One means to enjoy a home is through personalizing a living space, and renters are the same. Residents want to have an appealing comfortable space when they rent a home, but a rental property is unlike an owner-occupied home. Owners and renters of single-family rental homes in Brandywine know that all interior modifications of the home should have landlord approval. When residents of your rental homes move past furniture and décor and choose to make unauthorized changes, this can put you in a tough position as the owner.
Residents who ask for permission before making interior modifications to your rental property are the best. On occasion, a resident will decide they want to alter certain aspects of the home after signing the lease. Maybe they want to change the blinds or other window coverings, put in a new ceiling fan or light fixture, paint some or all of the walls a different color, install new bathroom fixtures, or perhaps even paint the kitchen cabinets.
Some of you may think that if they want to remodel your home for you at their own expense, maybe it’s better to just let them. But, there are a number of things to consider before agreeing to this. The most important of these is probably quality. You have no guarantee that the quality of their work will meet any professional standard if your resident is making changes themselves. Actually, if they do a truly poor job, it could negatively affect your property’s value and then cost you even more money to fix later.
Another important thing to think about is that trends in interior design quickly come and go. Painted cabinets might be trendy today, but you might find that residents prefer more natural wood tones in a year or two. Even though it is wholly within your rights to charge a departing resident for any repairs needed, maintaining a neutral rental property is the best financial choice.
As a rule, residents who go against lease terms and perform unauthorized alterations anyway are responsible for reverting the home back when they leave. Of course, some residents will do their best to avoid the expense of involving putting the home back the way it was when they initially came, possibly leading to pricey collections or even legal action.
It can be hard to figure out what to do next when residents begin making unauthorized changes to your Brandywine property. That is why you should have the right property management company to supervise matters, select great residents who will take care of your property for you, and take action to safeguard your real estate investment if and when the need arises.
At Real Property Management Gold, we provide all of these services and more to single-family rental homeowners. Our experienced property managers can prepare a maintenance program just for you while taking care of the worries and troubles of dealing with lease violations. Would you like to know more? For further information, please contact us online or call us at 301-392-2172.
We are pledged to the letter and spirit of U.S. policy for the achievement of equal housing opportunity throughout the Nation. See Equal Housing Opportunity Statement for more information.
