchen/Dining Table
- Hide The Remote Controls
- Take the Clothes Off The Line/Clothes Horse
- Put The Ironing Board & Hoover Away
- Move the Cars Off The Drive
- Ensure toilet seats are down
Litmus test
Take a look at these images of the same property for let – can you tell the before and after – what property would you prefer to rent?
Hi, thanks for the article. Some good tips for newbie landlords like me
I am just about ready to put my house up for rent and just wanted to ask what I should ask for as a deposit. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks, Jo
Hello Jo, glad we could help. We always recommend that the landlord request 6 weeks worth of rent as apposed to one month. The reason for this is so that when it comes to the last month’s payment, the fact that you have 6 weeks deters the tenant from saying that “You can take my deposit as the last months rent.” If that was the case, then you would be left with no additional funds for damages. Of course, we know that with the Deposit protection scheme, tenants are not allowed to use the deposit as rent however, in the real world, this practice still happens!