All rental homes involved in real estate investing are expected to experience a certain degree of wear and tear. As a Woodway rental property owner, the wear and tear is a part of normal operations, from paint that needs to be updated every few years to carpets that need to be replaced. These jobs for standard upkeep are all part of anticipating an inevitable degree of wear and tear.
Reflecting on that, you can do things to bring down the amount of wear and tear on your rental homes. This includes using durable materials, maintaining a good working relationship with your tenants, and performing regular property evaluations.
Selecting quality materials is a critical piece of reducing the speed at which certain components of a rental house wear out and need to be changed. Cheaper materials may seem a money saver at first, but cheap materials are inclined to break, seem shabby, and simply won’t stand up to heavy or even moderate wear.
When it comes to painting, carpet, flooring, light fixtures, and appliances, it’s critical to decide on quality materials that are capable of taking a beating and keep going strong. It isn’t necessary to procure expensive products because luxury materials are not mandatory. But selecting the ideal materials for the extent of wear you expect can make an immense difference in how much money you’ll need to spend to replace worn out home features.
Once surface damage goes beyond basic wear and tear, tenant negligence is usually the source. Countertops, floors, and even sinks and bathtubs are oftentimes in use, and can customarily stand well for quite some time, even under frequent, extensive use. But tenants may not realize how to properly protect or maintain these surfaces. Countertops can be damaged by harsh cleaning products, precisely those containing bleach or ammonia. The exact kinds of cleaning products to employ will be largely determined by what sort of countertops you have in your rental home and should be selected with consideration.
Several other ways countertops can be damaged entail placing too much weight on a countertop, for instance, an unusually heavy appliance or even a person standing on it. A few countertops could surely be damaged by placing hot pans or appliances on them, such as a toaster oven or a slow cooker.
Even a curling iron can cause burn marks on a bathroom countertop and can be difficult to remove. Cutting and chopping directly on a countertop can also damage the surface, bringing on small indentations that can lead to too many issues in time.
Floors are another interior surface that tenants often accidentally damage. There are multiple things that could remain undetected under a watchful tenant’s radar, as for example small leaks under a refrigerator or a drip under the cabinet from a sink water supply line that, later on, develop permanent water damage on a kitchen floor.
Moving furniture is one of the biggest culprits of unintentional floor damage. Moving heavy items across a laminate or wood floor can cause scratches, gouging, and tears. This is also the most familiar manner carpets get torn. Stationing heavy furniture in the wrong spot can crack or chip tile floors, as can dropping heavy items, such as exercise weights or even books. Very much the same like countertops, preferring the wrong cleaning products can permanently damage a floor, stripping off finishes and creating unsightly stains or bleach spots.
Bathtubs can also sustain accidental damage from harsh cleaning products. On the other hand, one typical mess up is not cleaning often enough, letting mineral deposits from tap water to build up until they are entirely hopeless to take out, or far worse, allowing mildew to form. Same as with tile, laying anything that is too heavy in a bathtub can cause cracks, and using a bathtub for more than what it was designed for can create a range of problems, from unfixable scratches in a solid-surface unit to rust or coloring dye stains, and even more.
One more critical element in lowering wear and tear on your rental buildings is maintaining a good working relationship with your tenant. Renters who know they can have faith in and are confident that their landlord will deal with essential repairs are more likely to report repair and maintenance issues earlier. Accordingly, this means there will scarcely be any high-priced repairs in the near future. They will in all probability work with you to care for your Woodway property.
Determining the right renter is key, but so is growing a relationship of mutual concern. This could mean going above and beyond simple service calls and visiting your tenants every so often. If the only correspondence they have with you is when repairs need to be fixed, they may start to associate you with difficult situations and hesitate to proactively reach out for assistance.
It’s vital to not miscalculate the helpfulness of regular property evaluations. They are a necessary part of not only property maintenance but of tenant relationships too. Realistically, this can be a major investment of your time, but you can always employ Real Property Management Apex to work with you to keep your tenants happy and your rental home functioning in peak condition. Would you like to know more about our property management services in Woodway? Please contact us or call us at 254-732-1599 for more information.
If you’d like to continue researching maintenance and repair tips for your rental property, check out these blogs:
- Tips and Tricks for Interior Painting
- Protect Your Air Conditioner from the Intense Summer Heat
- Should You Add (or Remove) a Storage Shed from Your Caldwell Rental Property?
- Are Your Hearne Residents Damaging Your Kitchen?
- Why Does the Age of Your Temple Rental’s Exterior Matter?
- The Importance of Roof Repairs for Your Marlin Rental Property
- Your Summer Checklist for Affordable Waco Rental Property Repairs
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