How to cut costs when giving your buy-to-let property a make-over

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Maintaining a buy-to-let property is far more of a headache than financial gurus would have you believe. While it can be a great source of passive income, managing a rental property involves a huge amount of hidden costs that eat into your profit margin, keep you invested in the day-to-day functioning of the property (rather than enjoying your ‘passive’ income), and even lead you into financial hot water.

What’s more, as you cycle through various tenants, it is inevitable that you will have to give the property a make-over at some point to ensure it looks fresh, attractive, and worth the rental price you are asking for.

Thankfully, you can definitely cut costs when you are giving your rental property a make-over – it just requires a little ingenuity on your part. For example, you could focus on making changes that look the most impactful – such as painting walls and hanging interesting prints – which don’t actually cost much money.

Furthermore, you may want to use cost-effective transportation services, which can reduce your overhead costs when moving fresh furniture into the property. Here are some great tips for giving your buy-to-let property a make-over on a budget:

Use cost effective transportation methods

When you are maintaining a rental property, one of your most expensive tasks will actually be the process of shifting old, worn furniture out of the property and moving new furniture into it.

The reason why this costs a significant amount of money is because of the transportation methods you may need to use to complete the process. For example, you may have to hire a van, truck or even ship items across multiple states or countries.

This can become eye-wateringly expensive, so why not look for the most cost-effective transportation methods. If you need to move furniture long-distance, then LTL freight shipping is a sensible option. This is because less-than-load freight is cheaper on Shiply, due to the fact that you aren’t taking up the whole capacity.

Buy good condition second-hand furniture 

Following on from the previous tip about refreshing the furniture in your rental property every so often, you shouldn’t blindly buy brand-new items because you presume they will have the biggest impact.

In fact, if you are on a budget, then fitting cheap new furniture actually has a negative effect. Your tenants will no doubt recognize the pieces from their local home stores, and it will tell everyone that you have penny pinched.

Instead, why not search for high-quality (or even designer) furniture on the used market? By doing this, it will look like you have invested a lot of money in expensive furniture, and they will likely be items that the tenants have not seen in countless rental properties before.

Focus on cheap, high-leverage changes

The best way to give your buy-to-let a make-over on a budget is to focus on the cheapest yet highest leverage changes. What this means is that you want to start by repainting walls in bright, impactful colors, hanging interesting prints that give your property more personality, or simply rearranging the layout of furniture in different rooms. By making these small, cheap changes, you will make a big difference to the look of your house without breaking the bank.