Getting Your Investment Property Market Ready | What Every King County Landlord Should Have on Their Checklist

To attract the best tenants and earn the most rent, your King County investment property needs to be clean, functional, and ready for the rental market.

Before you start taking some great photos, writing engaging descriptions, and scheduling tenant showings, you need to make sure your home is going to show well and attract the types of high quality renters you want.

These tips belong on your rent-ready checklist.

Make any Necessary Repairs

Do a complete inspection of your property before you put it on the rental market. Walk through it intentionally and check every detail. Make sure the appliances work. Run every faucet and flush every toilet. Check each electrical outlet and look at the locks on the doors and windows. Check the condition of doors, walls, and floors.

If you notice that anything isn’t perfect, make the repair right away. You don’t want to make promises that something will be fixed before a tenant moves in. Prospective tenants want to see a move-in ready property, and they want to imagine how things will look with all of their personal belongings in place. If they can’t envision that while seeing the home because a closet door is off its hinges or a refrigerator isn’t working, you’ll have a hard time renting it out quickly.

Clean the Home Professionally

After all the repairs are made, you’ll want to have the home completely and professionally cleaned. This is important, because tenants might manage to overlook cosmetic issues and they might be willing to live in a less-than-desirable neighborhood, but they’ll never be willing to move into someone else’s dirt.

Pay attention to detail with the cleaning. Make sure the floorboards and ceiling fans are dusted. Have your cleaners pull appliances out from the walls so they can dust and sweep around and behind them. Vacuum the lint out of the dryer ducts and scrub the tubs and toilets until they shine.

Decide on a Rental Value

After you’ve cleaned and prepared the home, you have to decide on a rental value before listing your rental property on the market. The best way to do this is by exploring the competition. Find out what similar homes are renting for in your area, and be competitive. Make sure you’re comparing properties of similar size and condition. Make sure you’re using good data, too. Just because you see a home renting for $3,000 a month on Craigslist doesn’t mean the property actually rented for that much. And, if it’s been on the market for two months, the price could have something to do with it.

Once all of these things have been taken care of, you’re ready to list your rental property. When your home looks great and is priced right, you should be able to rent it quickly to high-quality tenants in a short amount of time.

If you’d like some help, contact us at People’s Real Estate. We have a successful record of renting homes quickly to qualified tenants, and we’d be happy to answer any questions you may have.