Do you leave the blinds open when advertising a vacant rental?

[James H.]

Do you leave the blinds open? Is there any risk of more vandalism if they are open in your experience?

I have finally finished the rehab on my first investment property ever and thought this was interesting: When we varnished the floors, we didn't close the blinds backing out of a couple rooms and, well, couldn't walk back to close them because it takes a couple days to dry out. We had also freshly painted the inside and outside. When we first put the For Rent sign up before rehabbing was complete we generated about 15 calls in a couple weeks, then not much. After painting we generated another 10 or so calls. Some commented that it looked really nice on the inside. The inside turned out to be a little 1950's gem with a lot of nice finished wood while the outside is ho-hum.

This is a low income neighborhood with some recent burglaries. I don't keep any tools in the house as the rehab is complete and still didn't while working on it(I rebuilt a little cargo trailer for ease in transport and storage of my tools). There are no appliances inside until we get a tenant and the outside AC compressor is being installed (today) with a steel security cage anchored to some concrete piers. This should deter thefts to the neighbors unsecured compressor!