How to Increase Property Value?
Written By: mcsherryproper on April 18, 2021If you own or manage a Lakewood property management company or a full-service property management firm, or if you are one of many commercial property managers in your area, today’s blog is definitely for you.
Increased property value is one of the essential tasks of a rental property manager or property management services in general. Higher property value guarantees better rental rates even in the most competitive of markets. Here are some ways to accomplish this:
Talk to a Pro First
Many property managers and landlords miss this simple step in the beautifying process. Diving headfirst in improving a house so it would fetch higher rental income only makes sense if you have had previous experience in increasing the property value of a house or any property at all. And even then, nothing matches the vision of an interior designer or someone who specializes in improving homes before being rented out or sold.
There’s an art to the process, and you can’t just approximate it. Consult with an expert first and get as many ideas as possible before making plans by yourself. And if it doesn’t work, hire a professional so you will succeed in increasing the value of the property in just one attempt.
Improve the Property’s Air Quality
Asthma and allergies affect almost any age and sex. Inspect the property to ensure that there aren’t any hidden troves of allergens. The old carpeting is notorious, for one, but so is weakened drywall shading molds. Just so there would be no guesswork, we highly recommend calling a professional air testing company to determine the air quality of the home first.
If the carpeting is the culprit, you may want to consider alternatives that don’t cause allergens to become trapped inside your home – like laminate flooring and tiles. Harder surfaces are easier to clean, and they also give the property a more updated look, minus the risks of bad indoor air quality.
Add a Bedroom
Many rental properties aren’t even classified as a bedroom just because they lack things like closets. Instead of not listing a room as a bedroom, why not approach the problem more simply? Add a closet. A closet is a rather inexpensive solution to something that can easily boost a housing property
‘s value.
You will only need a buildout made of drywall. Shifting a listing from “two-bedroom apartment” to “three-bedroom apartment” creates that much of a difference. We are talking about a margin of tens of thousands of dollars, easily. Dealing with contractors would sound so effortless (even if it isn’t) considering the instant increase in the rental price with this ‘hack.’
Let’s say you truly don’t want to modify the room that much. What else can you do? Why not go to IKEA and buy a new wardrobe? A new wardrobe can also improve your rental income per month fairly quickly. We’re talking about adding hundreds of dollars here.
If you are tasked with finding new properties to acquire, always been on the lookout for properties with extra rooms that don’t have closets or wardrobes.
We call these bonus rooms, and they can easily be improved to become bedrooms, essentially changing the type of property you have at hand. Think about it – you invest in a two-bedroom apartment on Monday, and by Friday, you already have a three-bedroom apartment.
It’s not just homes with spare rooms that can be modified this way. Say a property has a so huge bedroom you can do cartwheels inside easily. Instead of saying that the house has “an extremely large bedroom,” why not have contractors split the overly large bedroom into two medium-sized rooms?
We are dead serious about the simplicity of how this can be done. You need some good framing and drywall to divide a room into two functions yet smaller rooms.
Sure, there would be less space in each room. But there’s privacy and two entire rooms for couples, friends, and whatnot. You can’t quantify the number of possible tenants that would be interested in the additional room.
Boost Your Curb Appeal
Curb appeal is what would-be tenants see when they glimpse the property for the first time. It gives that wow factor that makes the tenant want to say that they want to live in the property even before taking a step inside.
Regularly maintaining the lawn and adding fresh paint are the minimum steps for “not too shabby” properties. But if you want to go beyond what’s average, you can: improve the garden, trim the trees behind the house, perform professional landscaping on the shrubs, etc.
You might also want to check if the windows are too revealing of what (or who) is inside, as this might call for additional measures to ensure the tenant’s privacy.
If the neighborhood is noisy because of all cars passing, a simple fountain with burbling water might balance the noise levels and reduce the viewer’s stress. Potted plants and other greenery will add depth to the house that makes it both pleasant and warm.
Check and Replace Bathroom and Kitchen Hardware
Sometimes, it’s the small things that make spaces unappealing. For example, a property may have some brand new appliances courtesy of the landlord, but if the cabinet locks and knobs look thirty years old, that misconception will stick in peoples’ minds.
Decide on an acceptable theme or look for these important spaces (the kitchen and the bathroom) and buy new hardware to make these spaces look brand new.
The installation work of this smaller hardware is easy – even you can do it. Of course, if you own a property management company, you can have maintenance staff do it easily. Spruce things up and don’t just present a clean house; present a thoroughly modern, beautified, and comfortable house that stands out easily from the rest.
