“Property has its duties as well as its rights.” - Thomas Drummond

Rent Your Apartment or Home Faster

If your investment property is sitting and waiting for a tenant this is not good. The biggest risk to a landlord is seeing your huge investment sitting vacant. There are things you cannot control, such as industrial buildings or busy roads or airport noise, etc. To this I say review your potential investment prior to purchase! However, if these things don't plague you, let's review some things you can control, and fix.

Light Light Light

Is your rental unit dark and uninviting? Rooms just look better brightly lit. If your property does not contain furnishings that's ok. During your showing, make sure to arrive 15-20 minutes early and tidy up, open doors, open all the drapery, shades, etc. Turn on ALL the lights. ALL of them. Don't worry, you can turn them off after the showing times. This includes bedroom closets, pantries, basement lights...literally all lights should be on. Brighten your potential tenants' day!

A brightly lit room is inviting, peaceful, calming and attractive. Step outside your comfort with your property and ask yourself, "if this is the first time I'm seeing my property, what would I honestly think?"

Clean Clean Clean

Prior to any showing, make sure the place is super-clean. No loose ends should go unchecked. Clean means multiple things to multiple people: visuals, smells, sounds, surfaces...the whole 360.

Visuals

If there are some furnishings in a room, make sure they "look" appropriate. Not too much. Less can be more. Area rugs should sit in alignment with the room, not crooked. Bed covers, pillows, no imprints, fluffed, straight, not bunched. In the photo above, notice the nightstand lamps. They each point at 45 degrees inward to the bed. The angles should match. Symmetry. The visual should paint a picture of completeness. No stone unturned. The landlord will take care of me.

Smells

If you're there early burn a candle in the bathroom with a nice scent. Consider baking chocolate chip cookies in the over an hour prior to the showing. People will enter the space and immediately be hit with a wall of chocolatey goodness. This will be memorable. Has the place sat? Mothball smell? Cigarettes? Pet odor? These need to be rectified as they will turn away potential tenants or negatively affect your short term rental reviews. Of course, these tips do apply to selling a home as well.

Sounds

Walking through someone else's empty home can be a bit creepy sometimes. Consider some light sounds for the showing even. Bring a blue-tooth speaker. Don't play anything offensive. Perhaps even use this to mask a loud HVAC unit.

Finish The Rehab

I see spaces for rent and the rehab is not quite done yet. If it is a single family residence, sure some stuff could still be done outside (landscaping or painting) but it is better if it is 100% done on the inside and out. Staging the home correctly cannot be achieved with tools, workers and unfinished spaces. Make sure to have as much stuff completed and finished for your potential tenants.

Pictures

Pictures are very important in the representation of your space to potential tenants. Crooked pictures of rooms where a hand held camera was not held level to the floor just look awful. Professionals have equipment to adjust the level of zoom or wide-angle lenses to capture the proper framing of a room or space. Sometimes a phone just can't do it justice. Additionally if you are going to take the photos on your own, take the pictures in mid morning or mid afternoon, when the sun is at a medium height in the sky and rays of light can shine in from windows. As said before, open all the window coverings, turn on all the lights. Take bright pictures! You will only do this once so spend an extra 20-30 minutes or better yet, hire a pro.

List It Everywhere

There are billion-dollar companies that let you use their platforms for free: Zillow, apartments.com, etc. All I can say is, USE THEM.