Hi, I'm Rob with the 1st Choice. I want to film this video today to kind of go over condition of property, what's expected in our market this day and age of 2018. There's a lot of stiff competition out there, and if you haven't done certain key things to your property, then you are certainly behind the curve.
So first thing we're looking at is Curb Appeal, what does the front look like, what does the house look like, what do the neighbors look like. Nobody wants to rent a property next to a neighbor that has their car on jack stands and oil dripping down the driveway. So you know, if you're looking to purchase an investment property, consider what is around the property you are about to purchase.
So walking up, the bushes right here could be boxed a lot better they in my opinion shouldn't be that tall, they're covering the window back there or a part of it. So we'll be taking care of that here very soon. You know, paint jobs matter. I like to have houses that have hue colors from the bricks. So we've got a little brown right there, got a lighter color right there, I look for earth tone shades and that's usually the best option. And nowadays looks like everybody's doing a different colored door; black, red. I've seen some nice blue doors, so those little things help certainly update the property and make them more appealing and that's the whole premise behind what needs to be done is the appealingness, we need to appeal to the masses.
So interior, this one's freshly painted, brand-new floor, brand-new carpet. All those aspects are tight and everything looks good. We do hard flooring through the main traffic areas. I personally in my properties isolate the carpet in the bedrooms only and everything else like said, all the high traffickers, we're going to be some sort of hard flooring. This one's a tile in vinyl plank flooring combination, I don't like using a whole lot of tile because here in Texas, foundations tend to have issues and the tile and the grout will start to have problems. So I prefer some sort of floating floor. This particular vinyl plank is a glue down which looks really good and less expensive than the click luxury vinyl plank. But the purpose of this floor is it moves with the foundation should things like that happen. It's easy to repair, it's basically indestructible, the whole house can flood and the one thing that's going to survive and you won't have any expense on them is the vinyl plank flooring. So if you don't have some sort of look like what I'm showing you right now, you are certainly again behind the curve on renting your property this day and age. So good looking flooring, we've got a multi shaded with browns. And what it does is it helps hide some staining that will come back up on carpets that are a lighter color. So we choose this type of carpet, it's got more of a shine to it. So when the resident is cleaning it, vacuuming, it releases a lot more dirt and allows it to come up into the vacuum.
So two-tone paint, most cases, it's trim and doors and ceilings that are all white. And then a different shade of paint on the walls. I think this one is emits a Sherwin-Williams gray, I think it's worldly gray or it might be amazing gray; it's one of those shades. So it's one of the newer shades that we're using in our particular properties. But what you're looking for is a nice clean sterile look. If it's broke, fix it. If it's meant to operate a certain way, make it operate that way. If it just looks ugly or it's painted ugly or it's just the wrong color or you have the wrong blinds or you don't have fans in the bedrooms or your countertops are just not up to par, do something about it. Granite is a good option these days; it's pretty, fairly inexpensive compared to you rather 5-8 years ago when granite was really starting to come out into people's property. So now it's cost-effective for your rental properties. So I would certainly consider it because a stone top is far more durable than a formica or a wood countertop. But again I mean, I can sit there and walk through this property all day long and talk. I don't want to bore you that much, but the condition of property means everything and this is what you need to compete in this market. If you want the better tenants, you want the higher valued rent, this is what it takes. Thanks for watching.
