Would you want to rent a property that when you walked into it had the problems? It doesn’t look nice and it makes you wonder what else is wrong.
https://youtu.be/p0z28IjDxHY
You need to be putting property on the market which blows your competition out of the water. This will reduce your void period, give you the option to charge rent at the higher end of the market and attract good quality tenants.
In most cases all this means is re-painting, really scrubbing the carpets and making sure any grouting around your tiles looks spot on.
I would suggest you re-decorate every three years minimum (or in between tenants if you are lucky enough to have them for very long term) and re-carpet every five to seven years. As a cost comparison I just did this on a 600 sq ft flat and it cost £2,000 for re-decoration and £1,750 for carpets (I like good quality you could get it cheaper) and it took 7 days.
If you are now thinking ‘how on earth am I going to afford that?!’ then you aren’t budgeting right. Before even buying a place I work out figures taking into account a 10% saving per month for maintenance. This covers the redecoration whilst ensuring I am still making a good return on investment.
Next time you need to search for new tenants go in and really look at your flat, if it looks tired or for whatever reason you wouldn’t HAPPILY rent it, it’s time to do redecoration.
If you want to ask me any more questions on the above do get in contact with me by commenting below or visiting ncrealestate.co.uk. And if you have liked what you see don’t forget to share us on Twitter and Facebook.
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