Buying your first investment property is the start of an exciting journey. Once you have picked up the keys to your new piece of real estate, it is likely that your mind is already focused on profit and how you can ensure you maximize the return on your investment. To ensure you get the best yield from your investment, you need to start by calculating how much you can expect to achieve in rental income from the property versus how much you have spent on buying the property and how much you expect to spend on the refurbishment process. Your aim is to balance keeping your costs as low as possible while generating as much income from the rental as you can. This is a challenging balancing act, so it pays to take great care when renovating the investment property. These tips should make it easier to stay on track with your new venture and ensure you earn a healthy profit:
Set a Budget
Setting a realistic budget for your renovation is the best way to ensure your spending does not begin spiraling out of control. Knowing how much you can spend without eating into your potential profits, will enable you to keep the project moving forward without spending a fortune in the process. While your first renovation project is likely to be a steep learning curve, it is still vital to keep your spending under control to ensure that you do not end up stretching your finances too far to get the work complete.
Focus on the Kitchen and Bathroom
Making your rental property look as attractive as possible is crucial to ensure that it appeals to tenants and enables you to enjoy a healthy rental income. To help ensure your renovation budget stretches as far as possible, it is wise to focus on the rooms that add the greatest value to your property. Ensuring that the kitchen and bathroom look their best is essential, as these are rooms that have the most fixtures and fewer opportunities for your tenants to make their own.
One mistake that many new property developers make is to instantly rip out the existing kitchens and bathrooms in their newly acquired investment properties. Replacing a kitchen and bathroom is an expensive task, generates a lot of waste, and is entirely unnecessary in the majority of situations. You can keep your costs low and give the kitchen a completely new look with the help of Cabinet Refinishing Services company. Once the refinishing process is complete, your kitchen cabinets will look better than ever and will have a fresh new look that will increase its appeal to prospective tenants. If you have a plain-colored bathroom suite, there is no need to replace it as long as it is in a serviceable condition. As with the kitchen, you can reduce waste and save money by working with what you already have. Simply changing the wall tiles can make a dramatic difference and is a lot less expensive and time-consuming than replacing the bathroom suite.
Get Cleaning
To ensure you keep your costs low, you may also want to think again before you start to rip out carpets or try to replace doors and other fixtures. Your first port of call is attempting to clean these areas and see if you can revive them. It is satisfying to bring parts of your rental property back to life rather than simply throwing them out and replacing them. Having the carpets cleaned can make a significant difference to their appearance and get them looking as good as new.
Working your way around the home cleaning every area that needs it is a simple yet effective way to revive tired-looking fixtures and fittings in the house without paying for replacements. It is incredible the difference that using a carpet cleaner, steam cleaner, and some elbow grease can make to the inside of your property. If you are short on time and cannot carry out all of the cleaning yourself, you could hire a professional cleaning company to work on your home. Even using professional cleaners will save you money compared to ripping out and replacing fixtures and fittings.
Completing Your Renovation
As you can see, there are lots of ways to keep costs low when renovating a rental property. Thinking creatively and working with the fixtures and fittings that are already in place will help you to save money, add value to your property, and reduce waste at the same time.