Earning as much rent as you can on your property is part of maximizing both your short-term and your long-term income. If you aren’t pricing your Merced rental property correctly, you could be leaving money on the table. You’ll also have a difficult time raising the rent to market levels if you start at a place that’s below what good tenants are willing to pay.

At River Drive Properties, we’re aggressive when it comes to pricing your property. We want to make sure our owners and investors are earning exactly what they should be. We’ll also make some recommendations when appropriate on how to increase your rental value.

Here are some of the metrics we use to establish the right rental price for your property.

Understanding the Merced Rental Market

Before you price your Merced rental property, you need to understand the strength of the Merced rental market. This is going to have the largest impact on your rental value. We’ll determine what the competition looks like, and we’ll analyze what those competing properties are renting for.

Time of year actually impacts how much you can earn. If your property is vacant in the late spring and early summer, we know we can really push the rental amount towards the higher end of the standard range, because there are more tenants willing to move and looking for new homes during those months. Around the holidays, it may be necessary to make your price more competitive. That’s because the demand just isn’t as high.

Property Location Can Raise or Lower Your Rental Price

Location is just as important in the rental market as it is in the sales market. Tenants are going to pay more for a home that’s close to restaurants, shopping, and schools. When we’re evaluating how much you can charge for your rental property, we’ll always take location into consideration. If you’re in a great school district and a desirable neighborhood, you can probably charge a little more than you could if your property is in a remote location and not close to any commuter routes, shopping centers, or conveniences.

Pricing and Property Condition

Perhaps the most important part of your pricing calculation is property condition. This is an area over which you have complete control. You can’t do anything about the market or the competition, but you can decide whether you’re going to offer a modern, well-maintained rental home or a deteriorating property that will rent for less.

Highly qualified Merced tenants will be willing to pay more for attractive properties with upgrades and updates. Make sure everything in your property works well, and make sure it’s appealing to high quality tenants. Invest a little money in minor upgrades. This doesn’t mean you need to rip out your kitchen or add a bedroom. But, a fresh coat of paint, new hard surface floors, or even shiny brass hardware fixtures on drawers and cupboards can make a huge difference. Spruce up your landscaping. Provide a modern, functional home if you want to increase the rent you collect.

Attaching the right rental price to your investment property is an important part of the leasing process. It affects the type of tenants you attract and it has huge implications for your short-term rental income and your long-term returns. Make sure you get it right.

We can help with this or with any part of your Merced property management needs. For more information, contact us at River Drive Properties.

River Drive Properties provides effective and professional property management services in Merced and the surrounding areas including Fresno, Modesto, and Turlock. We have extensive experience with both single-family homes and multifamily properties.