September 2018 - Vivere lo Stile

Furnished house for rent?

A couple of weeks ago, Lucia (a fictional name) approached me because she had inherited a charming one-bedroom apartment in a semi-central area of her city.

The house was partially furnished, so she had tried to rent it out but couldn’t find a tenant.

To understand it, I went to inspect the apartment myself.

The apartment per sè was pretty, but it had an old, slightly beaten-up sofa, a partially broken chandelier in the living room, and a missing mattress on the bed.

Despite having a beautiful custom-made wardrobe, the apartment could be described as somewhat “neglected.”

THE PRICE MIGHT HAVE BEEN RIGHT BUT…

The rental price considered the favorable location and the fact that no renovations were needed (even the painting was very recent), but not the actual condition of the furnishings.

That meant that those who would have been willing to “settle” for those furnishings might not have been able to afford the rent, while those who had the means certainly didn’t want to pay that amount for an apartment that wasn’t “perfect”!

People are becoming increasingly demanding.

A few years ago, perhaps because there weren’t many options available at the time if you rented a furnished house, you would settle for what was there.

Often, you would find a “grandma’s house” or, perhaps even worse, a mishmash of styles thrown together to clear out homes or basements.

THINGS HAVE CHANGED!

Today, it’s no longer the same.

People want to be able to live in apartments that are perhaps simple but well-maintained in order to feel good!

Often, people looking for furnished houses do so because it’s not their “permanent destination,” and, understandably, buying furniture that may not fit well in another home (in addition to the stress and cost of moving) is not always the preferred choice.

However, as mentioned, they shouldn’t have to sacrifice comfort!

Therefore, offering a better product is a winning decision!

“But then I don’t know who will enter the house; I risk they break everything!”

I often encounter this objection.

It’s self-evident that one can never guarantee for anyone: and there is always this risk.

However, it is also true that the phrase “the beautiful attracts the beautiful” holds some truth.

So, if one finds something nice and comfortable, the tendency is to take care of it.

At the same time, since we never have absolute certainty, we’ll make minimal-cost interventions.

Certainly, expensive designer pieces will not be used (obviously, I’m referring to “normal” accommodations, not luxury ones… the target audience is different there!).

HERE’S WHAT WE DID

That said, Lucia accepted my help to modernize and improve the apartment a bit:

I kept the kitchen but changed the sofa and light fixtures, added a mattress, rearranged things for better functionality, and, together with a colleague, colored the table, chairs, and coffee tables to make them more attractive.

Curtains and decorations were the icing on the cake.

This is the result:

Thanks to the assistance of a competent real estate agent, the apartment was rented out on the first visit, with a slight increase in the rent!!!

Taking care of a rental property means always having a tenant inside and, therefore, receiving income.

If, on the other hand, you don’t make a minimum investment, the risk is to leave it vacant, turning it into just an expense!

So, if you have a furnished house for rent and are struggling to rent it out, don’t waste any more time.

Give it some appeal, and if you need help, you know you can contact me!

Changing the perception of environments with colors is it possible?

Visual perception has a strong impact on our brains: a room will seem smaller if it is empty, compared to a furnished one!

This is because the furnishings delimit spaces but, above all, they are for us a “measuring meter”.

For example, if we see that on a wall there is a double bed with 2 nightstands and still advances free wall we know with certainty that that wall will be longer than 2 meters.

The bed is, in fact, 1mt 60 wide, the two nightstands will be at least 40 cm so, making the calculations, we are definitely over 2,5 meters.

LET’S SEE SOME TRICKS

Today I want to give you some little tricks on how to create different visual effects by simply using color on walls and ceilings:

To “lower” a room, it will be enough to paint the ceiling a darker color because this will optically lower and, therefore, give the impression of a lower room.

In corridors, which are often long and narrow, it will be useful to color the ceiling and the back wall with a darker color to give the impression of greater breathing space.
This will give the impression of a wider corridor.

If you need to shrink a very long room, you only need to color the back wall a darker color, because visually it will bring the wall closest to you.

On the contrary, to lengthen a room, you should keep the ceiling light and paint the walls a darker color.

Furthermore, to “compress” a room it will be enough to paint both, walls and ceiling, with dark color.
On the contrary, to enlarge, everything will have to be clear.

Finally, you can paint everything dark and leave only the back wall light, in contrast to the rest.
In this case, the wall will give a lot of prominence to whatever element you put in front of it.

USE WISELY COLORS!

Depending on how the walls are colored, the perception of these environments will change and appear more or less deep, wide, high, or low.

Knowing how to play with visual effects can be useful to “improve” an environment.

And it will do without masonry works that perhaps, because of a load-bearing wall, cannot even be done!

If you want to transform home environments, the correct use of color is a fast, and above all, changeable solution !!!

If you still have doubts about how to do it, you can contact me!