Top Six Items to Replace or Upgrade When You Buy a Rental Property

Have you ever purchased a rental property? Owning a rental property is one of the lucrative investments you can ever have. After purchasing a rental property, you can easily be confused on which items to replace or upgrade on the property. You may have spent so much of your money on purchasing the property and therefore spending any more renovating the property may not be your priority. However, it is imperative to consider some upgrades and replacements on the property that would help you get the right tenants at the right pricing. While it may seem expensive to upgrade your rental property, there are affordable ways to upgrade your property and increase your cash flow.

Here are the top six things you should replace or update on every rental property you buy.

Rental Property Toilet Upgrade

Wondering why a toilet should be a priority? Well, if you never knew, it is because a toilet can be a money drain in your rental property. If toilet leakages go undetected for a month or more, it can cause a very significant increase in the water bill. While other leaking items can only cause a small water issue, a leaking toilet can run 24 hours every day. A toilet leak is continuous. Replacing the toilet system is a simple and sure way to avoid immense damage from the leakage. Do a makeover for every rental property you purchase.

Change the Locks of the Rental Property

Changing the locks of the rental property you purchase is very essential. Whether the current locks are functional or not, changing the locks should not be debatable. In the first place, you don’t know who possessed the keys previously. You don’t have any good reason to continue using the old locks. If you have multiple properties, you may not have to spend money buying locks every now and then since you can recycle them during tenant turnover.

Light Bulbs

Energy saving light bulbs are important if you want to reduce energy bills on your rental property. Moreover, changing the light bulbs will help you avoid calls from tenants for you to come over to replace their bulbs. Changing the bulbs after purchasing the rental property will give you some time before the need to change them arises again.

Invest In Safer Electric Outlets

Although they are more costly than regular outlets, GFCI electric outlets will automatically shut off if electricity runs through unintended paths such as water or physique. For the safety of the people in your rental property, use these outlets at the appropriate places in the apartment.

Fire Extinguishers and Smoke Alarms

The safety of your tenants is not something you can afford to neglect. When you purchase a rental property, install a new set of smoke alarms and fire extinguishers. Once you’ve installed them, you won’t have to worry about them for several years provided tenants don’t tamper with them. If you choose battery-operated smoke alarms, you may have to replace the battery at least once a year. Installing dual sensor smoke alarms is the best and worth the investment because they can detect fast spreading fires as well as slow smothering fires.

HVAC System Update

One of the benefits of replacing A.C filters on time is that it helps save hundreds of dollars you could have to spend on repairs and extend the lifetime of air handlers and compressors. Paying a few extra dollars for the filters is a worth investment. Moreover, having clean filters is a great way to reduce electric bills on your rental property.