Increasing Curb Appeal One Tenant at a Time

There are a lot of ways to improve the curb appeal of a rental property. But maintaining curb appeal is a different story, especially if you have a long-term tenant renting your property. To help make sure the curb appeal of your Frederick rental property is nice and good, one of the best pieces of advice is to ask the help of your tenant. Keeping your property in good shape depends, a lot, on the tenants you have. It would be best if they, like you, want to keep the property in good condition. So, with some good communication and some easy tips, you can level up and maintain your Frederick property’s curb appeal — one tenant at a time.

Start with Your Lease

Clear communication of your expectations with regard to property maintenance begins with the documents that start your landlord-tenant relationship– the lease documents. All rental property owners would love to have a tenant who will take good care of the property. But even if you think you’ve lucked out with the best tenant ever, it’s important to make those expectations clear and in writing. Many landlords would demand that any mess made by the tenant must be immediately cleaned up. But what about prevention? Maybe you could have stopped those messes from being made in the first place! For instance, what if you have a tenant who likes to do vehicle maintenance in the driveway? If they changed the oil there and leave some oil stains, what would that do to the look of your driveway? However, if you can discourage them from doing oil changes or other similar messy jobs on the driveway, then you’ll be solving the problem even before it becomes a problem. By doing this, you’ll be certain that the front exterior of your property will stay clean and attractive. So, by outlining clearly which activities are acceptable and which are prohibited, you are guiding your tenant-landlord relationship toward collective success. Only good things can come from making the expectations you have for your client clear from the onset. The same thing goes with giving them the opportunity to make their expectations clear to you as well.

Encourage Cooperation

There are other ways to encourage your tenant to cooperate in taking care of the property. Get to know your tenant better. You may notice that they have a skill set that could benefit you. You could tap them to help out with, for example, your property’s landscaping. If you notice that your tenant has a green thumb and a natural skill for landscape maintenance, then you could enlist them to help a bit with the front yard or other green areas of the property. They may like the fact that they have a say on what the rental house will look like. So, with this additional investment they put in, they may be more willing to put in extra effort to maintain or improve its look.

Offer Incentives

Another way to encourage your tenant to help you increase your property’s appeal is to give different types of incentives. If your tenant is naturally adept at doing maintenance and repair work, you could consider offering them a slightly lower rental rate in exchange for their services. They could do the basic maintenance tasks for the property. Or, consider this alternative: hire a professional to do some of the work but pay a slightly higher amount of rent. Depending on who your tenant is, they may rather pay more rent to avoid having to weed flower beds and mow the lawn every week.

No matter what route you take, the best thing you can do is keep a close eye on things and offer encouragement and help if you notice any issues of exterior maintenance starting to develop. Communicate with your tenant frequently and positively. This can help alert you if there are any maintenance tasks left undone.

Finally, know that it’s only when you model a behavior, that other people would more likely follow your lead. That means, if you show your tenant that you care about the property and its maintenance, they will, likewise, care for it as well. Responding to repair requests promptly and scheduling regular maintenance and updates really helps motivate your tenants to maintain your property’s appeal.

Would you like more information about developing your property’s curb appeal? Give Real Property Management Prime a call at 410-415-1736! Our Frederick property management professionals can offer suggestions and assistance with everything from property maintenance to tenant relations. Contact us today!