Quality Sells -> All the small things

I'm going to talk about how I took an ok property in a stellar neighborhood and added $275/month to my bottom line in 12 months. For me this was going from red to black.

 I own a 3 unit house. I live in 1 and rent out the others. Well, every summer (ok, 2 so far) I begin to get all stressed out over potential vacancies. Well today I posted one of my apartments on Craigslist and newdigs.com. I did this at 1pm - the craigslist part.  I was at work so I couldn't really respond to emails... but by the time 4:45 rolled around I answered some, setup some quick appointments, at 7:45 and by 8:15 my apartment was rented. By 9pm I had a serious inquiry who I think might rent my upper unit which I'm not even done remodeling (hell -- the toilet is currently in the shower!) and I might get an application to rent this by Friday -- with out even really posting it (it is on newdig -- but no pics -- poor description -- just because I'm not ready to show it)

So -- I think I did everything right here! I created a product which is superior to those around me. I spent the extra sweat equity/cash on the little stuff -- crown molding ($120), painting the trim a pristine white ($150) fixing all the low hanging fruit that needed work -- laminated bathroom counter, put a small closet by the front door, and that's about it. I also had my already super happy with the apartment current tenant present (by luck admittedly) while I showed the apartment. They put some validation to my sales spiel. I took the tools I learned researching being a landlord, applied them to the best of my ability and viola -- a quickly rented property! (or two!)

From reading Bigger Pockets so far - BP is a place where the go getters are. To be one -- and it's not that hard -- you really just need to be better than the next guy in your neighborhood. That crown molding that cost me $120 has rented the apartment twice (would you trade that for no vacancies?). Probably the best $120 I've spent so far. It's that low hanging fruit - counter tops, kitchens, bathrooms, that extra shine on the stove that rents things. Many of these are intangibles -- the little things you do to such as baking a cake when showing a house. That extra 30 minutes of love before you show your apartment or that extra $120 while you are remodeling can make all the difference in the world if done tastefully and in the right places. One thing I did was add a small built in book case and build a small closet -- things this small "studio w/a bedroom" was desparately needing. Cost: $200 plus a day of my time. 

I'm an Information Security Manager during the day and these small things you "set and forget" sometimes make all the difference. I need to constantly manage an array of servers -- which I compare to rental units (CPU, RAM, hard drives, users, power ) = (bathrooms/kitchens/utilities/tenants/yard) and by really looking at those small things is one of the things that make my system successful so far.

And the great thing about the small things? If you pick the right ones -- you don't have to manage them. For example -- crown molding needs no maintenance while a A/C upgrade to a unit may.  

Please let me know if you liked this post ! Happy rehabbing from Rochester, NY!