After renting out your home for a year, or even less, you'll start to notice the damages on your home. It's not necessarily one renter, sometimes it is, but its the overall extensive and hard use done by several different renters. You'll be looking at your carpets, and be wanting to get them cleaned every month in order to keep them in top shape. Walls will start looking grungy from people touching, throwing beer bottles, and other random things people do. Your yard will probably be partly overgrown because you overlooked that completely. So what can you do to make sure it's bullet proof, well it'll cost you some money but it will save you a lot more in the long run. Most of these I only recommend you doing if you plan on renting it out for several years.

- Replace high traffic areas, hallways, stairs, living room, dining room with wood flooring. It will take damage a lot better and when it's a little dirty it doesn't show up at all. When it does get bad, refinishing it is cheap compared to installing new carpet.

- Any vinyl should be replaced with tile. Not only does it look better and feel more luxurious but it also wears a lot better. Picking a darker color will help your home look like it's in top shape.

- Wall colors and wall paneling. When painting your home try not to use pure white or any other really white color. It shows everything, even after you just painted it. Instead try to pick off whites and light browns. If your place is a beach or mountain cabin, consider putting up paneling on the lower half of your wall or anything else that will take the damage from couches being shoved against. It will also make the place look more cabin like

- The Yard - Try to plant things that grow slow and are low maintenance. There are many different types of plants, including bamboo and flasks that don't involve much work at all. Also they look great in your work. Every time you visit your place hit the ground with cross bow. You probably won't have to do much work other then once a year if you set it up correctly.