What can you do to get the best rent under the current market conditions?

By Vickie Gaskill, CPM®, MPM@, RMP@, ARM@ OWNER/BROKER

According to a recent report published by Dupree + Scott (April 2010), we may have experienced a rather rough past 12 months and are probably looking to more of the same in the future. They’ve seen a decline of 2% in one bedroom rents, 1.25% decline in 2 bedrooms, and a 1% decline in 3-4 bedrooms over the past 12 months. They noted that the only increase in rents was found in some 4 bedroom and 5 bedrooms and that was about 1%. They asked participants in their survey how much they expect rents in their properties to change over the next six months. Only 10% plan to increase rents and about as many anticipate decreasing rents.

According to the report, the overall average rents for properties in the greater South King County area is $1,086. As you can see by the graph below, Bell-Anderson’s average is pretty much keeping step with the Dupree + Scott analysis.



So what can homeowners do to make their homes more rentable?
1. Make sure it has great curb appeal – What does it look like when someone drives by it on the street. Have the landscaping in good shape. Remember, you’ll want to have the tenant maintain the yard while their occupying the property. Give it to them in good shape to start with.
2. Price it competitively – Sometimes that means that you won’t make your entire mortgage payment with the amount of rent collected. With our overabundance of rentals today, take the advice of your professional property manager when it comes to setting the rent amount.
3. Fresh paint, clean carpets, and all appliances must be in good working order. Just because you were able to put up with the nonworking burner on the stove or the drippy faucet in the sink, doesn’t mean that a tenant won’t want everything working properly. When these negative things are shown to a perspective tenant, they make the assumption that you don’t care about your house and they can treat it the same way you did.

Market conditions are a bit challenging right now. As a landlord/homeowner, it’s imperative that you do all you can to achieve renting your property out in a timely manner.