If you are getting a Highland Haven rental home ready for your first tenants, or even if you’ve been renting for a while, you may be wondering if you should include appliances in your rental property. This is a challenging question since there is no clear yes or no answer to it. Instead, deciding to include appliances in your rental home should depend on your location, your target renter, and the feasibility of doing so. By addressing these concerns and considering the benefits and drawbacks of putting appliances in your rental, you can easily decide if this is ideal for you.
Consider the Competition
When making a decision whether or not to include appliances in your rental home, it’s important to comprehend how your rental property compares to others in your locality. If all of the comparable rental properties in your area include appliances and yours doesn’t, this would place you at a distinct disadvantage. This is mostly the case if those properties are renting at your desired rate. However, if other rentals in your neighborhood do not offer appliances, you do not need to be bothered. By understanding your local rental market, you can decide more straightforwardly whether appliances make sense for your rental home.
Consider Tenant Appeal
Even though rental property owners are not obliged by law to include appliances in their rental homes, there are various valid reasons to do so anyway. Probably the main reason to include appliances in your rental is to make a more substantial interest for your target renters. For instance, assume that your rental is located in a college town, adjacent to an urban center, or a popular retirement spot. In this instance, the quantities of young adults or retirees looking to rent in your area are probably high.
For college students, young professionals, and often retired adults, having appliances provided in a rental might be not just desirable but necessary. Young adult renters are far less likely to own or to be able to own appliances and so often prefer a rental home that includes them. Older adults may be trying to downsize after retirement and don’t want the annoyance of appliance ownership and maintenance. Nevertheless, by including appliances in your rental homes, you can better appeal to these renter demographics.
Consider the Benefits
Besides tenant appeal, there are other explanations why including appliances in your rental property might be feasible for you. For example, rental property owners who offer appliances can often look for a higher rent compared to those who don’t. Not only can you recoup the cost of the appliances over the long term, but once the payment is completed on these appliances, that extra rent would help to give your cash flows a significant increase.
Another excellent benefit of including appliances in your rental home is that it significantly reduces the chance of wall and floor damage during move-in and move-out. Transferring huge appliances in and out of a rental home is difficult, and unless trained professionals will do that, it poses the risk of causing damage to floors, walls, and even doors and trim. By retaining the appliances in position, you can avoid this possible damage and make the move-in and move-out process much easier for both you and your tenant.
Potential Drawbacks
Of course, including appliances is not ideal for everybody. Some landlords don’t want the responsibility of maintenance and repair for appliances, which sounds plausible in some cases. For a few, the cost of buying appliances may be extremely high. This is particularly true if you are having cash flow issues or your budget is tight. In these instances, supplying high-quality appliances to tenants can be impractical, so the best option is to let tenants bring their own.
While it’s obvious that the decision to provide appliances in your rental home or not depends on many factors, it is ultimately at your discretion to make the best choice for your properties. In general, it can be helpful to have an expert Highland Haven property manager on your side to help you make decisions like these. If you want extra advice and guidance on making your rental property as profitable as it can be, give Real Property Management Highland a call! Our experts 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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