Preparing your investment property for summer

Preparing your investment property for summer

How to prepare your investment property for summer?

Since you have invested both time and money in your property, you must take care of its upkeep. You need to maintain its good condition to attract potential tenants or buyers while looking after the house and preparing it for the changing seasons.

Fires, droughts, flash-floods- we’ve seen them all. This allows us to get an idea of how to prepare our property for whatever weather conditions or calamities the future has in store for us.

Invest in smoke alarms
Your property needs to meet the minimum legislated safety requirements, hence the need for proper smoke alarms. Property owners’ responsibility is to protect our houses from fire hazards: installation, upkeep, and updating of smoke alarms. This is the time to make sure all smoke alarms are in order.

Clean your gutters
Aside from smoke alarms, if you want to prevent fire in bushfire season, you need to clean out the debris in your gutters. If left unchecked or uncleared, it could also cause a block up in gutter drainage, leading to further complications like gutter sag and mildew. It’s better to prevent disaster than wait for it to happen.

Ask your tenants about their plans
It’s good to keep updated and keep open communication channels with your tenants, especially if you want them to re-sign the lease. Good tenants are hard to find, which is why you need to keep them satisfied and happy by asking them if they need repairs or any maintenance in the house. If you keep your tenants happy, you get to save on advertising and vacancy costs.

Maintain the garden
Don’t wait for the summer sun to get too hot. Before the summer gets too intense, take care of your property’s lawn or garden. Weed it, lay some mulch, and plant colourful plants and flowers. Clean the windows too, and do all the needed repairs. You can even spruce the window panes up with a fresh coat of paint.

Install insulation
If you want to attract tenants or keep the ones you already have, you may want to consider installing insulation. While it may mean a higher weekly rent for your tenants, it also reduces their electricity bills as they won’t need to spend as much heating or cooling the place.

Make sure no one is subleasing your property without your knowledge.
If a tenant heads home for the summer and subleases the property while they’re away, they need to ask for your permission first.

Summertime for Australia means the holiday season, so it is best to prep in advance to avoid any last-minute fixes during the break.

Looking for a new investment property? Contact us to find out more.