As a landlord, you are undoubtedly familiar with the many difficult decisions one has to make about what kinds of improvements to make to one’s rental properties and how to implement those improvements. In a rapidly fluctuating rental market such as the one we are in today, it can be hard to know precisely the return on investment on any given improvement.
One of the most common improvements landlords tend to make to rental properties is adding a fence. But what exactly goes into the decision to add a fence? There are several benefits and potential drawbacks to adding a fence to your rental property. But whichever choice you end up making, the most important thing is that you have the will and resources to invest in a sturdy, high-quality fence – because a cheap one will be a short–term solution at best, with none of the long-term benefits. Read on to hear our suggestions on things to consider when adding fencing to one or several of your rental properties.
Potential Benefits to Fencing Your Rental Properties
If you read this article, you are probably already tempted to buy fencing materials and have a fence built for your rental property. Some of the benefits of doing so are obvious – for one, fences are nice to look at, and who doesn’t want their rental property to be a bit more beautiful? But there are other potential benefits to adding fencing to your rental property that you may not have considered.
Attract More Renters
For one, fencing at a rental property will likely help attract more families to rent your unit. Why is this the case? Well, families with children often like to let their children play outside but can’t always keep as close an eye on them as they would like to. Parents can comfortably allow their children to play in their front or back yard with a fence while keeping only a distant eye on them. Parents will have to worry less about their children running into the street, getting lost, or even being scooped up by predators. When families picture their ideal home, they tend to envision the classic “white picket fence” image – and for good reason!
And if you are attracting more families, you are also attracting more reliable renters! Plus, the more families live in a neighborhood, the higher the property values. So adding a fence and attracting families to your rental property can be a sound investment.
Allow for Gardening
Fences are also good for renters who like to garden. Suppose you have a small garden or unused plot in the front or back of your property. In that case, some potential tenants may be attracted to the opportunity to pursue their favorite hobby in their own yard by planting and tending to a garden. With a fence, potential gardener tenants can be more confident that various pests will have a more challenging time getting to their treasured plants.
Keep Animals Out
Fences can also be good for preventing neighborhood pets from using the bathroom on your lawn. This is a benefit not only to the tenants, who don’t want to pick up a stranger’s dog’s feces but for you too. Anyone driving by a rental property with animal poop in the yard is naturally going to evaluate it slightly more harshly and be willing to pay slightly less.
Risks to Consider When Fencing Your Rental Property
While there are many potential benefits to be gained from adding a fence to one or several of your rental properties, it is also essential to consider some of the potential drawbacks and issues when adding fencing.
Maintenance
Most importantly, you can’t look at a fence as an addition that you add to the rental property and forget about. For fences to serve their purposes of adding beauty to your property and keeping things in and out of the said property, they have to be functional and well-maintained.
Wood is the most likely material to rot, decay, and break, and although it can be beautiful, it will require more regular maintenance than you are probably willing to invest in a rental property. For this reason, it’s probably best to avoid wooden fencing when working on a rental property. One good alternative to wood is vinyl, which can often look strikingly similar to wood, but stands up to harsh weather conditions much better than wood does. And at Fencing Direct, we offer several different varieties of vinyl fencing which can be shipped straight to you at an excellent price!
Access
Another thing to consider when fencing a rental property is access. Some fences can be easily seen over and through, while other “privacy fences” can offer almost complete protection from outside eyes. Some tenants may be attracted to the seclusion that privacy fences offer, but keep in mind that they may be keeping your eyes off the property as well as everyone else’s.
Most landlords will want to make sure that their tenants aren’t piling trash in the front yard of their property, and with a privacy fence, you can’t be sure that you’ll know. Consider an aluminum fence for your rental property because you can easily see the yard’s condition.
Price
Finally, you need to think about not just the price of installing the fence but of maintaining it. No matter how sturdy of a fence you buy, accidents happen, and you will want to buy something affordable to fix and install. For this purpose, we recommend aluminum fencing.
At Fencing Direct, our aluminum fencing is far sturdier than wood but affordable enough that if something does happen to it, it can be fixed for a fraction of the cost that you bought the entire fence for.
