6 Tips to Tell Your Renters About Customizing Their Rental

By Elana Goodwin on October 22, 2015

As a student housing property manager, the renters of your apartments and houses will mostly be college students who are no doubt eager to customize their rental and make it their own over the duration of their lease.

This can be tricky as you obviously don’t want your renters to ruin or decrease the value of the rental or make permanent changes to the property, but you do want them to have a good experience living there as it is their home for as long as they choose to rent it.

Here are 6 tips you can tell your renters about customizing and decorating their rental.

Photo Credit: rent.com

1. Rugs are their friends. Your rental property might have wall-to-wall carpet in some rooms and tile or other flooring elsewhere in the rental and your renters may not love the color, texture, or general feel of the flooring that comes with the property. While getting rid of whatever unliked floor or carpet is not an option, a great tip for your renters is to purchase fun and colorful throw rugs for their home.

Rugs are a great way to accent a room’s decor or brighten up a space, and they’re easy to take care of. Plus, they actually somewhat protect whatever flooring you’ve already got in there so they’re a win-win for you and your renter.

2. The walls are their canvas. I don’t mean that literally, of course. Renters usually know that they’re not allowed to paint their walls a different color unless okayed by their landlord and that they should avoid making unnecessary holes in the walls when it comes to hanging stuff up.

But your renters still have lots of options when it comes to decorating the blank walls of their home — from hanging up photos to artwork to vinyl wall decals to collages. And while sometimes hammering a nail into the wall is required, there are lots of ways for your renter to customize their walls using tape (in which case, blue painter’s tape is the best to use as it won’t peel paint off the walls when it comes time to take the decor down).

3. Add curtains. You may already provide curtains or blinds in your rental properties, but chances are they’re older or not necessarily “pretty” ones – they’re just functional.

Renters can easily customize their place by purchasing new curtains or blinds and hanging them up, choosing ones that complement their decor, that allow more light in, etc., and at the end of their lease, they can re-install the original ones that came with the property.

Photo Credit: apartment-house.org/

4. Accessorize, accessorize, accessorize. Since customization options for a rental can be limited, advise your renters to accessorize. Throw pillows, vases, plants, memo boards, candles, and more, are great ways for your tenants to put a fun flair on the space and make it their own. Window boxes can provide your renter with a sense of nature and spring, even in the winter, and can provide some color.

Just be sure to remind your renters to be careful if and when they light candles in their rental and to keep them away from flamable objects and to not leave them burning too long (or their smoke alarm could go off).

5. Update the light fixtures. As a property manager, you may opt more for durability when it comes to selecting light fixtures but allowing your renters to switch them out for others if they choose won’t cost you anything and is an easy way for renters to feel they’ve put their stamp on their home.

Whether your rental has overhead lighting, wall sconces, or something else, allow your renters to update or switch out the fixtures if they choose for the duration of their lease. Just tell your renters to be sure to hang onto the original light fixtures or bulbs and switch them back before moving out.

6. Buy colorful furniture. While you may not be okay with your renters painting the walls of your rental, you can advise them to buy colorful furniture or paint their furniture to add some color to their rooms.

Couches, dressers, tables, chairs, bookshelves, etc., all can be colorful additions to a space if your renters want them to be, and they won’t risk their security deposit or impact the value of your property.

Making a rental seem like home can be difficult — so share these tips with your renters to help them figure out how to put their temporary stamp on your rental property and make their time there a little comfortable and homey.

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