For most people, the book’s cover is the most critical part. The impression a product or service makes on them at first glance is still the most significant part of their buying decisions.
When they like what they see, they are eager to see if that first impression is accurate.
That is why when promoting anything, half the battle is about grabbing attention in the first few seconds of encountering your potential customer.
That is true whether you are selling burgers or marketing a rental property. The first impression is often the lasting impression.
People need a compelling reason to want what you are offering, and none is as convincing as an emotional one. Everyone likes to think they make their buying decisions from logic.
But you need to establish the emotional appeal of a product or service before reasoning can come into the picture.
That’s why, as the Castle Property Management team says, when you are looking to attract new tenants to your rental property, the exterior and interior elements of the home matter. Bear in mind that your potential tenants will be approaching from the outside.
They will first encounter the home from the outside before seeing the inside. Therefore, it is paramount that the external features of the property are so appealing that a potential renter’s mind is half-made up just from seeing the home from the outside.
How do you do this?
The natural place to begin when trying to give your rental property the kind of magnetic charm that makes renters fall in love with it is landscaping. The home’s landscaping is the most pervasive element of the home’s exterior.
Slight changes to the landscaping will have a multiplier effect on the rest of the property. What are the simple things you can do to the landscaping to transform your rental property today?
Seven simple landscaping changes that will make your rental more attractive
1. Start with the entryway
The entryway is the place to start because it is the focal point for visitors to the home. You don’t want dead plants or overgrown bushes around the front entryway.
A minimalist approach like colored stones, decomposed granite, and classic garden beds will make a great impression.
If you want a more defined entryway, add stonewalls with plants. But do not overlook the importance of features like the mailbox, door knockers, and house numbers.
2. Plant ground cover plants
Ground cover plants help to break up the monotony of lawn grass. They reduce the quantity of lawn grass you need to plant and the amount of lawn maintenance the yard needs. Ground cover crops of the flowering variety attract bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds to the yard.
If you choose to add large colored stones to your cover crops, you can create a unique and natural-looking landscape at a minimal cost.
3. Include some hardscaping
Hardscaping is the name for all the non-living elements of landscaping. Hardscaping adds diversity and areas of interest to the landscaping. You can also use them to expand the functionality of your yard.
The Hardscaping feature also helps to reduce the amount of lawn grass you need. Examples of simple hardscaping features include; rock gardens, retaining walls, stone or concrete benches, stone walkways, and clay pots.
4. Add color and fragrance
Colorful plants and flowers add the kind of natural charm that is very hard, if not impossible, to recreate artificially. Fragrant plants will stir visitors’ curiosity and make them want to discover more. Fragrant and colorful plants add loads of visual interest, scents, and scenes to the home. If you need to make the most of these plants, choose plants that bloom in different seasons.
5. Create a sitting area
A sitting area adds more functionality to the home. It gives your tenants additional ways to use the outdoors. They are great for entertaining guests and give your renters a comfortable place to enjoy the outdoors.
The sitting area does not have to be an elaborate outdoor room. All you need is the bare minimum, namely decent flooring and something to provide shade (adding a trellis will suffice).
6. Lighting is critical
Good lighting is vital for advertising the home and expanding the number of hours tenants can stay outdoors. Good lighting should be functional as well as aesthetic. The lighting should light up key areas of the outdoors like the entryway and walkways.
Deploy lighting to highlight prominent features of the yard. When designing the lighting, keep in mind to cover the different levels of the landscaping (ground level, medium height, and high).
7. Keep it low maintenance
Good landscaping does not need to be complicated and expensive to maintain. One of the reasons to use ground cover crops and hardscaping features in the landscape is because those additions don’t require too much attention.
To protect your time, reduce operational costs, and make tenants’ lives easier, make landscaping maintenance as easy as possible.
