10 Clever Visual Tricks to Make Your Home Look Better to Renters

Renting a property is a great way to build wealth and make use of a property in your portfolio you hope will appreciate in the future. But if you want your rental property strategy to work, you need good renters to occupy your house. That means marketing and advertising your property to the best possible renters and employing tricks to make the property look as good as possible.

Visual Tricks to Try

These are some of the best visual tactics you can use to make your property more attractive to tenants:

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1.       Hire a professional photographer. This isn’t really a visual trick, but it’s a strategy that can make all the other strategies on this list even more effective. Hire a professional photographer. Photographers are trained and experienced in the art of making things look more interesting or more attractive than they are in real life. Obviously, you don’t want to mislead your tenants, but you do want to show off your house in the best possible light – and a photographer is just the person to help you do it.
2.       Work with other experts. A photographer isn’t the only expert you should work with. You’ll also want to hire a real estate agent or a property management company to help you establish the space and show it off successfully. Consult with other agents and experts in the real estate industry for their advice and suggestions on how you can transform your living space. This is especially helpful during the staging process.
3.       Upgrade the lighting. Lighting will instantly increase or decrease your chances of renting the property. With better lighting, the property is going to look more inviting, cleaner, and more aesthetically pleasing. Your best bet is to rely on natural light as much as possible when taking photos and hosting tours, but failing that, be ready to invest in accent lighting.
4.       Employ the use of mirrors. Mirrors serve a few important purposes when showing off a property to a prospective renter. If you hang a mirror on a far wall, it has the potential to make the entire room look bigger and more spacious. This is also an opportunity for a tenant to literally see themselves in the property, warming them to the idea of living them.
5.       Remove furniture and other sources of clutter. Get rid of as much furniture as you can and cut down on clutter. Even if these individual pieces are tasteful, they’re going to make the property feel smaller and more crowded.
6.       Use minimalistic décor. In line with this point, use minimalistic decor. A small bouquet of flowers as the centerpiece of a coffee table is much better than stacking magazines or crowding the table with doilies and other accouterments.
7.       Paint walls a strong accent color. For the most part, you should be using calm and neutral colors when painting the property. But it’s also worth painting a strong accent color on one or two walls of a significant room. Doing so adds personality to the area; it makes it feel bigger.
8.       Polish surfaces. Hopefully, you’ve already cleaned the property. But you’ll want to apply a final polish to counters, faucets, and other fixtures. The extra shine will make the property scene even cleaner and more inviting.
9.       Fix or upgrade the front door. The front door often forms a prospective tenant’s first impression of the property, so it’s important to get it right. If the front door is cracked or dirty or not working properly, you’ll need to make it a high priority to fix it. A solid front door can make the entire exterior look better.
10.   Showcase greenery out front. Even people who aren’t outdoorsy appreciate greenery in the front yard. Spend some time landscaping the area and include bushes, trees, or flowers to brighten up the front of the property.

Additional Tips

And here are some additional tips to help you market your rental property:

•       Fill the home with a pleasant scent. Use candles or incense to fill the property with a cozy scent your visitors will love.
•       Offer a welcome package (of sorts). Cookies or mini sandwiches can make prospective tenants feel welcomed on arrival.
•       Give each prospective tenant a warm welcome. Make sure you give every prospective tenant a smile and a warm handshake when welcoming them in for the first time.

If you are successful in executing these tips, you should have no trouble making your property look as good as it can. From there, you’ll collect more tenant applications, and you’ll have a broader range of people to choose from when renting the property. 

Ultimately, that means more money in your pocket and more satisfied tenants as well.

Dan Gardner

Creator and developer of the RunPee app. When something doesn’t work right in the app it’s pretty much his fault. 🙂

Aspiring author. Would like to finish his “Zombie Revelations” trilogy if he could break away for working on RunPee and the cottage he’s building for RunPee Mom.