Have you decided to rent out your home? Maybe you’ve gone travelling for a few months and want to earn some money on the side? Or, perhaps you have purchased a new home and want to rent out your old one. The reasoning behind this decision doesn’t matter, what matters is that you understand what you’re getting into.
Essentially, you are now a landlord. Therefore, there are some crucial things you need to know when renting out your home:
You’re still in charge of maintenance
Even though someone else is living there, you are still the property owner. Therefore, you are still in charge of maintaining the property – to an extent! The tenants need to clean it and look after it, but you’re the one that’s responsible for any repairs – and for ensuring that the home remains in tip-top shape. As such, many landlords work with property maintenance companies who they can send around whenever any issues arise. If you don’t fix things property or to a high standard, tenants can sue you!
Learn the fair market rent price in your area
Clearly, you can’t rent your property out without any tenants. To attract tenants to your property, you need to offer a fair rental price. If your home is way above the average rental rate, you better be able to justify the reasoning. A good idea is to look online and find the fair market rent price in your area. This will give you a benchmark for what homes like yours are currently being rented out for. In turn, you can set your rent price to one that is around this average, increasing the likelihood that people will be interested in renting.
Screen your tenants
Don’t just accept any old person that contacts you about the rental property. Some tenants are excellent, while some are awful. It’s easy to get an awful tenant if you don’t screen them beforehand. You should create a rental application for people to fill in, where you learn more about each tenant. From here, you can select one that appeals to you the most and seems like they will keep your house tidy and make payments on time. It can be a good idea to contact former landlords about them, to see what they were like as tenants before.
Consider getting landlord insurance
What is landlord insurance? Well, it is a type of insurance that will protect landlords in case various things go wrong. Typically, they contain buildings and contents insurance, but can also have other things to cover loss of rent, tenant defaults, and so on. Essentially, this is something you might want to consider getting as extra protection when renting out your home.
Even if you’re only planning to rent your home out for a short period, you need to think about these things. They will ensure that your home stays in the best possible condition and that you get money from tenants every single month. On that note, you are now ready to rent out your home with confidence!
Featured image credit: Photo by Tierra Mallorca on Unsplash
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