One of the downsides of renting a home is how limited you are when it comes to customizing your living space. There’s no tearing down walls or installing new windows. You can’t rip up the floors and install new flooring. When it comes to the interior of your rental unit, you pretty much live in it as is. There are a handful of minor changes you can make, and if you get really creative it can make a big difference. One of the easiest ways to give a personal touch to your rental unit is to put up window curtains. Here are a few tips for selecting curtains: 

Into the darkness

When it comes to choosing the type of curtains for your home, you’ll need to consider their functionality of them. Are they for privacy? Are they for decor? Or are they for blocking out the light? If they are for your bedroom, or an area where you watch TV, you might want to consider using blackout curtains. This will help keep the sun out of your room in the mornings as well as create privacy. In your TV room, this will help reduce any glare that may from the sun. 

Keep it light 

Another option for curtains is to keep it light and use sheer. This will create some privacy when they are shut but still allow for plenty of light to come through and brighten up your room. If you’re more concerned about the decor than you are about keeping out the light, then this may be the best option for you. 

There are layers to this

If you can’t decide on one or you have multiple needs for each room, then just use them all. You can layer your curtains with multiple styles to match whatever you need for both appearance and functionality. You can use a combination of sheer curtains and blackout curtains and add on any lining as well. 

Once more for good measure

Another option is to combine looks by adding Roman shades with blackout curtains. This can provide the same effect as layering with sheer curtains and blackout curtains. Instead, the Roman shades can be used for sheer while keeping the blackout curtains. 

Be bold

Rental homes tend to be bland and monotone by design. It’s meant to attract all tenants and not push any away with any style choices. This means if you want your room to pop in a memorable way, you’ll need to choose some bold colors when it comes to your decor. Try using some bright, and bold curtains to make the room more vibrant. 

Pro tip

To make the room feel taller, instead of putting the curtain rod just a few inches over the window, install it a few inches under the ceiling. You can also extend it well beyond the width of the window to make the room feel larger and more grand than it is.

Carpet can be difficult to maintain. If you’re renting, you don’t have any say on what kind of flooring your unit has. This means you need to take care of the carpet on a regular basis because a landlord won’t replace the carpet unless it is absolutely necessary. This might not be as big of a deal if you’re in the unit for only one or two years, but if you end up staying long-term, you’ll wish you took good care of the carpet in those first few years of renting. Here are some tips on how to keep your carpet clean: 

Clean often

Everything is situational when it comes to a cleaning schedule that fits your specific needs, but a good rule of thumb is to vacuum weekly and get a deep cleaning once or twice a year. You may want to vacuum high-traffic areas more than once a week, especially around your entrance. If you have pets, you should vacuum a few times a week. Keeping dust from building up on the carpet will keep your carpet looking better for longer. 

Monthly cleaning

Once a month you’ll want to do a slightly more intensive clean than just your weekly vacuum. Before you start, go over any areas with crumbs with a lint roller for a quick cleanup. If you have any pets, get a rubber squeegee and run it over the carpet to collect any pet hair. 

After going through these steps, sprinkle some baking soda liberally all over your carpet and let it sit for at least an hour to absorb any oily stains and odors. Once that’s done, then it is time to vacuum. Repeat this once every month to avoid any odor or stains from building up on your carpet. 

Don’t wait to clean

Partial view of woman in rubber gloves cleaning striped carpet with foamy sponge[/caption]

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, don’t waste any time when it comes to cleaning up a spill on your carpet. Immediately blot everything up with a moist white cloth or paper towel. If you drop any food or track mud onto the carpet, use something with a flat edge like a knife to scrape it up. Don’t ever smudge it into the carpet. 

If you end up with a visible stain, try using a mixture of one part distilled white vinegar and three parts warm water and put it in a spray bottle. Next, vacuum over the stain to remove any dirt or solids. After you vacuum, spray the cleaning solution onto the stained area until it is damp and let it set in for about five minutes. This will allow the solution to break down any stains. Finally, use a microfiber cloth to blot out the cleaning solution.

Rent has been steadily on the rise in Seattle for the last few decades. Even with the steady rise in rent, there were some ups and downs during and after the pandemic. But real estate is a long-term investment. If you’re a landlord, you’re not too concerned with the short-term movements in rent. So what does the current post-pandemic rental market look like? What is the long-term outlook for the rental market in the Emerald City?

