Author Archives: rmheditor
Rent Your House Fast: Revitalize Your Kitchen for Less Than $1000
Want to have your vacant rental property snapped up almost before you can post the “for rent” ad? In a world where rental houses and apartments typically feature outdated cabinets paired with beige laminate and linoleum, an updated, trendy kitchen can set you apart from the crowd and get you a signed lease agreement faster than you can say “mosaic tile backsplash.”
Below are three stunning kitchen remodels that cost less that $1000 to complete.
1. The $967 Kitchen Remodel from This Old House:
Before and After:
Homeowner Edwardo carefully sanded and painted existing cabinets a gorgeous shade of chocolate brown, then replaced the cabinet pulls. His major expenses included the glass tile backsplash, which cost $400, and new laminate counter tops with a stainless steel edge, which cost $300. The rest of the budget went into inexpensive paint and updated hardware and fixtures.
2. Cabinet refresh for $350 from DIY Life:
Before and After:
If an entire kitchen overhaul doesn’t fit within your handyman/handywoman skill set or budget, consider showing the cabinets in your rental house’s kitchen some love before putting your house on the market. If your particular set of cabinets doesn’t lend itself well to a sophisticated refinish, go for fun and funky instead. DIY Life recommends using a “furniture refinisher, such as Formby’s or Miniwax, to strip off most clear finishes” before attempting a new coat of paint.
3. The $30 Kitchen Remodel from Sunset Magazine, via Design Hole
Before and After:
Yes, you read that right. $30, y’all. As you might guess, this “remodel” involves paint, paint, and more paint. These homeowners took the “remodel-via-paint” concept to a new level, though, using Kelly Moore Rust-Oleum paint to give the 1970s appliances a facelift along with the cabinets. While you may not want to choose such bold colors for a rental, the overall technique is genius. And it cost $30. Thirty dollars! Did I mention it cost $30?
Have you updated a kitchen inexpensively? What did you do?
Good Ad, Bad Ad: Tips for Renting Your House on Craigslist
Just like your mother probably told you, (likely more than once), (unless you grew up under a rock, that is), you never get a second chance to make a first impression. Roll your eyes if you must, but when it comes to marketing your rental property in an increasingly competitive market, this advice rings especially true. With new “house for rent” ads popping up on Craigslist every five minutes, many produced by experienced professionals, getting the details of your ad right—then re-posting it often, but that’s a story for another day—is an easy way to make your rental stand out from the crowd.
In today’s installment of “Good Ad, Bad Ad,” we’ll review ads for three Chicago apartments in the $2000/per-month price range. All of these ads are currently running on Craigslist.
Rental Ad #1:
This ad gets a few things right—the tagline includes the bedroom and bathroom count, the location, and the nice perk of having “utilities included”—but for over $2,000, I’m going to need some pictures before I pick up the phone. And speaking of the phone, where’s the agent’s phone number? Buried in a paragraph near the end of the ad. Not only is that key piece of information hard to find, it’s difficult to pick out the key features of this apartment, such as what type of security deposit is required, whether pets are allowed, whether parking is available. I’d like to have that “potential deal breaker” information up front. Not that “spacious floor plans” and “24 hour doormen” aren’t nice, but that’s what they all say, you know?
Rental Ad #2:
This ad does better. Much better. The agent’s phone number is right at the top of the page, although it’s still not called out in an eye-catching manner. The key information about the apartment is called out first, in an easily scanned format. There’s also a decent quality photo of the building’s exterior in the top section of the ad. However, I have to wade through dense paragraphs of text to learn what amenities are offered, and interior photos of the apartment are tucked below the first screen of information. Overall, I like the ad, but it doesn’t quite make “must call” status.
Rental Ad #3:
And we have a winner. Rent Smart’s phone number is clearly called out against a the backdrop of Chicago’s gorgeous skyline. Both the “essentials” AND the “key amenities” are called out near the top of the ad, in an easy-to-read, bulleted format. Best of all, interior photos of the apartment start at the top of the ad as well, encouraging me to scroll through the entire ad to follow the trail of photographs. Well played, Rent Smart, well played.
Renter Households Exceed 38 Million in 2011
Axiometrics reports that while the number of U.S. homeowners has decreased by 2 million since the housing crisis began in 2006, the number of renter household has increased by 4 million during the same time period. The growth from 2002 to 2011 is even more dramatic, with renter household increasing from approximately 33.5 million to 38.5 million, a jump of over 16%.
According to the article “rent growth has remained strong as compared to the rate of job growth,” over the past few years, as more households choose to rent simply because of the unstable dynamics underlying the current housing market. Potential homeowners fear investing a substantial portion of their net worth into assets that aren’t likely to see a substantial increase in value any time soon—and, in fact, may continue to depreciate over the next 3-to-5 years.
As Dr. Sam Chandan, President and Chief Economist at Chandan Economics, states “Tenant choice involves a complex interaction between the cost and terms of mortgages, the availability of equity for down payments, households’ assessments of relative rental and ownership costs, expectations of future house price changes, and behavioral factors that are critically important, but more difficult to quantify.”