It is an old truism that one needs to invest for success but it is is as true for the property landlord as any other area of business today.

Forget second hand furniture and dirty accommodation; today tenants have choice and know what they are looking for in a rental property. So in order to attract the most prospective tenants to your rental property it needs to be attractive, stylish and practical.

A little extra investment upfront will reap real rewards downstream since you will have less time without tenants and you will spend less advertising to attract new tenants.

So what should you do to your rental property?

Decor

Less is more. Avoid complex decor that is difficult to keep clean or is too delicate to last the course. As for colour schemes choose light colours to give the feel of increased space. However avoid white sofas and carpets as these will quickly show dirt and marks. Also choose inoffensive neutral colour tones as these will not put off most prospective tenants; whilst you may personally like the latest cutting edge colours and styles, your tenants may not and anything ultra-fashionable now will tend to seem badly out of date before long.

Flooring

install hardwood or laminate flooring throughout but with plain 80:20 carpets for the bedrooms. Engineered boards make good flooring and are better choice than wood or laminates in conservatories. A hard wearing carpet is a good investment provided it is properly maintained. Protective spray treatment is worthwhile before the first tenant moves in. An annual professional carpet clean is also a good idea to get maximum life from the carpet

Window dressings

Keep blinds and curtains simple and avoid complicated mechanisms which could break if your tenants are less than careful. Lined curtains always make curtains look more opulent, and good curtains can really make room look classy. Tenants will be put off by thin, small bedroom curtains that will allow the sun to wake them.

Kitchen

invest in a good range of simple to use appliances and white goods; fridge freezer, washing machine and microwave should be treated as standard. If space and budget allow, include tumble dryer and dishwasher, particularly if the property will house a large number of occupants.

Furniture

include good quality new furniture. All sofas and beds must meet local fire regulations. Chose furniture that is hard wearing and that won’t show marks easily. Dark leather sofas fit the bill well – avoid white fabric for sofas or white rugs! Chose your furniture carefully, with your typical tenant in mind. For example install a desk/workstation if you are trying to attract students. Go for a decent size dining table if you plan to let to a family.

Garden

Most tenants are not keen on maintaining the garden, so it should be easy to look after. You might even leave a suitable lawn-mover & hedge-trimmer to encourage maintenance. Alternatively contract a garden company to come through monthly between Spring and Autumn.

Security

make sure the property has robust doors and good locks on doors and windows. Fit smoke, carbon monoxide and burglar alarms as standard and make sure they are maintained. Alarms should be mains powered to prevent tenants removing batteries or forgetting to replace dead ones.

Internet

any tenant under the age of 45 will expect broadband internet access so ensure cabling and access is in place.

TV

the world is rapidly moving to digital TV so there is no point skimping on the TV facilities you provide. Make sure that your property is equipped for digital terrestrial or digital satellite TV (or cable TV).

Bathroom

A shower is important and a separate shower is ideal. However if space is at a premium go for one over a bath. Make sure that the bathroom is water-tight and easy to clean. Tenants may not look after this room as fastidiously as if it was their property so the last thing you need is water leaking through to an adjacent property!

Storage

Many rental properties are quite compact. So you will help your tenants by providing built in storage. Try to use awkward spaces and you will find extra storage can be realised for very little cost. However it is a real plus for a tenant with a lot of possessions.

So there you have 11 simple but effective design tips that will help you make the most of the property you are about to rent out.

Walls were a very important part of the Georgian interior and much attention was paid to their treatment. Classically, the wall area would have been divided into three sections: the dado/wainscoting, incorporating the skirting/base board, dado panel and rail (which would be at a height of approximately 75 cm/2ft 6in); the field or mid-wall section; and the top section made up of frieze and cornice.

Early in the period these panels would most probably have been made of oak and finished with a simple wax polish. Later, with the introduction of softwoods, the paneling may have been painted, albeit in rather drab colors, or given a faux wood finish.