Where we are now

Before the pandemic and before the slight population decrease during the pandemic, there was a housing shortage in Seattle and the surrounding areas of King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County. While rents and demand fluctuated between 2020 and 2022, nothing changed the supply of housing in any significant way. Since then, the population has rebounded and reached a new record which lead to a fast rise in rent across the city. 

While it isn’t likely that rent will continue to increase at such a high pace, rent should continue to rise as long as the population continues to grow. It will likely settle down over the long term and unless there is some unforeseeable event like a global pandemic, the long-term trend should be one of steady increase. 

Zoning tells the story

While there is a high demand for housing and the population continues to increase, there’s very limited land that can be developed to meet that demand. As long as the city and the state don’t make any major changes to their zoning laws, housing construction will continue to lag behind the population growth. Even if the city or the state did make significant changes, it would take years to feel the impact of those changes. 

It’s not just the number of units allowed on a lot that impacts the number of units constructed. It also includes things like the number of staircases required, parking minimums, lot size minimums, and other local building codes. This means that developers often can’t even build the number of units a parcel is zoned for because they need to meet all these other requirements. As long as the city and state make it difficult to build enough homes, rent should increase. 

The Seattle area

One of the major problems when it comes to the regional housing supply is that the suburbs and the cities surrounding Seattle build very few homes. This means that even if Seattle did everything within its power to increase the supply of housing, it still wouldn’t be able to meet the demands of the region. This is due to single-family zoning which means only one home can be built on a parcel of land. 

There have been attempts to make it easier and legal to build accessory dwelling units in the backyards of single-family homes but those have mostly failed or haven’t gone far enough. Unless the suburbs in King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County change their zoning laws to allow substantial amounts of housing construction, the entire region will continue to see rents rise even in cities far outside of Seattle.

What to expect

Real estate is a risky investment. There are a million unforeseen possibilities that can impact your investment in good and bad ways. There can be recessions, natural disasters, local economic decline, and on and on. These risks are expected but even with a housing bubble that burst and a once-in-a-century global pandemic, the Seattle housing market has continued to see rents rise. When you consider all the regulations and local zoning codes, it’s difficult to see a path for a drastic increase in construction, so expect housing prices and rents to rise.

Over the last few years, the Seattle housing market has had its ups and downs. Well, mostly one down and one up during and after the pandemic preceded by decades of mostly upward trajectory. There’s a wide range of factors that can impact the housing market. Population growth, the local economy, interest rates, and restrictive zoning laws all play a part in the Seattle housing market along with the rest of King County. Another major factor impacting the local housing market is the housing supply. Here’s how the supply of housing is impacting the current and future market of Seattle: 

The Great Recession

In order to understand the full story, you have to look back to the Great Recession. As housing markets all over the country collapsed, developers got spooked and housing construction fell off a cliff. Even though construction came to almost a near stop, populations continued to grow. The drop off in construction was so dramatic that even in 2022, construction has yet to return to its recession numbers. 

This means that not only was there a construction deficit during all those years, but the current rate of construction continues to be outpaced by the population growth. What this means is there are fewer housing units available for more people. This doesn’t just impact Seattle on its own, it impacts the entire region that includes King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County. 

Restrictive Zoning

The construction slowdown isn’t only due to the recession. It partially has to do with local zoning laws and ordinances. This can be anything from the number of units allowed on the lot to the number of parking spots required per unit. All of these can impact the number of housing units a developer will build on a single parcel of land. 

Because urban centers and metropolitan centers are running out of available land, it makes it more difficult to increase the rate of construction. This means the growth of regions depends more and more on superstar cities like Seattle to build a large supply of housing. If the rest of King, Pierce, and Snohomish don’t make any major zoning changes, the region will continue to lag in construction. 

Higher interest rates

Even if the region and the state of Washington take drastic measures to increase the housing supply, the increased interest rates could play a role in holding back housing construction. The interest rates aren’t likely to stay this high for a long period of time, they also won’t likely return to the extremely low rates from before. 

