Do I need to change the carpet in a house before I try to rent it, if it's worn, but reasonably clean?
If you're getting a house ready to rent out, how much money and effort do you need to put into it to rent it to dependable tenants? The house is in a nice neighborhood in Columbia, MD. Kitchen is in good shape.
Answers ( 2 )
If it were me- and goodness knows I am looking at this expense myself- if the carpet was only worn and not stained, and not in a "public" living area of the house, I would likely not replace it yet.
If you re-carpet, you should then increase your damage deposit and possibly your over-all rent; unless you can meet the very high expenses of the current Federal-level Administration's "tax-cut", you cannot get that money back any other way. That is going to put you into a steep rent/set-up situation when it comes to renters. While the rental market hasn't by any means dried up, the economy is dicey- fewer people than a year or so ago have money to burn in their pockets, and smart people aren't taking on new debt or stinting on the savings. Moving is a significant cost-situation and, right now, I wouldn't recommend people do it without making a strong cost/benefit determination- which is what you should be doing, too. What will it cost to re-carpet versus how much of that can you expect to get back in case of damage and increased rent price?
Oh, and for grins: When we made rental determinations, we always walked people back to their car- and took a peek inside. A car didn't have to be new and shiny, but it had to be clean (for the weather- it rained so often in Puget Sound, gray-brown scum was sometimes considered a paint job) especially the interior. Fast food wrappers and junk strewn all over the floorboards doesn't bode well for how a person will take care of your house.
"Worn but reasonably clean." Worn isn't as much a problem as "reasonably clean" is. If the carpet is slightly worn, there's no need to replace carpet. Then you just need get the carpet cleaned - you'd NEED to do that to ensure the health and well-being of any new tenants. Reasonably clean doesn't cut it, it has to be clean for health reasons. You have no idea what got into that carpet, and to ensure you are renting a safe place, you need to get the carpets cleaned.
There are only some circumstances where you wouldn't clean the carpet, and I can't think of any off-hand, but just for example, if the renter didn't want it. But as a renter, I'd want to know that I can sit and walk barefoot on carpet without worry if a dog or cat peed there, if there weren't other things hiding in that carpet that frankly would give me the creeps. As an option you could hold off on cleaning and wait for a prospective tenant. But for the sake of representation, there really is a big difference between renting a clean place or a questionable place. One good steam cleaning should be easy enough to do.