I can offer some suggestions based on experience. Avoid spending higher dollars on details and cosmetics as you would on a home you live in. Too difficult to recoup the initial cost and there will be higher than average wear and tear and occupant turn-over compared to homeowner occupied so your costs to repair/replace items will be more frequent. (New roof doesn't count if it's needed.) That's not a bash against renters, I rented myself back in the day. It's just the way that ball bounces. Keep it simple, tidy, and as universally appealing (neutral) as possible, particularly the interior. Avoid top of the line, especially when it comes to interior details such as paint/flooring/fixtures. Instead go for durable, economical, neutral and snag what you can (faucets, fixtures) on clearance or a good sale. A quality faucet on clearance will get a lot more mileage than a cheapie at full retail. That is doable without ending up with a mishmash interior.

Don't paint the brick. (I wouldn't anyway.) It's costly, labor intensive, higher maintenance in the long run (more $ spent) and highly unlikely you'll be able to charge more rent for that kind of cosmetic change over what you can get as-is. It looks perfectly acceptable as-is (including shutter and door colors unless that's in need of fresh paint). If brick needs a spruce up now or later, you could pressure wash it without worry of blasting paint off.

Any landscaping you're not willing to maintain yourself, don't put it in (or remove what's there, I see evergreens). I landscaped the front of one house years ago to make it more appealing, and did it on a dime. Looks really good, but the various tenants in that house have shown zero interest in doing that kind of maintenance. So to keep it from becoming an overgrown mess of shrubs with mulch filled with weeds, it's up to me or pay someone. With the other houses that have no landscaping (aside from shade trees), not once have I been asked if landscaping can be put in.

I could write a book on this, lol. Certainly not all bad, but there are ways to save yourself headaches and $ . Don't want to do that here, so feel free to email me via my GW page if you like.

Moon, Thank you for that excellent and practical help. I need a lot of it. I may change the work order I gave the contractor on a few things based on what you've said. The door needs painted, not so much the shutters. I'll take everything you've said into consideration. This is great stuff.

I hoping others weigh in on the colors since the door does need to be painted. thanks!

I think the house looks fine....for colors...I would go with hunter green either for just the door or door and shutters. I like charcoal as well, but it might be too much with the dark gray roof. If you want to do charcoal, I would just do the door and keep the shutters a creamy off-white as they appear now.

A vote for a black or fresh white door -- easy to simply touch up if needed later.

Excellent advice above!

Clean and fresh and neutral interior -- basic white paint.

Take photos of all of the rooms, hallways, appliances, furnace AND the outside area too! Print out some real photos and stash them in a binder. Date and sign each and every one. Worth the time and effort!!!! :)

I'd go with a color for the door (blue, green, red).
Interior I'd go with one of the true standbys, e.g Manchester Tan, Edcombe Gray, not stark white. Google "paint color for rentals." I have paint colors along these lines, and my tenants went gaga over the colors as it looks more "upscale" than plain white.
Interesting suggestion by Annie re. asking tenants to fix small things up to a certain amount. I'd only be worried that they want to save the 50.00 for a repair, resulting in more damage later. I'm telling my tenants to inform me of immediately if there are leaks, cracks, and other issues that could lead to potentially more serious problems.

I'm partial to BM Briarwood for the door. It goes well with the brick and is light enough in color to be welcoming, but not too light to show every bit of dirt.

Here is a link that might be useful: Briarwood

Is this your first rental house investment? I would only do what is absolutely necessary to attract a good quality tenant for the market segment. It does not look like a house that needs paint to me.

My sister had a rental and did what I thought was a really a smart thing. She determined how much rent to charge monthly, and then added the cost of weekly lawn maintenance to the rental amount. When she advertised the availability, she listed the rental as including weekly lawn maintenance. People loved the fact that lawn maintenance was included and they did not have to do yard work. (My sister loved that she did not have to worry about the yard being kept up.) Unbelievably, she had people "bidding" against each other to rent the house simply because weekly lawn maintenance was included.

This post was edited by walnutcreek on Thu, Dec 5, 13 at 15:46

We've owned multiple rental homes and my advice is similar to every one else plus add a clause to the lease that assures that the tenant call you if they want to make any changes. You don't want to know one of my nightmares involving a tenant to decided to change the look. Suffice it to say that the beautiful cabinets were painted shiny black. I learned quick. I would also put mats outside the door that encourages them to wipe their feet if you have all wood flooring. It saves on refinishing them when they move.

