Tampa Property Management Tip #16 - If You Prepare Property Owners for Occasional Upgrades, You Will Reduce Vacancy and Increase Rents.
A Tampa property management company should prepare every rental property owner right at the beginning of the relationship for periodic upgrades. Every item in the house especially those in the kitchen and bathrooms have a useful life. In order to stay competitive and rent your rentals quickly and at a good price, the rentals must be updated in some way every few years.
These updates are only necessary for homes with original fixtures over 20 years old. For instance, 25 year old kitchen cabinets and bathroom vanities need to be replaced, maybe not right away but soon. You should start with the most badly damaged. Typically, I like to begin with the bathrooms. The replacement costs are cheaper than the kitchen and just as important. You can replace a bathroom vanity for about $300-$500 plus labor. Or maybe replace the old worn out plastic medicine cabinet with a tri-fold wood cabinet with $15 Hollywood lighting above it.
You should stress to the owner that these upgrades will last another 25 years and result in longer occupancy of existing tenants and higher rents. This is a much easier sell if you are just pitching replacing one major item and not upgrading the whole house. Once, you have managed the property for a couple of years and developed a relationship with the owner, you can suggest replacing the kitchen cabinets.
As an owner of a substantial amount of my own rental properties, I have used this system for the last 8 years with excellent results. Some owners call this a reserve and replacement fund. You simply need to push the owners nicely to do periodic updates as properties become vacant. Renewals are also an excellent time to do upgrades because it is a wonderful incentive to get a tenant to sign another year lease.
By doing these updates over time, a Tampa property management company will keep the rental properties in great shape and not break the property owner’s bank account.
