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How to Get Your San Diego Property Rent Ready

How to Get my San Diego Property Rent Ready – Landlord Education

What type of repairs will your San Diego investment property need to be rent ready? To attract the best tenants and achieve the highest rent, you need to have an appealing and functional house to offer prospective renters.

Create Curb Appeal

First, start outside with curb appeal. Just like with sales, curb appeal is important for rentals. Landscaping should be manicured and trimmed. You don’t want any holes that people could step in and twist their ankle. Fences must be repaired and trees trimmed off roofs. Those are superhighways for rodents, so you don’t want any trees on your roof. Paint the front door if it hasn’t been painted in a while. That’s the first thing the tenant will see when walking into the home. You want the place to look attractive and smell fresh.

Fresh Paint

There’s a myth among San Diego landlords that all you have to do is touch up the paint between tenants. Rarely does touching up work. Sometimes, in apartments if you just have flat white paint on every wall, touching it up is fine. But, we want to paint corner to corner because we don’t want the property to look subpar. Attracting high quality tenants who can rent anywhere requires us to pay attention to these details. A nice coat of paint makes a difference.

Test Your Systems

Test the functionality of every moving part. This isn’t rocket science. Just open all the drawers, windows, and blinds. Make a note about how these things work. Everything must be ready for your tenants and working. The biggest expenses landlords have are plumbing issues, especially water damage. Have a plumber go through your property and make recommendations. Fix any slow drains or rubber stops so you can show that things were clear when the tenants moved in.

Take Care of the Basics

Make sure there are working smoke alarms on each level, in each hallway, and in each bedroom. You need carbon monoxide detectors on each level near the bedrooms. Caulk around water sources as well. Tenants might not be as attentive to water going behind counters and in between tubs. Make sure your screens and filters are in good shape. It can be a good idea to provide a new HVAC filter for your tenants to remind them to change them. Finally, re-key the locks and have the property professionally cleaned.

Look at preventative maintenance issues as well. Water heaters fail after eight to 10 years. GFCI outlets near water sources are a safety issue. Check supply hoses and shut off valves. All of them should be newer. Wood fireplaces and dryer vents may need to be cleaned. Look at gutters and check for termite damage.

We have a checklist that should help you prepare your San Diego rental property for the market.

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Steve Welty

Steve Welty is the founder and CEO of Good Life Property Management. Since its establishment in 2013, Steve and his team have made owning rental property easy for over 1,000 San Diego homeowners.Their purpose is Life Improved–creating opportunity, enjoyment, and impact for their community is what matters most. DRE #01744610

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Tagged getting your home rented

Hi, my name is Steve Welty. I’m the broker/owner at Good Life Property Management, and we manage single-family homes, condos, and small residential units throughout the Greater San Diego area. Today, I’m going to talk about what type of repairs may my house need to become rent ready. So, said a better way, what repairs does my house need to make it rent ready. So first start outside with curb appeal. Just like sales, curb appeal is very important in rentals. And you want to make sure the landscaping’s manicured and trimmed, there’s no holes people are going to step in and twist their ankle. Fences are repaired and trees are trimmed off the roofs. So those are super high ways for rodents. We don’t want trees on roofs. It also doesn’t look too good. Another good idea is to paint the front door if it hasn’t been painted. That’s the first thing the tenant sees when they walk through the door. So the smell of fresh paint will go a long way, as well as a nice attractive front door. Something that’s often overlooked if your door’s beat up, it doesn’t send the right first impression. Second is paint. So there’s a myth out there that all you have to do is touch up between tenants. So very rarely actually does touching up walls work. You know, sometimes apartment if you’re doing all white like a flat color it will touch up fine, but when we say touch up, we generally mean painting certain walls corner to corner because you don’t want it flashing or looking subpar. We want to attract a very high quality tenant. And those tenants can rent anywhere, so in order to attract them, first and foremost we need a nice coat of paint on the walls. Three, we want to test the functionality of every moving part. So, it’s not rocket science. Go through and open up all the drawers, the windows, the blinds, and just make a list about the functionality of all these different types of systems in your house. And then next, the biggest expense landlords often have is plumbing related issues, especially water damage. So have a plumber go through your property and make a recommendation, and fix anything as far as updating maybe older angle stops or clearing slow drains. That way you can make sure if there’s any slow drains when the tenant moves out, you have a certified invoice showing that things were clear when they had moved in. And then you got the basics: smoke alarms one in each bedroom, one in the hallway, and one on each level. And carbon monoxide alarms, which is one on each level near the bedrooms. You always want to caulk around water sources very well. A tenant may not be as attentive to water going behind a counter or in between a tub, so make sure it’s caulked very well. Screen’s in good shape, doorstops, filters- HVAC filters, good idea to provide the tenant one or two new ones to get going with. And then always rekeying locks in between tenancies. Have it professionally cleaned prior to the move in. And then also take a look at some preventive maintenance items like water heaters that tend to fail after eight to ten years, so if it’s older than that you may want to look at a planning for that expense. GFCI outlets near your water sources to prevent electrical shock is a good safety issue. Like I mentioned, shutoff valves supply hoses for washer washing machines, make sure they got the steel braided, and make sure the shut-off valves are newer. So even if it’s not leaking, if it’s an old valve, when you don’t turn it for years and years and then you go to turn it, a lot of times they start to leak. And then wood fireplaces may need to be cleaned. Dryer vents if they have been done in a few years. Termite damage, rain gutters, and I’ve even included a checklist we use to go through our properties. I’ll link to it at the bottom of this video. So we hope that helps and if we can answer any questions for you please do contact us and make it a great day!