Finding a new occupant for your rental apartment can be stressful, especially if the previous tenant didn’t take care of your unit as well as you would have liked. While costs can be taken from a tenant’s security deposit toward cleaning fees and repairs, sometimes the process is so overwhelming that it’s hard to know where to begin. If you’re prepping your apartment for a new tenant, here are a few things to keep in mind before you accept your first rental application.
Test Appliances And Plumbing
While you may be able to assess some aspects of your apartment by sight, others require a bit more testing. Make sure that all of the appliances in your unit work before you put it on the market. That means ensuring that the refrigerator and freezer are cooling correctly, the stovetop and oven work at a variety of settings and that the dishwasher runs, too. You’ll also want to take a look at any plumbing fixtures to make sure that your sinks, toilets, and showers are running and draining properly. Check each outlet, too, to make sure that power is routing appropriately throughout each room. Making any adjustments to these features of your rental before showing it can make an excellent first impression on new tenants, showing them that you maintain your properties well.
Make Any Necessary Repairs
While you’ve likely made a few repairs throughout the apartment’s life, it’s always a good idea to go in with the fresh eyes of a new potential tenant each time you’re getting ready to re-rent your apartment. For example, you’ll want to look at the walls closely to see whether any nail or screw holes from hanging pictures need patching up. If you find any damage to the appliances, electric, or plumbing, you’ll also want to fix that before showing the apartment. In some cases, that may include hiring a specialist, so be sure that you allow enough time to get these tasks done. After all the repair work is finished, you need to deep clean the apartment.
Clean The Unit
While you can undoubtedly clean some apartments yourself, in some cases you may want to call in the professionals. They have the skills and tools necessary to get a deep clean, even if you’ve got tile floors and grout to wash down after several years of kitchen spills. When looking for a professional cleaning service for dirty flooring, for example, the experts at Eagle’s Eye Carpet Cleaning recommend finding a company with upfront, transparent pricing, so that you know precisely how hiring professionals will affect your property management company’s bottom line.
Take Updated Photos And Double-Check Your Listing
Once you’ve spruced up your unit, it’s a good idea to take new photos to represent it to potential tenants accurately. The more interior photos you choose, the better; a photo-rich listing is more likely to attract applicants, and it shows that you aren’t trying to hide any defects. You’ll also want to double-check that the description accompanying your listing is up to date. Many times, landlords will copy and paste one unit’s information to another without realizing that the unit they want to list doesn’t have a dishwasher. This can lead to applications from tenants who prioritize such features and will waste your time when you realize during a showing that they’re set on a particular appliance or utility.
In most cases, getting your apartment ready for new applicants shouldn’t take more than one or two weeks. So, if you’re eager to fill your apartment, use the above checklist to make sure that you’ll make a good impression and start screening tenant applications.
