How To Rent Your House

Are you interested in learning more about how to rent your house to prospective tenants? Would you like to know what paperwork is needed? Renting your home can be very easy with the tips listed below. Also learn how to avoid the pitfalls when renting your house to a prospective tenant.

1. Prepare Your Home for Renting. Before you can even contemplate renting your home for the highest dollar, you must get your home in tip top shape. A home in almost new condition will rent the best. A fresh coat of paint is suggested with some good ole elbow grease. Cleaning your home inside and out is a must.
2. Check Your Carpeting and Your Flooring. Having a rental house will mean lots of traffic and usually children. Having good quality flooring is a must. It would never be recommended to put in expensive carpet, but having a good quality one is suggested. Wood floors are never recommended as most people will not take care of them properly. Tile floors will bring in a lower rental rate unless you have the very large Italian type tile.
3. Manicure Your Lawns. You do not have to hire a landscape “guru,” but you do have to trim, weed and water your lawns. One of the best ways to prepare your home for renting is to have a beautiful lawn. Trim the bushes make all the shrubbery uniform and weed around the flowers and trees. Depending on where you live, you may consider adding some small flower beds of petunias, which are very cheap.
4. Hiring a Leasing Agent. A renting agent will charge you a fee to find a qualified tenant. She will run the credit report, have the rental applications and verify the employment records. The fee depends largely on the company and the type of services you desire. You can hire a Realtor or leasing agent to handle the renting only or you can hire them for full management.
5. Advertising.  One of the main reasons to hire a leasing agent is to not have the expense of advertising.  Newspaper ads can be very expensive and then there is the sign. Do you want a 50 cent plastic sign in your window or lawn? Cheap signs and small free ads at your grocery store may just bring you the wrong type of tenants.
6. Drive by Tenants. Never ever rent your beautiful home to someone who drives by and promises you the world.  When learning how to rent your house, always remember to do proper documentation and credit reports. Looks can be deceiving especially in a world full of bankrupt people looking for homes.
7. Rental Applications and Verifications. You can go to your local library or stationary store and get a copy of a rental application. All rental applications are the same basically and they will have blank lines at the bottom for any additional terms you wish to include. Always verify the information provided, such as employment, bank accounts and references.
8. Credit Reports. One of the main requirements today is a clean credit report. There are agencies that will provide you with a credit report for a fee. If you have no access in your city to such a company then have the tenant go to the credit bureau and request a copy. Prospective tenants can also obtain a free credit report on the internet. Just do a search for a “free credit report.”
9. Lease. Do you want a long term lease or a month to month rental? With a long term lease, problem tenants are difficult to get rid of, but you will have long time rental security in most cases. It is costly to keep renting your house out all the time. On a month to month rental you can simply give a 30 day notice for the tenants to move.
10. Payments. If you are handling the rental yourself then a simple way to collect the rents is by having the tenant mail you the check. Many tenants do not want to be bothered with landlords showing up at their door. If you have a leasing agent, you can have them deposit the money in your bank account.