For developers with a large cash flow, this could actually decrease the cost of purchasing new properties as long as they can hold out and refinance when the interest rates go down. This

Seattle has long been one of the most desirable cities to live in. Compared to other cities on the west coast like San Francisco or Los Angeles, the Emerald City has been a more affordable option. It also has plenty of high-paying jobs in the tech industry for those looking to advance their career. Because of this, the population has steadily increased over the decades. 

While there was a slight dip in the population during the pandemic, the population quickly rebounded as life returned to normal. The housing stock in the city was already strained and the sharp increase in the population growth caused the rent to grow rapidly. Here are some of the rent trends in Seattle: 

One-Bedroom homes

The city of Seattle is 55% renter-occupied, meaning there is a lot more competition for renting than there is for buying. While 1-bedroom apartments saw the biggest decline during the pandemic, those prices rebounded with vengeance. While the average rent hit a low of just under $1,500 in 2021, the average rent shot back up to $2,055 in September of 2022. This is higher than the pre-pandemic average. 

Two-Bedroom homes 

Similar to one-bedroom apartments, two-bedroom apartments also saw a huge dip during the pandemic followed by a sharp increase but it was less pronounced. The average price bottomed out at just under $2,000 a month. Since then it has shot up to $2,807 a month. With both the one and two-bedroom average rent swings, this suggests those who were leaving the city and those who were returning were mostly those who weren’t settled long-term in three or four-bedroom homes. 

Three and four-bedroom

The three and four-bedroom average rents during the pandemic had dips that were much less pronounced and more in line with prior highs and lows. This could be because residents in larger homes tend to be from families who are more settled than young professionals who are single and without kids. It could also be because some residents moved away from the high-density urban core of Seattle and settled in less densely populated neighborhoods where there are larger homes. 

Looking forward

While it seems the sharp increases in rent seen all over the country have started to slow and even decline a little, it should be expected that the rent will continue to increase over the long term. As long as the rest of King County as well as the neighboring counties like Pierce and Snohomish counties are unable to increase their housing supply, Seattle should continue to see steady growth in rent for the foreseeable future.

During the pandemic, there was a nationwide departure from big cities. For the first time in decades, urban centers saw populations decline as residents moved away from the cities and into the suburbs. This led some to believe that this was the start of a long-term trend and that it would be the death of big cities. During the first year of the pandemic, Seattle saw its population decline and the demand for housing dipped. 

People left the cities for several reasons. Some started families and needed more space and the start of the pandemic caused them to move earlier than they planned. Some wanted to save money and move to less expensive areas. Others saw remote work as an opportunity to live elsewhere. While the population did decline, the exodus didn’t last long 

2022 population

In 2022, Seattle saw a big population boom, recovering from its temporary decline. The population increased by just over 20,000 residents and bringing Seattle to a new record high of 762,500 residents. This has caused the demand for housing to rapidly increase, with what was already a housing shortage. 

Seattle outpaced the population growth of Snohomish County and Pierce County combined and grew faster than the rest of King county by a 2 to 1 margin. The return to the city could be because everything has opened back up and it could be because the cost/benefit of moving to the suburbs and exurbs became less pronounced as the housing supplies became stressed and rents increased. Some jobs didn’t stay remote and had their workers return to the office so some who left during the pandemic may have returned to avoid a commute. 

Looking forward

It looks like city life is alive and well and will continue the trend of people moving to urban centers that’s lasted thousands of years. The only thing that will slow this trend is the housing supply. If Seattle can’t increase the housing supply fast enough, rents will continue to increase rapidly and become less affordable for the average American.

Seattle has long been one of the fastest-growing cities in the country. While the weather may not be as good as California’s, it’s still very moderate and consistent compared to other regions in the United States. It also has a large and still growing tech industry with plenty of high-paying jobs. 

There’s a vibrant nightlife and music scene, some of the best restaurants in the world, and a breathtaking skyline. It’s easy to see why Seattle has become such a popular place to live. It has also become a popular place for real estate investors. What is it about the Seattle rental market that has made it attractive for both small landlords and large real estate firms? Here’s an overview to help explain the basics. 

Population growth

During the pandemic, like other cities, Seattle saw its population growth trend reverse and decline for the first time in years. This led some pundits and opinion columnists to suggest that maybe the era of urban growth had ended. People were finally over the city life and the suburbs is where the new population boom would take place. 

