Blog & Advice

Autumn is a Good Time to Assess Your Rental Property

The summer months bring with them the busy rental season and a high rental home turnover. As a rental home is vacated and prepared for a new resident, this can have a negative effect on the owner’s regular cash flow. Making necessary repairs, cleaning expenses, and other costs related to resident turnover can temporarily take a chunk out of a property owner’s profits, not to mention the loss of rental income that may result from delays in finding a new resident.

After the hectic weeks of summer are over, the slower tempo of the autumn months offers the perfect opportunity to assess the condition of your rental homes, ensuring that they are in optimal condition. At Real Property Management, we also see autumn as a great time to conduct a market comparison on your properties to ensure that they stay competitive and attractive to quality residents.

Autumn Maintenance Checklist

As the weather starts to cool down, it’s important to complete a number of winterization and maintenance tasks that will see your rental homes safely and snugly through the winter. These tasks include:

• Drain and shut off sprinkler systems
• Clean and trim yards, trees, and landscaping
• Repair gutters and screens
• Assess the curb appeal of your rental home and consider updating exterior features and paint

Our expert property managers can complete a comprehensive evaluation of each of your properties to ensure that improvements, repairs, and maintenance are performed when needed. This, in turn, protects the value of your rental homes and keeps quality residents happy for years. Beyond basic repairs and maintenance, Real Property Management offices offer additional autumn maintenance options. These include:

• Inspect and replace seals and locks on windows and doors
• Service HVAC systems and hot water heaters
• Evaluate the exterior siding, paint, stucco, and other finishes
• Test carbon monoxide and smoke detectors
• Check appliances for efficiency and proper function

By adding these vital maintenance items to your property management plan, you can not only save time but also avoid more costly repairs down the road.

Assessing Your Rental Property

The first weeks of autumn are the ideal time to do a market comparison with your rental homes. Even if you have long-term residents who have no plans to leave, it is still a smart business move to know how competitive your investment properties are and how they compare to others in the area. When assessing your rental homes, your property manager will gather information about the size, age, and condition of the home itself, as well as examine a range of different features and amenities. The age and condition of kitchen appliances and flooring, for example, are necessary to know before you can make an accurate comparison between your rental homes and others like them. Another important part of a market assessment is looking at the rate of recent rentals in your neighborhood. This is how you can gauge the amount of rent the market will bear and decide whether or not after your next vacancy would be a good time to increase it.

At Real Property Management, we are ready to help you keep your investment properties maintained, modernized, and profitable. Contact your nearest office today to learn more or to schedule an assessment.