I return after a long and taxing day at work and am so glad to see all the wonderfully helpful responses. Y'all crack me up with your stories.

Annie, Judge Judy? Smoking vans? Funny but also scary. I don't have the stomach for such scenarios.

Joanie, thanks for this color suggestions. dH also said hunter green. Might try that.

Teacats, white or cream/off white? I could simply repair the door with the same color if you mean off white.

Nosoccermom, nice color suggestions. Can someone please photoshop some of those colors for me, pretty please?

but it is good to know that I should take pictures of everything now. That would've never occurred to me.

So, the consensus is do the minimum necessary. Yes, this is our first rental. The house is in a good location, decent neighborhood, and close to the state flagship unit and area hospitals. So I want to be able to attract a young couple or a professional student or grad students rather than undergrads. The inside is in very good condition except for a couple of small repairs that need to be made. Nice colors, nice parquet flooring everywhere.

Suero, the briarwood is interesting. I'm having a hard time visualizing that color against the brick (not that I don't like it, but can even imagine it to know whether I like it if that makes sense).

mtnredoux (autocorrect is killing me here), yes this is our first rental. I'd like to get a young couple or grad/professional student, on the quiet side and responsible. We live about 6 miles from this location, but it is a decent neighborhood.

Yayagal, and others, thanks for all the great suggestions on necessary provisions in the lease document. So helpful

Thanks everyone.

As this is a first rental for you, it would be helpful to seek out a primer in landlording in your community so you are clear on what your responsibilities are, what tenants are responsible for, when you can and can't do something, some basics on eviction proceedings, etc.

My brother rented a house to someone who wasn't paying rent so he left. Unbeknownst to my brother, a gf had moved in who was super saavy of rental laws. All she had to do was show the court that she received a piece of mail in her name at that location and she was considered a resident. So then brother had to go through the process of evicting her even though she never rented from him...and she knew all the moves...showed up late to the court saying she couldn't find the court room so her case was continued, etc. It took months to remove her. I always thought how much good she could've done if she used her astuteness with the law for good.

Not that any of these things will happen to you...there are good tenants out there who pay and some who even take better care of the home than you would. But there are some rotten apples out there too.

Mother found her best bet was rental applications with references so she could vet things like income, references from prior landlords, etc. Though even that didn't work with one guy who worked hard, made good money, but had a gambling addiction and was in hock up to his ears....that was before FICO scores....don't know if you can get them as part of the rental process....

This post was edited by AnnieDeighnaugh on Fri, Dec 6, 13 at 7:13

bump

Annie, thanks you so much. Great suggestion. I'm an attorney but my areas of expertise are pretty much useless on most real life matters, but I can easily brush up on real estate, lease laws pretty quickly. Will do that this weekend.

Anyone willing to kindly photoshop a few colors for me? If someone can show the doors and shutters in a dark charcoal grey or black, and also just the door in a grey or black and the shutters as is, I'd very much appreciate it. The shutters are in a good condition, but the door needs painting. Not sure if that means that the shutters need painted too or just the door. Hence the request for the two different options. Thank you so much.

Anyone willing to kindly photoshop a few colors for me? If someone can show the doors and shutters in a dark charcoal grey or black, and also just the door in a grey or black and the shutters as is, I'd very much appreciate it. The shutters are in a good condition, but the door needs painting. Not sure if that means that the shutters need painted too or just the door. Hence the request for the two different options. Thank you so much.

If you want you can upload the pic yourself to the ben moore or pittsburgh paints or sherwin williams and play with the colors yourself.

I had a long distance rental years ago. I included once a month cleaning service in the rent. It attracted great tenants and I think it kept them from thinking they could trash the place. The cleaning service had instructions to let me know if anything was damaged, etc. We rented long distance for 6 years and when we sold the realtor was impressed with how nice the place looked. We had not set foot in it for 3 years.

Wow! Ok,house cleaning and lawn service will be added to the rent. We initially thought of this as a way to transition our mildly autistic son who attends the university close by to semi-independence, but we aren't sure he is ready yet. So the idea of buying a house for him morphed into investing in a rental. I'll keep all these wonderful suggestions in mind when renting.

I still would like some help with photoshopping, and am actually begging at this point. Thank you!