Continued population decline would be bad news for landlords and the economy as a whole in Seattle. While there would still be plenty of demand for housing even with a sustained population decline, it would mean the demand and the supply would become more balanced and slow the increase of rent. 

It would appear that the predictions of doom and gloom for urban life were a bit premature and the trend that’s lasted for thousands of years of people moving from less densely populated areas to more densely populated areas has continued. There are many reasons why people left the cities during the pandemic. Some did it for financial reasons. Some who had planned to leave the city in the future decided it was time. Some did it because they were able to work remotely. Regardless of the reason, people are either returning to the city, or it is seeing new residents moving in. 

In the last year, it is estimated the population of Seattle has increased by 20,100 residents. That’s a population growth of 2.7% and one that outpaces the rest of King County by almost 2 to 1. It’s also outpaced Snohomish and Pierce County combined. This is in line with a state that also saw its population grow by 1.3% over the last year. Not only will housing in Seattle continue to be in high demand, but so will housing in the rest of the state. 

Vacancy rate

How in-demand is housing in Seattle? Contrary to popular belief, new housing developments don’t sit vacant for years while developers collect tax write-offs. According to the most recent U.S. census data, the vacancy rate for both rental and home-buyer markets is the lowest they have been since the 1980s. This was also data that was collected during the pandemic which means the vacancy rates could be even lower now. 

This is an ideal market for landlords. Low vacancy rates mean tenants are unlikely to move, meaning you can increase rent accordingly without worrying about looking for new tenants. If your tenants do decide to move, in a tight rental market, you’ll have potential tenants competing for your rental unit instead of the other way around. 

Outside of major population or economic decline, the demand for housing should outpace the supply for the foreseeable future. It’s not just Seattle with low vacancy rates. According to a Washington State Study, the vacancy rate for apartments statewide fell from 4.2% to 3.6% in 2021. This means that tenants in the Seattle area looking for a less competitive market don’t have many options. 

The low vacancy rates are a nationwide trend. According to searches on Apartmentlist.com, many in the Seattle area searching to leave are looking for apartments in other low vacancy cities like Portland and Los Angeles and these are some of the same cities where people are searching for apartments to relocate in Seattle. 

Housing Supply

The construction of new housing over the decades has steadily declined and almost came to stop during the Great Recession. It took years for construction to ramp up after the recession and even then construction hasn’t increased fast enough to make up for the slow down during the recession. While some areas of the country and the northwest had a surplus of housing, most of those surpluses have quickly disappeared. 

16 metro areas across the northwest including Idaho, Washington, and Oregon all have major housing shortages. This has caused both home prices and rents to increase dramatically over the years. This means there aren’t many options for those who are looking for relief when it comes to the high cost of living. While some areas may be cheaper than others, the cost/benefit of living farther from the urban center may not be worth it anymore. 

Since the housing shortage is a regional problem, it’s not something that one city can address. Seattle can’t build enough homes in the city limits to handle the needs of the entire Seattle metropolitan area. While newer buildings can have downward pressure on older rental units, in the long run, rents will continue to increase as long as the construction isn’t outpacing the demand. 

Housing shortages often lead to crowding. This means you’ll have more people living in a unit than the desirable number. For example, two friends may be splitting a one-bedroom apartment or a couple in a one-bedroom unit instead of two bedrooms. This means you now have two incomes competing with people with one income for the same unit. The same goes for roommates who split a three or four-bedroom home where two parents have to compete with three or four incomes. These are some of the factors that will drive the rent up with a housing shortage. 

The shortage of homes is also causing the price of homes to increase as well. This makes buying a property to convert into a rental unit less attractive for those who don’t have a lot of capital. This means larger corporations can grow their businesses while smaller landlords are unable to compete in a tight market because they may have less capital. 

Housing construction

Housing construction hasn’t recovered from the Great Recession and that’s not just because people got spooked by concerns of another housing bubble. The lack of construction is because of a variety of factors. For example, some regions are running out of vacant land. Because land has become more scarce, the only other option to increase the supply of housing is to increase density. Washington, like the rest of the county, has very restrictive zoning and land use policies. 

