While renting out your home may seem like a simple method to bring in extra money on the side, you may find the procedure to be more involved than you had anticipated. If the asking rent on your home is too high, you may have to wait months before you find a tenant. A terrible tenant may be late with rent payments or refuse to pay it altogether, may cause thousands of dollars in damage to the property, and may refuse to leave until the police are called.
So, how do you keep from having to deal with the usual hassles of renting a house or apartment? If you’re planning on renting out your home, here are five things you should do first to make the process easier and safer for you and your tenants.
Obtain Photographs of the Premises
Taking pictures of the property is important for a number of reasons. Advertisements with no photos of the property, even if otherwise appealing, are typically overlooked by would-be tenants since they don’t want to waste time scheduling a viewing just to find out the place doesn’t have the right layout or style for them. You can use these pictures as a measuring tool to determine how much damage was done to the property by the tenants during their stay.
Determine the Current Rent Rate
The best way to determine how much rent to charge is to first do some market research. This can be done by consulting rental websites, newspapers, local landlords, realtors, and property management companies to find out how much similar properties in the area are renting for.
Construct a Rental Application that Gets the Job Done
Tenants should feel comfortable filling out a rental application that is thorough enough for screening purposes without being overly lengthy. If a renter makes it beyond the initial screening process, any additional information you require from them can be specified in the lease. The following should be included in the appropriate sections of your application.
Initials Birth Date
Individual Identification Number Telephone Number
List of Current and Previous Residences (including Landlord’s Name(s) and Contact Information for the Past 7 Years)
Current Organization (name, address, hire date, income, contact information)
Approval to Request a Copy of a Consumer Report
Lease Agreement
Consider A Property Management Company
To recruit new tenants, draught and sign leases, collect rent, and serve legal notifications, hmo property management often charge a percentage of the monthly rent as payment for their services (including evictions). You should weigh the pros and downsides of hiring a hmo property management before making the investment.
Look for Reliable Renters
It’s easier said than done to find a good tenant, as many candidates can be pleasant and appear like a good fit, but end up causing a deluge of issues. Tenant background checks, in other words, selecting tenants on the basis of quantifiable fiscal and rental responsibilities, are the best approach to increase the quality of tenants you are leasing to. To defray the expense of tenant screening, the majority of landlords now charge applicants for rentals an application fee.
