How You Can Quickly Attract Tenants To Your Rental Home

As a landlord, you know how important it is to keep your rental home occupied. If you can't quickly attract potential renters once a tenant moves out, you run the risk of losing money and maybe even falling short on your financial goals for the year. Luckily, there are a few things you can do to attract tenants and minimize occupancy throughout the year – consider implementing one or more of the following ideas:

Plant Some Deciduous Trees in the Yard

A great way to improve curb appeal and increase your rental property's value by up to 20 percent is to landscape with some new trees. Deciduous trees are an awesome option because they will effectively increase the home's energy efficiency and save your tenants some money on their monthly power bills, which they're sure to appreciate. Deciduous trees have lots of big leaves in the summer season, which do an excellent job of blocking the sun's heat so the house isn't so hard to keep cool. Then, in the winter, these trees lose all of their leaves so the sun can warm things up and the heater doesn't haven't to work so hard throughout the season.

Some beautiful options include hedge maple, paper birch, and weeping willow. To optimize energy efficiency, plant your new trees by windows that tend to get direct sunlight at some point in the day and in front of the home's exterior heating and air conditioning unit.

Update the Kitchen Appliances

Tenants tend to look for newer appliances in rental homes when searching for a new place to live. If there are already appliances in the home, there isn't a need to buy new ones. And if the kitchen is lacking appliances, you can buy them used from garage sales, second-hand stores, and used appliance shops. TO attract more tenants, just have the older appliances serviced by a repair technician so they work like new again, and then give them a fresh coat of epoxy appliance paint. The paint comes in a variety of colors for easy customization. It's even possible to make your appliances look like they're made of stainless steel.

Create an Outdoor Living Space

To make the house feel bigger and give tenants more living space to enjoy, consider turning the patio or porch into an enclosed outdoor living space that can be used as a dining room or play area. Start by installing stainless steel cable railings along the edges of the porch or patio about six inches apart from each other to create a half wall for the space. If there is already a rail installed, you can leave it there and install the stainless steel cable railings underneath it. Talk with companies like Cable Rail Direct about different railing options. 

After the railings are installed, staple screens around the outside of the porch or patio to protect the space from mosquitoes and other pests. Consider installing a ceiling fan in the space too – during the summer, the fan can be programmed to run counterclockwise, so the air is pushed downward to create a continuous breeze. In the winter, the fan can be programmed to run clockwise to keep the space warmer.

There is probably a light next to the home's door that will help illuminate the space, but it's a good idea to provide extra lighting for nighttime use. Install a mountable solar light in the space opposite of where the built-in light is installed. This will ensure that there is enough light to play games, eat a meal, or even read a book when it's dark outside.

These tips and tricks should be pretty easy to incorporate and are sure to impress potential renters so the home is less likely to sit empty between tenants.