Most of the zoning in the state is reserved for single-family homes making apartments or townhomes illegal almost everywhere. This puts more pressure on cities like Seattle to upzone and build more high-rises. The problem is Seattle has a number of its own hurdles that slow down the rate of construction. 

While the Seattle City Council did loosen laws regarding accessory dwelling units within the city, it is riddled with lengthy permit processes that are difficult to navigate. This means if you intend to build an accessory dwelling unit on your rental property, you’ll need to plan on it taking a long time. While ADUs can be effective in creating more middle-income housing units, it isn’t enough to tackle the entire housing crisis. 

Because the housing shortage is a regional issue, even when Seattle creates a path for more housing, it still isn’t enough. The problem needs to be resolved with the state legislature. In 2022, there were some attempts to pass legislation allowing small 6-unit apartment complexes near transit stops, but those bills died in committee. There’s another bill that would make allow for ADUs on single-family lots that have potential, but that won’t be enough to impact the shortage. 

Because of the restrictive zoning, land shortages, lengthy permitting process, and municipal building codes, the potential for a housing construction boom is very low. This means that unless the state of Washington takes drastic measures to allow for more housing to be built, Seattle will continue to deal with a housing shortage. 

Since any real estate investment needs to consider both short and long-term risks, the potential for housing construction is a valid concern. There are currently no signs that the state or even the city of Seattle are going to make the changes necessary to spur construction and even if they did, the impact of those changes would take time. Even with a housing shortage, rent increases can slow over time, but they should continue to increase and stay high over time. 

Rent increases

Rent is rapidly rising all over the country and is one of the main drivers of inflation. According to Apartmentslist.com, the national average for a rent increase is 10% over the last 12 months. Seattle’s average rent increase over the same period is slightly lower at 5.8%. This is partial because people in high-rent areas have been relocating to the few places that did have a housing surplus but have since vanished. 

Compared to similar major cities throughout the country like San Franciso and New York City, Seattle has the 5th highest median rent for a two-bedroom apartment. Cities with fewer apartments in the Seattle area have seen their median rent increase at an even faster pace than Seattle, and some of those cities have even higher rent. This is because those cities tend to have fewer one and two-bedroom apartments. 

Rent can vary depending on the neighborhood in Seattle as well. When it comes to buying a new unit or renting an old one, you’ll need to research what the typical rent for that neighborhood is. For example, Pike Place Market is the most expensive for one bedroom with an average price of $3,215 a month. The next highest has a significant drop and that’s South Lake-Union with an average rent of $2,771. 

The rate at which rent increases will depend on both the housing stock of the city and the neighborhood as well as how a housing unit fits into the demand of the neighborhood. If there is a huge demand for one-bedroom units for young professionals but the supply is low on one-bedroom, rent will increase even faster for one-bedroom. 

When it comes to investing in a new rental unit or deciding to rent out your current home, you’ll want to research not just what the overall rent is in the area. You’ll want to research the rent trends for similar units to the one you intend to lease. 

Mortgage rates

The high cost of housing can be a deterrent for those who are looking to enter into the rental market. Buying an investment property with a high mortgage payment is a risky endeavor. While the housing shortage means rent will continue to increase year over year, there’s a good chance the first few years you could break even, or take a loss. 

This means large investment groups with a lot of capital have a huge advantage in growing their business, while the small business landlord will find it difficult to grow their business. On the one hand, rent will increase on your current properties, on the other, there won’t be many opportunities to grow your business without taking on substantial risks. 

With interest rates increasing, there many situations where the mortgage payment will be substantially more than whatever you can collect with rent. In May of 2022, the average mortgage payment in Washington was $2,800 and the interest rates have since increased. The good news for landlords is this can keep new buyers out of the market because they would rather pay a few thousand dollars in rent than four or five thousand a month in mortgage payments. 

This can keep the demand for rental units higher for the time being and while it may be difficult to grow your business, you should see a steady increase in revenue. If you do have enough capital to continue to invest with the high mortgage rates, you can always refinance once interest rates drop. 

