If you are organizing a Portsmouth rental home for your first tenants, or you have been renting for a while, you may be wondering if you should include appliances in your rental property. It’s a difficult question since there is no clear yes or no answer to it. Preferably, deciding to include appliances in your rental home must be dependent on your location, your target renter, and the feasibility of doing so. Once you’ve examined these things and analyze the benefits and drawbacks of putting appliances in your rental, you will be able to decide if this is a wise move for you.
Consider the Competition
When determining whether or not to include appliances in your rental home, it’s imperative to know how your rental property compares to others in your area. If comparable rental properties around yours all include appliances and yours doesn’t, that will put you at a distinct disadvantage. This is definitely true if those properties are renting at your desired rate. Nevertheless, if most rentals in your vicinity do not include appliances, there is much less reason to do so. By recognizing your local rental market, you can more confidently settle on whether appliances make sense for your rental home.
Consider Tenant Appeal
Although rental property owners are not required by law to include appliances in their rental homes, there are several great reasons to do so anyway. Perhaps the most significant reason to put appliances in your rental is to boost their attraction for your target renters. For example, think your rental is located in a college town, adjacent to an urban center, or a popular retirement spot. In that case, there are probably lots of young adults or retirees looking to rent in your area.
For college students, young professionals, and often retired adults, having appliances included in a rental may be more than attractive; it may be necessary. Young adult renters are far less likely to own or to be able to own appliances and so often need a rental home that includes them. Older adults may be trying to downsize after retirement and don’t want to deal with the hardships of appliance ownership and maintenance. Either way, by including appliances in your rental homes, you can better appeal to these renter demographics.
Consider the Benefits
Apart from tenant appeal, there are various reasons why including appliances in your rental property could seem right for you. As an illustration, rental property owners who offer appliances can usually ask for a higher rent than those who don’t. Not only can you recoup the cost of the appliances over the long term, but once those appliances are paid, that extra rent will continue to give your revenue a nice boost.
Another huge benefit of including appliances in your rental home is that it greatly reduces the chance of wall and floor damage during move-in and move-out. Moving huge appliances in and out of a rental home is exhausting, and unless executed by skilled professionals, it poses the risk of causing damage to floors, walls, and even doors and trim. By keeping the appliances in position, you stay away from this potential damage and make the move-in and move-out process trouble-free for both you and your tenant.
Potential Drawbacks
In reality, including appliances isn’t advisable for everybody. Some landlords do not want the responsibility of maintenance and repair for appliances, which can seem practical in some situations. For others, the cost of buying appliances may be incredibly exorbitant. This is doubly true if you are having cash flow issues or your budget is tight. In such cases, it may simply not be sensible to deliver good quality appliances to tenants, and so the ideal option is to let tenants obtain their own.
Although it is evident that the decision to provide appliances in your rental home or not depends on many things, it is ultimately dependent upon you to make the best choice for your properties. At times, it can be helpful to have an expert Portsmouth property manager on your side to help you make decisions like these. If you’d like additional advice and guidance on how to make your rental property as profitable as it can be, give Real Property Management Hampton Roads a call! Our specialists can help you set up a rental house that tenants will love while working to keep your monthly expenses as low as possible.
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