Why You Should Make Your Rental Property a Smart Home

If you own a rental property and you want to maximize the return on your investment, you will need to be competitive, especially as we head into the winter months. As the market slows down, renters are more particular about the home they are going to live in. To attract good tenants and get a higher rental income, you will want to make sure your property is up-to-date and in good condition, and if you want your property to stand out even more, you can add smart home features. One study showed that 57% of the tenants they surveyed would be willing to pay more for rent if the property has smart home features. Here are some of the reasons why renters want smart home features and how installing them will also benefit you.

Savings

A smart thermostat is one of the most popular smart home features you will want to consider installing. The majority of the average household’s energy bill goes toward heating and cooling, but using a smart thermostat can reduce the bills by 10% to 15%. If you have a smart thermostat, this makes your rental more desirable since the tenants know they’ll be spending less on utilities. It will benefit you by reducing the amount you pay for the billing periods when the property is vacant, and since you’re working to create a more desirable property, you can anticipate a shorter vacancy period.

You can give yourself another benefit for the transitions between tenants by installing smart locks. The cost of rekeying varies by vendor, but it tends to get expensive. Some owners don’t rekey when tenants move out because of the cost, but this is a liability issue that you should avoided at all costs. Do yourself a favor and pay the cost of rekeying or, better yet, install smart locks. This way, there are no keys involved and you can simply change the code between tenants. After enough property turns, the smart look will pay for itself.

Convenience

Smart locks aren’t just good to have between tenants. They can also be advantageous during the lease term. You would be surprised how easily people can lock themselves out of their homes and how often it happens. With smart locks, you never have to worry about getting the call that your tenants locked themselves out of the house and they need your help getting back in. There won’t be any keys involved since they’ll be able to get in simply by inputting a code.

Keys can especially be a pain where maintenance is concerned. There will be times when urgent maintenance needs to be completed on the home and you’ve given appropriate legal notice of entry for the vendor to come by the property and complete the work, but the tenant has let you know they won’t be home at that time to let the vendor in. With traditional locks, this becomes a case of key juggling where either the vendor has to make a trip to pick up the key from you or you have to make time to drop the key off to the vendor. With smart locks, you can simply give the code or a temporary code to the vendor so they can access the property.

Safety

Given the choice between two comparable properties, many tenants would choose the one they feel most safe in, so if you have home security features, this could increase the desirability of your property. Cameras are one of the most common features used in home security, but if your property has a video doorbell or cameras, you will need to manage these in a way that stays clear of privacy concerns. An easy way to do this is to fully disconnect any accounts you have set up and to have the tenant create their own accounts.

Alternately, you could forego installing cameras and use motion detecting lights as a subtler way of steering shady folk away from the property, and you could give your tenant the option of installing their own cameras if they would like, under the condition they restore the home to the condition they got it in when they vacate so they don’t leave behind holes in the walls from the cameras, for though you want happy tenants, you also want to protect your investment so you can keep your property’s market value up and continue to maximize your rental income.