One way to slowly build your investment property portfolio is to upgrade your home every few years. This way you aren’t just buying investment properties and trying to rent them out. You’re buying a new home to live in while leaving a perfectly habitable home that is ready to rent immediately. You’ll have the added advantage of rent prices that won’t leave you taking a loss. This is a way you can slowly work your way up over the years from a studio condo all the way to a single-family home. As long as rents continue to increase, they should become even more profitable over time. 

Getting help 

Managing any small business can be difficult. Growing and managing a real estate business is extremely risky and difficult. You need to be knowledgeable in a wide range of fields where most large corporations will hire professionals for each area of expertise. You need to understand fair housing laws, finance, tax codes, maintenance requirements, and so on. 

One way to help manage your business is using software like Ziprent. Ziprent will help you manage your properties through [tenant placement services](https://www.ziprent.com/seattle-tenant-placement) to make sure you rent your properties quickly with the ideal tenants. You’ll also have access to local data to help you make decisions about how much to charge. 

Ziprent has quick and easy web portals for both landlords and tenants. This allows tenants to submit both rent payments and maintenance requests. Landlords can receive the payments and the money then gets directly deposited into your business account. The landlord web portal will also have access to in-depth reporting that used to be reserved only for the big real estate firms.

Consider getting help with legal and rental property tax deductions. The real estate industry and tax codes are complex and can take professionals years to learn how to navigate without creating unnecessary risk. Even if you can’t afford to hire anyone full-time, you can keep a lawyer and accountant on retainer to help you protect both yourself and your business from any liability. 

Finding a reliable broker can be incredibly helpful as well. They can keep an eye out for any properties that might interest you and notify you as soon as they go on the market. They can also help you with any information regarding zoning and housing laws to see if a lot has the potential for more units to be built on it. 

Don’t be afraid to ask for help. As a landlord, you take on a lot of work and risk. It’s a business and it’s important to treat it as such, not just some way to get passive income. The more seriously you take managing your properties, the easier it will be to grow and increase your personal wealth.

Want to explore property management solutions that are right for you? Give TurboTenant Autopilot a try.

When renting a home, thinking long-term about the maintenance of carpeting can be overlooked. This is because renters often don’t plan on staying in a home for more than a year at a time. With the low vacancy rates and housing shortages all over the country, tenants are finding themselves in leases for longer than they intended. This means the responsibility for regular care of the home falls on the tenants. Here are some tips for maintaining the carpets in your home: 

No shoes

Having a “no shoes” policy in your home can be difficult to enforce, especially when it comes to your daily movements, but it is one of the best ways to make sure you maintain a clean carpet. To help you and your guests get in the habit of removing shoes whenever stepping inside, keep a shoe rack and bench near the front door. You can also keep a set of indoor flip-flops and slippers for yourself and any guests so they don’t have to walk around barefoot. 

Clean stains immediately 

Don’t procrastinate when it comes to cleaning stains with a stain remover. If you’ve already had half a bottle of wine and you spill a little on the carpet, you might be inclined to put it off until later. If you’re in the middle of a meal and spill a little on the carpet, you might put it off until after you’re done eating, and this increase the risk of forgetting about it altogether. Keep a stain-remover nearby that you can quickly spray on any stain immediately that way it doesn’t set in and become more difficult to remove later. 

Indoor air quality

Depending on the climate, indoor air quality can have a big impact on the condition of your carpet. If you live in a dry climate, for example, dust and pollen can cover your carpet fairly quickly. Use indoor air filters to improve the air quality and remove the dust and pollen in the air before it settles in your carpet. The best way to do this is to set the air filters by any windows or places that get heavy airflow to capture any dust and pollen in the air. 

Don’t eat in carpeted rooms

This one can be difficult, especially if you enjoy eating in bed or while you’re watching TV. If you can resist the urge and keep all food consumption to the kitchen, your carpet will stay cleaner much longer. If you can’t resist the urge to eat while watching TV, be sure to use some sort of protective floormat or area rugs that can be easily replaced and protect the area of the carpet where you eat. 

Professional cleaning

Don’t forget to hire professionals to clean your carpet at least once a year. This is something renters often forget about when it comes to routine maintenance because they often don’t intend to stay in the home for more than a year. The best time to hire a professional to do a deep cleaning is after the rainy season has ended and you don’t have to worry about tracking in any mud or dirty water. While a deep cleaning once a year is a good idea, you can also hire professionals to do a steam cleaning of your carpet once a year as well to help keep your home clean and safe.

