Over the past couple of months a new trend has been occurring. Apartment complex owners and managers are looking to add or replace furnaces and air conditioning in their rental units.

Today’s renter is different than the renter of just a few years ago.  More people that had homes are moving to apartments or rentals because they lost their homes.  The expectation is that they have the same or similar ammenities at their new homes and that can include up to date heating and to have air conditioning.  This is prompting owners and property managers to make upgrades to their apartments to keep them rented.

Air conditioning or a new HVAC (heating, ventilation and AC) system increases not only the rentability but also the value of the property. Some landlords are aware that the newer units can help rent the property, but saavy landlords understand that energy efficient units help the tenants keep the utility bills lower so the tenant can make the rent payments.  Once the landlord starts investigating the changes in air conditioning efficiency they realize that today’s units are more efficient than units installed just a couple of years ago.

According to ehow’s Article Ways to Attract Tenants.

The Property:

Tenants are attracted to properties that are well maintained. Attracting tenants means maintaining the rental property on a regular basis. Do some painting or landscaping. Replace some flooring to make the property look more appealing to potential tenants. Make sure everything is in good working order and that it is clean. Pay particular attention to the plumbing and electricity. Advise potential renters that maintenance is done on a regular basis and then follow up on your promise.
One important way to keep properties maintained is to make sure that preventative maintenance is completed on a regular basis.  Tenant comfort is improved and when showing the unit or home the smell in a dwelling with a well maintained HVAC unit is much better than an apartment that is not maintained.

We often get calls directly from tenants asking for air quality improvements for their property.  They are concerned because of the outdated, smelly and often rusted units.  We have referred the tenants to the owners for this upgrade and the owner/manager has a decision to make. We have seen tenants leave because the HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning) was not addressed after the complaint.

Aside from air quality, there are other health reasons that help the landlord decide on repair or replacenent of rental units’ HVAC equipment.  Hazardous situations, such as Carbon Monoxide (odorless and colorless deadly gas that needs to be checked for), flame roll out, mold on cooling coils, etc.  Every fall or winter we hear about people getting sick or even families dying from carbon Monoxide (CO) poisoning mostly from old or faults heating systems.

Although it is debateable whether energy efficienct properties rent faster or not, but there is no disputing that a nice smelling home rents faster than one with mold or food odors.

 

If you need help with temperature, contact Cold Craft, Inc.

408.374.7292 or [email protected]