Hangings of precious textiles and tapestries were fashionable and fabric walling as we know it also popular (except in the dining room, where food smells might be trapped). Fabrics such as silk and wool damask were attached to walls above dado height by means of wooden battens and finished with a gilt fillet. Costly wallpapers (including flock types and patterns with oriental themes) in sheets rather than rolls were highly prized and most frequently attached to a canvas backing before being hung, thus enabling them to be removed when the owners departed.

Flooring

Exposed bare wooden planks or parquet, simply scrubbed and waxed (and, for coziness, topped with an oriental or area rug) are typical Georgian treatments. For an alternative covering, a painted and varnished floor cloth made of canvas might be incorporated into the scheme. For halls and the grander areas of a house, stone or marble flooring, possibly in a classical pattern, was considered most appropriate.

Furnishings

Close co-ordination between all the soft furnishings within a room would have been evident, each item echoing the material and style of others. Popular fabrics of the day were velvet, brocade, damask, silk, chintz and tapestry. Oriental themes influenced many of the fabrics and toile de jouy might well have depicted scenes from Chinese life. Embroidered textiles were also very popular.

Lighting And Accessories

The main source of light, apart from the fire, would have been candles. These were housed in candlesticks, candelabra, wall sconces and lanterns made of wood, glass, brass or silver. Many candlesticks were based on classical designs, while those for the candelabra were mainly rococo in feel. Mirrors in gilt frames featured strongly, as did lacquerwork screens, porcelain ware and fans from the Orient.

Paintings (often hung from a visible fabric bow) were a popular form of wall decoration and sometimes prints were applied directly on to the wall. Silhouettes and silverware were also favored. Items were usually displayed in a symmetrical pattern.

Every room in interior design is important, and should have something to do with each other to be effective.

Each room should be thoughtful, it can be passionate, it should be a reflection of someone(s). It should be you in some form or another. We know we are making a statement with our fashion, but we should know too that we are making a statement with our interiors. What statement is that? Is your statement as great as you? A lot of the times, no. The nice thing is that something can be done about it. I suggest a complete design plan that makes every room complement each other and then it becomes one wonderful whole design.

Imagine, many rooms in a house and they all compliment each other, that is a great idea! How is that done or how can it be done?

There is something in design called unity. I think unity helps to make each room compliment each other. Color and value is another key for each room to compliment each other. Textures in each room can help each room to compliment each other. Lines in each room can compliment each other, and lastly size can also help.

• Unity: myon line dictionary says unity is the state of forming a complete and pleasing whole, especially in an artistic context: the repeated phrase gives the piece unity and cohesion. A word of caution is in order here though, too much unity equals boring! Throw in a little variety with your unity to give it interest. I just tweeted that as my interior design tip of the day. It is a good one.
• Color and Value can be used to make each room compliment each other. Let us say you have 3 main colors in your color scheme, 2 secondary colors and some dashes of accent colors. You can make one of the 3 main colors be dominate in each of your 3 bedrooms. This is if you like a lot of color. Better yet might be a neutral beige, bone or cream throughout with one of the 3 main colors being the bedspread colors in each of the 3 bedrooms. Color distribution is important in a full interior design, but this hopefully gives you a glimpse of how it is done. Sorry, but it is a huge subject that cannot be answered fully in this format. Value is how much black or white added to a color. Black being 10 on a scale (shades), white being 1 on a scale (tints) and grey being 5 on a scale (tones). That of course changes the color, but some consistency on the color tones helps.
• Textures: Do you like smooth or rough? Be careful of visual texture, like a wallpaper that is smooth to the touch, but rough to the eye. This is considered texture. Visual texture is texture, even if it is smooth to the touch. So have a dominance of texture or not throughout your house.
• Lines - Straight or curved, have a dominate one
• Size - Large, medium or small. Choose your dominate. I have found that this does not have to do with your size or even the room size sometimes. It has to do with personality. You know, a small person can sometimes have a huge personality. That is what needs to be reflected in their home.

Why is this even important? Your home can flow, it can reflect and it can give you a peace from the outside world. As you make your choices above your house gets defined as uniquely yours and the goal is for it to be as awesome as where you are going in life!