Cleaning is a never-ending process and we avoid doing it if it’s going to take a minute or an hour. Very few take pleasure in the act of cleaning. As a renter, you may be even less inclined to clean daily. If you’re one of the many people who wait until the very last minute to do any cleaning, here are a few tips for easy daily maintenance so you can suffer just a little less on your deep cleaning days. 

Keep handled vacuum close

You might be hesitant to clean your bathroom because you don’t want to deal with a big, cumbersome broom and dustpan. An easy way to handle dust build-up or loose hairs in your bathroom daily is to have a small handheld vacuum in your bathroom or nearby. This will help you keep your bathroom clean daily and make your weekly deep cleaning easier when the time comes. 

Install a hair catcher drain

A slow or clogged drain can quickly lead to an unsightly ring around your bathtub. This can happen in just a few days of a slow drain. One way to keep your drains from getting backed up is to block the hair from going down the drain in the first place. 

Squeegee the shower

Bathrooms can build up all kinds of dirt, grime, hard water stains, and soap scum in just a few days. One way to avoid your shower from building up any of these is to squeegee your shower after each use. Keep a squeegee in the shower and be sure to use it on the tiles and the shower doors. If you have houseguests, ask them to do the same during their visit. 

Use bins and containers

Keep all of your smaller items in the bathroom organized with bins and containers. This will help you avoid building up any clutter in the bathroom giving it an organized appearance. Keeping the smaller items in bins and containers will also make your daily cleanings quick and easy since you won’t have to declutter your bathroom every single time.

Keeping in regular contact with your tenants is important in helping to keep an open line of communication. They need to be kept up to date on repairs being done on the facility, any issues surrounding security and upkeep of the common areas, any rent increases, and any notices for when you will be on site. It’s also important not to communicate too frequently to the point it seems invasive to the tenant. Here is a guide for communicating with your tenants. 

Be professional and respectful

Use polite language when sending emails or speaking in person. “Please” and “thank you” can go a long way in helping your tenants feel respected. When communicating with tenants, it is best to think of them as customers or clients. In the long run, being respectful to your tenants and responsive to their needs can help lower your turnover. 

Automate

Depending on the number of units and tenants you have, you might want to consider automating any regular emails. This can be emails like rent-due notices, lease renewal reminders, and any other regular or semi-regular generic emails that are sent out to your tenants. These can be useful reminders for your tenants and automating can help save time and prevent any issues from forgetting to send an email. 

Contact during business hours

Just like when you get home, you prefer not to be contacted, tenants also don’t like to be contacted during their off time. Try to stick within reasonable business hours unless there is some sort of emergency. If your tenants do contact you about something that needs to be resolved immediately, it would then be OK to respond. Otherwise, a response can wait until the following day. 

Be responsive and accommodating

There should be multiple ways for your tenants to contact you. You should have a work email, an office phone number, a cell phone, and an emergency number for tenants to contact if something needs to be taken care of immediately at any time of the day. You should also have an online portal where tenants can log and submit any requests for maintenance and repairs. This will help you keep track of any tasks that need to be completed as well as keep a record of costs and repairs. 

Try to respond as fast as possible. Even if you don’t have an answer immediately, try to respond to let your tenants know you will be looking into the matter as soon as you get a chance. Keep a list of requests from your tenants to make sure you don’t forget because tasks should also be completed in a timely manner. 

Keep records

Keeping thorough records will help you keep track of incomplete tasks as well as any costs and time dedicated to resolving issues. Try to keep communications through documented mediums like email. If you speak to a tenant on the phone, you can send a follow-up email to the tenant confirming his request. Another great way to document requests is to have tenants submit them through a web portal. This will ensure all requests are kept in one place and can easily be referenced. 

We’re all human

Mistakes can be made, and tempers can rise. It’s important to be patient with your tenants. They can be frustrated, or going through rough times and may not be respectful in their communications. It’s your responsibility to be patient and respectful to your tenants. De-escalation can give your tenants a positive experience and improve future communications. It is also OK to admit any mistakes or errors on your end.