DD owns a rental long-distance and now uses a mgmt company who handles actual rental applications, rent collection and maintenance issues. At first she did it herself, and found that though her first renters were a professional couple, they were notoriously a few days or week late with rent. They stayed for over 5 years, but she continually had to call about the late rent and deal with maintenance issues. So unless you're ok with hassling for the rent, you might consider a mgmt company. We've been looking into buying a rental and decided for us, we'll use a company to manage it. We also decided as was suggested above to include lawn service since we want to keep the neighborhood looking good. The mgmt company we interviewed said they include in the lease that they'll be doing a walk-through every 2 months. They've found this keeps the rentals looking much better and picks up any issues (like others moving in with the renter or pet problems) before they become nightmares. I like the idea suggested above to include monthly cleaning--worth trying, especially if you're handling the rental yourself.

Thanks Sujafr. DH also wants to handle everything through a property management company. Will look at the options in this city and contact the ones that seem satisfactory. Thanks for everyone's input. Will keep everyone posted on the developments.

Not photoshop, but the best I can do.

BM Black 2132-10
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Blacker
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BM Hunter Green 2041-10
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BM Sherwood Forest 2048-10
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BM Kendall Charcoal HC-166
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I don't have Briarwood on my program. This is as close as I could come
{{!gwi}}

This post was edited by marti8a on Mon, Dec 9, 13 at 13:44

As a long-time landlord ... unless it's butt-ugly, don't bother with the cosmetics.

Put your money into the necessary repairs and go for clean and easy to maintain in neutral colors.

Look at commercial vinyl and carpeting for long-lasting and good looking at a lower price point. The best carpet I ever had in a rental was a medium taupe tweed level loop with "confetti" sprinkles of other colors. No matter what the tenants had, it went with the carpet.

Marti8a, thank you! Can I beg you to do the shutters in black too along with the door? I'm going to have to spend some time learning to photoshop. Please help with shutters and door in black. Thank you.

Lazygardens, the house has no carpet. Nice parquet flooring everywhere except kitchen and bathrooms. I'm having the kitchen floor redone to change the old linoleum to tile. The house is in very good condition. No need to paint anywhere except to paint over the wallpaper in the bathrooms. The bathrooms have the old-timey tiled walls (toothpaste green in one and orangey beige in another) with coordinating tiles on the floor. They look really outdated but in very good condition. I've decided to not to change them, but to simply have the upper half of the walls painted over the current wallpaper. The laundry room paint looks bad, so it will be painted. An add-on den in the back has no heat/AC so a window unit is being put. The covered patio has a very old outdoor carpet that will be ripped out and the concrete underneath will be painted with slick resistant paint.

Other than that, and a new roof, everything appears to be in good order and is not being changed. Does anyone think any of these repairs is unnecessary? If so, which one(s)? Would live to get everyone's input. Thanks.

This post was edited by nutsaboutplants on Sun, Dec 8, 13 at 22:38

I'll try tomorrow. I was putting the BM color chip with the door colors when we lost power, and now my internet isn't working right. Tech support won't be available until tomorrow morning for some reason.

Please don't go out of your way, Marti8a. I completely understand about the internet connection acting up. Thanks.

You don't need to learn photo shop. You can upload our pic to the pittsburgh paint web site...their coloring software is very easy to use and very intuitive...just define the areas you want to change the color on and then select the color. It works better than the ones at BM or SW.

Ok, I have internet for now. Here is BM Black (which isn't all that black) and a darker black I created. I have a neighbor who painted her front door a dark black so I know it's possible from somewhere.

BM Black
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Blacker:
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btw, we had indoor outdoor carpet on a small porch one time. It was more like astroturf. We ripped it off thinking we would tile the porch, but we couldn't get the glue off.

Marti8a, aren't you sweet? Thank you so kindly.

Annie, once I saw your post, I tried Pittsburgh Paint's digital painting tool, but I'm obviously doing something wrong, because the whole thing becomes winter grey, like Narnia under the spell of that wicked queen.

Now that I can see the shutters and door in black, I like it, but I kind of like the original off white too. Should I bother painting the door and shutters black or just paint them the same original off white? Thanks everyone.

You're very welcome.

I matched your brick to a BM color - Red Rock, and put one of BM's suggested color sets with it.

I think your colors are fine as they are, but your paint looks like it has a yellow tone and your brick a pink tone. So if you are going to paint, I'd go with all pink tones.

{{!gwi}}