After years of owning rental properties there are a few things I have learned. I would like to share a couple of them with you so hopefully you can take advantage of them now instead waiting thirty years and only learning them by making mistakes. If you can take the knowledge that others have and apply it, then you can be way ahead in the propery management game.
First, if you remodel don’t go overboard on making things look too nice. Always choose a heavy vinyl for the floor in the kitchen and the bathroom. This covering will last a long time and it is easy to seal up so no water will leak into the sub-floor. I made the mistake a couple of times of putting tiles on the floor. This was very costly because there was a grout failure and the water seeped under the tile for months. When I asked the tenant about the broken gout line they said they didn’t know how it happened and they didn’t think it would me a problem. Well, it was a several thousand dollar problem two times. I finally learned my lesson.
Second, if there is a garage then spend the little bit it costs to apply a garage floor sealer. This does three things. It protects the floor from oil stains. I have yet to have a tenant in a duplex that did not have a car with an oil leak. It covers up any stains which were already present. And, it allows you to apply a non-slip additive to the floor so you don’t get sued when someone slips on a wet floor. This can be very costly and even if you win the lawsuit it will end up being very expensive in attorney fees.
Lastly, never let the tenant paint anything. I have never seen a tenant with good taste and I always have to go in and repaint any rooms they paint because it turns our so gaudy.
I hope these tips help you because I spend a lot of time and money before I realized how important they were.
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