Refurbishing your condo in the Riviera Maya obviously depends on whether you’re going to live in it or rent it out to tenants. Let’s leave decorating your own home to your own personal taste, and concentrate on refurbishing your condo for rent.
1 Know the rules
Talk to the condo management about their guidelines. Are there restrictions on changing the outside appearance of your condo? Are there also times of the day when the neighbors can object to your banging and hammering?
A good tip is to get a delivery service to bring in new items all in one go, instead of relying on deliveries from individual stores. That smooths the logistics, reduces wear and tear on the neighbors, and has you stuck in the apartment waiting for just one uncertain Mexican delivery rather than many.
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2 Use paint
Paint is cheap. It doesn’t always feel like it when that fourth coat is being applied, but it can make an enormous difference for very little outlay. Mexican furniture can be dark and heavy. It’s worth considering whether you want to replace it entirely, or whether four coats of white would brighten it up. A good, light, neutral background can make a difference. Then you can add points of color with the wonderful bright objects they make in Mexico: cushions, fabrics, wall decorations. Avoid framed photographs: they look good for a month or two but then the tropics take their toll. They fade, curl, get damp and add nothing.
With an elegant mix of neutral and bright color points, you can post pictures on your accommodation website that say: Clean! Stylish! Welcome to Mexico!
3 Focus on refurbishing your condo for investment
Here are some items that are expensive, but tend to pay off in rental: kitchen cabinets (indeed any kind of storage space), bathroom fittings, floors and work surface tiling, re-plastering walls.
If you want to make the sleeping arrangements a bit more flexible, consider twin beds rather than doubles, and a sofa bed to replace the sofa. You won’t want to put yourself in the ‘two bedrooms; sleeps up to 20’ category, but a bit of extra bed space widens your catchment area. You might even think about the colorful local Yucatan solution: the hammock. All it needs is two stout hooks on the walls, or outside on a shady balcony.
4 Consider trade-offs
Work out the options. If you don’t go for the king-size bed or giant fridge, where else could you use the space and cash? This is where dreams come face-to-face with reality. You probably can’t do it all, but the compromises can be intelligent, and profitable.
5 Pay for reliability
The tropics are notoriously rough on everything and condo renters can add to wear and tear. If it’s a choice between a Melamine strip that will peel off in two weeks, or something solid, go for solid. Double-check the workmanship of anything, like plumbing, that’s going to be concealed.
Refurbishing your condo may be a lot of work and sometimes expensive but it can be fun and if you use your imagination it may be inexpensive too. Good luck with a profiatable result!
Remember, at Top Mexico Real Estate … we make it happen!
