How to Add Value to Your Rental Properties with a Laundry Room

Offering onsite laundry to potential renters can make your property much more appealing than those without laundry facilities. The type of machines and facilities you offer depends on what type of properties you rent. This guide can help you determine the best way to add laundry services to your properties.

Single Family Vs. Multi-Family

Laundry machines add value to both single family and multi-family units, but the way you go about it differs. For a single family unit, you have two choices:

1. Purchase machines and raise the rental cost accordingly to cover repair or replacement.

2. Offer machines for rent for the lease duration. You can use an outside rental company as the supplier, and have the tenants pay the rental cost directly to you.

In a multi-family unit, on the other hand, you can skip the individual machines and provide a coin operated laundry room instead. This means you need fewer machines, which means less overhead for you. It also means that machines pay for themselves with each use.

How Many Machines Do You Need?

For most small multi-family units, a single washer and dryer is sufficient. This would work well for a duplex or fourplex. For larger properties, such as apartment buildings, you may want to add one machine per floor or per 10 units. These numbers aren't written in stone. In the end, let your budget and space be the guide for deciding how many machines to provide. You don't need a machine for each family, since not everyone will be doing laundry at the same time.

Machine Suppliers

Although you can purchase coin-op machines, many property owners opt to rent them instead. Renting comes with many key benefits:

• You aren't responsible for most service or repair costs.

• Upgrades to the machines are usually part of the contract, so there is no eventual replacement cost.

• The machines are already fitted for coin-op services.

Your rental dealer can also help you determine the optimum amount of machines and their best placement in the laundry room. If your complex doesn't already have a room plumbed and wired for laundry use, they can also offer advice on retrofitting a space.

You will need to visit the laundry facilities at least once a week, or you will need to arrange for a property manager to do so. At this time, you can empty the coins from the machines, make sure everything is clean and in working condition, and check that the locks and security entrances to the room haven't been tampered with.