Self Help

Many owners of small rental properties don’t realize the necessity of spotlessly cleaning the apartments or houses. Many owners seem to take the view, “Why clean the place thoroughly? The tenants will leave it like a pig sty anyway.” But actually it’s this bad attitude that often brings about the unwanted result.

When rental units aren’t meticulously maintained, top-quality renters are turned off. They go elsewhere. It is those tenants who accept units with dirt encrusted windows and light fixtures, stained carpets, grease-layered stoves, or dust-laden windows blinds who are likely to treat your property as a pigpen.

If you display a pride of ownership cleanliness, you will not only attract a better class of tenants, you’ll demonstrate to your tenants the degree of cleanliness you expect. When some new property owners first became a landlord, they tend to operate with the “why clean thoroughly” attitude. However, after seeing how badly tenants can wreck a property, it’s easy to reduce standards. But, you will soon see that that it’s a self-defeating downward cycle.