Till recent past, most renters were mostly concerned with good neighborhood and a unit that was full of amenities for them. However, more and more renters are now interested in moving into properties that are green and environment friendly. Packing your rental property with such features and advertising them as highlights helps landlords in attracting large numbers of environment conscious tenants. These rental properties not only help in conservation of environment but also appeal to Millennials and other young renters. Many studies have been conducted on this subject where participants have said that they are ready to pay a higher rent if they find the property energy efficient and sustainable. Making your rental income property green is thus not only desirable but also great for higher returns on investment. Here are some interesting ways to go green and appear environment conscious in the eyes of your potential renters.
Energy efficient appliances
Most of the environment conscious renters rated energy efficient appliances very high when it came to choose a property for a living. These appliances are considered as a green feature by these renters as they know they can help them save a lot of money on utility bills.
Proximity to amenities
A rental property that is high on walkability is the first preference of most renters. Tenants dislike being forced to take out their cars every time they need one or the other thing for the household. They love to find shops, grocery stores, restaurants, and parks near their building. The property becomes highly desirable when it is within a walking distance to public transportation. Proximity to amenities saves their time, effort, and fuel and they are willing to pay a higher rental for walkability.
Recycling facilities
One feature that attracts environment conscious renters to a building is recyclability. This is one feature that can be easily added by the landlord to property without spending lots of money. Make sure to offer containers for different materials that can be recycled with a guide on how they will be recycled. Renters love to contribute to the recycling efforts of the landlord and feel proud to be a part of this campaign.
Better insulation through windows and doors
Tenants are attracted to properties that enjoy a high degree of insulation as it helps in keeping the interiors warm during winters and cold during summers. Tenants are also able to save a lot of their money on electricity that is used for cooling and heating of the building.
Energy efficient lights
LED lights are not only white and cool, but they also consume less electricity than traditional incandescent bulbs. Tenants love buildings where the landlord has replaced all traditional light bulbs with LED bulbs as it indicates his love for the environment. LED bulbs are also long lasting, so tenants are not required to replace them often.
Paperless management
As a landlord, you can make your property green if you give up the use of paper and do most of your online and digitally. This is a great way to reduce your carbon footprint. You can make available all kinds of forms to your applicants online and store important information on the cloud. Instead of printing documents, you can send them digitally to your tenants in the form of email attachments. Take payments digitally instead of checks to save paper as much as possible.
In the end, it would be correct to say that tenants love to live in buildings where they see their landlords working to save the environment. They appreciate all features that are aimed at conservation of environment and agree to pay a higher rent to get a chance to live in a green property.
If you’d like to talk more about property management, or you need help with Everest Property Management, please contact us at Everest Realty.
As a top producing Realtor and Property Manager; Terry specializes in sales, extensive construction homes, rentals, REO’s, short sales, and all aspects of Real Estate. After graduating the University of Michigan with a master in MBA, Terry continued his endeavor and now has over 15+ years of experience in the Real Estate world. If there is anything that has to do with Real Estate and sales, you can always be sure of Terry to provide important, specialized knowledge.
