The new year is literally around the corner and as many people are getting ready for Christmas, most real estate investors are planning for the new year including mapping out their 2020 goals.

Some of our favorite books on goal setting include the 10X Rule, The Art of Setting Smart Goals, Your Best Year Ever, and Atomic Habits.

If you’re getting ready for the new year and are thinking about making some upgrades to your investment property this year, this article will provide you with a list of improvements that you should consider making.

Outdoor Improvements

Obviously, even though your property is only an investment property, you should still be focusing on making plenty of outdoor improvements to it over time.

Some of the best outdoor improvements that you should consider making include painting your property, repairing exterior damage to your property, landscaping improvements and adding more onsite storage to your property.

Remember to never go overboard when making improvements to your investment property, especially when focusing on curb appeal improvements because your goal should be to make maintaining the landscaping as easy as possible for your tenants.

Indoor improvements

From the moment that you walk in the door to your investment property, there are a wide variety of improvements that you can make including:

Painting – This is by far the most important improvement that you can make because painting your property will help to brighten up the interior of your property and make it look cleaner.

The key to success when choosing paint colors for your investment property is to specifically choose a neutral paint color that’s also highly durable.

One of the paint colors that we recommend is “Country White” (Available at Walmart) because it comes pre-mixed and only costs about $30 for a two-gallon bucket of paint.

If you plan on painting the ceilings in your investment property, it’s always good to scrape off any “popcorn ceiling” texture then use ceiling paint from Home Depot or Walmart since it’s only going to cost you about $30 for a bucket of ceiling paint as well.

Flooring – Yes, replacing the flooring is also an excellent idea since flooring wears out fast and should be replaced every 12 to 24 months.

When replacing flooring it’s best to stick with a highly durable vinyl flooring in most rooms of the house because vinyl is easy to clean and isn’t expensive to replace. Home Depot sells a great vinyl flooring brand called Life Proof Vinyl Plank Flooring. You can also find lots of other affordable flooring options at Lumber Liquidators as well.

Tip – When choosing vinyl flooring make sure to verify if it stays clean or not because some brands of cheap vinyl flooring never stay clean regardless if they are mopped every day or not.

Reseal Doors and Windows – Although it’s not a noticeable update, resealing the doors and windows of your investment property is a smart decision to make because it’s something that will help to lower your tenant’s energy costs to heat or cool the property while ensuring that moisture doesn’t enter the rental.

New Lighting – We’ve offered a lot of suggestions for updates that you should consider making to your investment property and another important one that we would like you to consider making is adding new lighting to your property.

This is an important update to make because besides oftentimes being unsafe, older light fixtures can also “date” property and make it look older than it really is.

To avoid turning off tenants to your investment property because they think it’s too old, you should replace those old light fixtures in your property with modern lighting because this will give your property a new, modern look.

Kitchen Updates – When was the last time you updated the kitchen in your investment property? Has it been longer than 5 years? If that’s the case, that’s a long time. The kitchen in an investment property should be updated at least every 2 years because it’s often the one location in a property that gets the most use by tenants over a 12-month lease.

• Cabinets – Consider sanding, re-painting and adding new knobs and pulls. This will save you money and the hassle of having to replace cabinetry that may just need a fresh coat of paint.
• Counter tops – Always replace old tile counter tops with a granite or quartz counter top. It’s best to avoid going cheap with counter tops because cheap materials wear out quickly and will need to be replaced in 12 months.
• Flooring – Invest in high traffic vinyl flooring. It’s easy to clean, durable and can last up to 5 years or longer.
• Lighting – Since your tenants are going to spend the most time working in the kitchen, it’s best to replace the lighting with new pendant lights or flush mount lighting.
• Organization – If your kitchen cabinets are more than 20 years old, they probably don’t have a lot of shelf space inside. To fix this problem you should hire a contractor to cut more shelves for the inside of your cabinets or you should invest in kitchen cabinet organizers.

Bathroom Updates – Besides updating the kitchen in your investment property, you should also update the bathroom as well. These updates should include new paint, lighting and replacing the toilet if it’s more than 10 years old.

Tired of Managing Your Investment Property Yourself? Why Not Hire A Property Manager Instead?

If you’re still managing your investment property yourself, one of the very best investments that you can make in 2020 is yourself by hiring a property management company. This will save you the time, money and hassle of managing your investment property yourself so you can focus on growing your portfolio of investment properties without having to put in the extra work!

To learn more about the property management services that Rent Portland Homes can offer you contact us today by CLICKING HERE to connect with us through our website.