Top Tips for Increasing Security (and Thereby Rents) at Your Rental Properties

When you buy property as an investment and rent it out to tenants, you want to ensure that each year you get the maximum yield possible, and that good, reliable renters stay living there for a long time. While there are numerous ways you can attract top tenants, such as choosing properties in a popular area, keeping the home maintained and up to date, allowing people to have pets on the premises, and so on, something that’s well worth thinking about more is security.

In this day and age many tenants are worried about their own personal safety, and that of their family and pets, as well as their belongings. As such, you can make your property more desirable by ensuring it’s secure. Read on for some ways to go about doing this in 2019, and enjoy increased rents in turn.

Let There Be Light

One key thing to do is install outdoor lighting on your property. This helps to prevent crime because robbers and other people whose intentions aren’t honorable usually don’t try anything if the area they’re looking at is illuminated. It’s obviously not a guarantee of safety, but it certainly increases security and works as a deterrent.

If you own a house (condo units and townhouses should already have outdoor lighting installed), make sure you install lights at both the front door and back door of the property and potentially further out into yards or along pathways. It is a good idea to make these motion-activated and solar-powered.

Make Doors and Windows Secure

Another one of the most important security steps is to make your property’s doors and windows secure. For example, when it comes to the doors used at entry and exit points, these need to be of a good quality and solidly made from heavy-duty materials such as steel and wood. Steer clear of hollow doors, as these are easier for burglars and other people to break; instead opt for solid doors.

Something else to be mindful of is having front or back doors made from glass or including glass panels, especially if these panels are located close to the locking mechanism on the door. Glass can be broken by those with ill intentions, so they aren’t the best option. In addition, install doors with peepholes built into them, so tenants can look outside and see who is at their door without actually opening up.

To increase security, place proper locks on all exit and entry-based doors and windows in the house. Deadbolt locks are a good addition, especially double-cylinder ones, as these are much harder for criminals to break into. Specifically, double-cylinder deadbolts are recommended for doors located near windows since they stop people from reaching through such openings to get to doors. Chain locks and security screens are another element you might want to install.

With property windows, keep in mind that even those you feel would be too small for anyone to access aren’t necessarily going to keep thieves out. Plus, people can also enter windows on higher floors than you would expect by using fire escapes or finding other types of access points. As such, all window should have locks on them.

If you own a house or have a unit that’s on or near the ground floor, it’s wise to add security bars or screens to the windows. These deterrents really give criminals something to think about. An alternative option, if you don’t like the look of bars or screens, is window sensors. These work by sounding an alarm if the locking mechanisms are tampered with at all.

Install Security Alarms and/or Cameras

Another addition to your property that can make tenants feel safer is that of security alarms and/or cameras. While these are usually installed in multi-family homes or expensive properties with high rents to justify the costs of the feature, they can be added anywhere you think the need is warranted.

Contact specialists in these products, such as any of these Balt home security services, to install cameras or alarm systems for you. Cameras usually get put in at front and back entrances of houses or outside of apartment doors in unit buildings. They can also be placed in garages, to monitor the parking space or garage of the flat in question.

Alarm systems have to be wired in, and may be paid for by the landlord, but are often charged to tenants as an additional fee if they want access to the monitoring option.