The value of your property can go up just by following the market (or down if that is the market direction), but if you have the time, you can have more control over this. Improving your property can do two things:

1. Make it more desireable to potential buyers, increasing its potential sale value
2. Make it more desireable to potential renters, increasing its potential rent value. There are two components here as well. The base amount of rent you can ask for (what they feel it is worth) and what you can charge extra for if they want access to other features to your property (if it is multi-unit and they want to use it for themselves).

We will focus on the first item in this article. The second is covered more in the article Increasing the Income from Your Property

Multi-suite Situations
If there is a feature of the property that a tenant would want private access to, then it can be an asset. Tenants also like their privacy and the worst situation to have is tenants annoying one another. There are ways to alleviate this making a potential landlord much less annoyed with dealing with them.

• Adding washers and dryers so there is no shared laundry (in multi-suite situations).
• Add a dog-run to the backyard and charge monthly rate for using it if they have pets.
• If it is a single furnace and only one thermostat to control it, the other suites could have baseboard heaters for a little extra control. I have seen houses with two furnaces too, that would be a dream.
• Seperate hot water tanks or put in a huge one so no one uses up all the water on the other people.
• Seperate access to the suites (not a shared one). They each have their own door, track their own dirt onto their own mat, and have their own porth to clean. You get the idea.

Standalone House or Multi-Suites

• A fully fenced off yard is a dream for parents with small children (if you are in that market).
• Having a nice deck
• A garage
• A shed
• Nice landscaping in the yard. Just a few trees and shrubs is fine. Things that don't take much maintenance.
• Upgrades to the interior. Sky is the limit here, but be careful, not everything is of value to someone else.

I'm not saying all these things will equate to money, but if you have the time and resources they don't hurt to add (especially if you are living there and will reap the benefits too). Try tackling one project a year. It gives you a bit of a tax write-off if your have tenants and your property will become more attractive.

If you enjoyed this post, then make sure you subscribe to my RSS feed or subscribe for email updates. Only one email a day and only if there was a new post.

Related Posts

Email this article

Category: Finance

0 Comments

No approved comments yet.

Add a Comment

Note: Comments will be visible after they have been moderated.

Name:

Email: (Never made public)

Web Page:
(include http:// or https://)
Comment:


Verification: