How to Rent My House

Getting your house ready to rent out is not much different than getting it ready to sell. The house should be in excellent condition, clean, and looking and smelling great. You will need to decide if you want to offer the house for rent furnished or unfurnished. Generally, you can expect your rent to be 10-20% higher if you offer it furnished. Your furnishings should be tasteful and in good condition. Also, a furnished rental usually includes everything including dishes, silverware, towels, ironing board, etc.

One of the easiest and quickest ways to make the house look and smell great is a fresh coat of interior paint. If the paint in your home is already neutral and in excellent shape, you can skip this step, but if you have any rooms that have a lot of holes in the walls, or crazy colors or designs, now is the time to paint them. If the exterior paint is cracked, chipping, or a very loud color, you should paint the exterior as well.

Next, replace or clean the carpet. If your carpet is old, worn, or smells of pet odors you should replace it with new, neutral carpet. If the carpet is in good shape, you should be ok with just a steam cleaning. In either case, make sure that any foul odors are removed, as this will scare tenants away.

Take care of any maintenance items that need to be addressed, and make sure that all mechanical items, toilets, sinks, cabinets, etc. are in working order. Odds are that if it bothers you, it will bother your tenant, and they will ask you to fix it anyway.

If you have been considering any upgrades now might be the time to do those projects. If you have outdated cabinets, bathrooms, appliances or other items that are not appealing, strongly consider replacing them now. Use replacement items that are to the caliber of the rental, as higher end upgrades could break the bank, and probably will not be appreciated by the tenant. If you can get rid of outdated items and replace with newer ones, your rent will be higher, and your time on market will probably be shorter.

Make sure that your landscaping is in order, as curb appeal is important for rentals too. Make sure that the grass is cut and edged, shrubs are trimmed, and gutters cleaned. Do not plant a bunch of flowers and buy decorative items for the yard though, as tenants may not care for these items like you would. Your landscaping should be as tasteful as possible while being as maintenance free as possible.

If you will still be living in the house while you are marketing and showing it, make sure that you de-clutter it. The house should be neat and orderly, as clutter and piles of paperwork make the house look smaller and less functional. Put any unnecessary items in storage until you rent the house and move.

Make sure that the house is thoroughly cleaned prior to putting it on the market. Scrub all of the floors, clean all of the toilets, showers, tubs, and sinks, and make sure that the windows are cleaned as well. A dirty house will sit on the market much longer than a clean one.

Finally, once all of these items are completed, ask a friend to check your work. Get a trusted friend or family member that will be blunt and honest with you to tour the house and pick out any items that you might have missed. Being thorough in all of these items will maximize your rental price, and decrease your days on market.

Here is the most important section for any amateur landlord. Getting your price right will determine how the rental process goes for your property. Price it too low, and you will not maximize your investment. Price it too high, and it will sit on the market costing you hundreds or even thousands in expenses and lost rent. The single best resource for pricing your property is to speak with a property manager, realtor, or investor that is active in the rental market in your specific neighborhood. No one else is better qualified to price a rental than someone who is in the market actually writing leases for tenants and landlords. This is the only true indicator of what tenants are actually paying for rent in your specific neighborhood. Some property managers might not share this info with you unless you hire them, but many will in the hope of gaining your business some day.

If you can't find a solid professional opinion try these steps to get the best idea where to price your rental. Find an average rent calculator on RentVine.com, RentBits.com or ApartmentRatings.com. This is only a starting point, and should only be used to get you in the right ballpark. These are generally the most important items in pricing your rental: Location, condition of the property, strength of the rental market. Now go to the following sites and search for rental properties that are as similar, and as close to your house as possible:

• FreeRentalSite.com
• craigslist.org
• RentalHomesPlus.com
• Rentals.com
• RentalHouses.com
• RentBits.com
• HotPads.com
• Realtor.com

This is your competition. Remember that the price in the ad is the ASKING price and may not be what they actually receive. Be objective and honest with yourself in evaluating other properties in comparison to yours. Being emotional and pricing too high because you think your house is better will only cost you money. Use these tools to price your property as accurately as possible.

Do not use any of these criteria to price your property: The price of your mortgage, what your neighbors say, emotional attachment to your property. Tenants do not care what your mortgage is, and neither does the rental market. Your mortgage is your problem, and pricing your property too high so you can "Cover Your Mortgage" is the biggest mistake that amateur landlords make. Do not listen to your neighbors about what they got for their property, or what they are paying in rent. Sometimes people lie, and relying on inaccurate information could cost you money. Finally, don't get too attached to your property or any of the memories that you have built there. This could cause you to overprice the property or to exaggerate the value of improvements, especially ones that you have done yourself.

Once you set your price, be prepared to adjust if necessary. If you put it on the market on the sites above and don't get any contacts or leads, your price might be too high. If you show the property more than 5 or 6 times without any offers, it might be priced too high. Regardless, be prepared to drop your price. Every day that your property sits vacant costs you money, and every property will eventually rent once the price drops enough. Use the calculator below to determine the amount of money you lose per day that your property sits vacant.

Vacancy Cost Calculator

Effective marketing for your rental property is the most important task other than effectively setting your rental price. Armed with the knowledge that you are losing significant money every day that your property sits vacant, one should employ the most aggressive marketing strategy possible to reduce the number of days on the market. This means putting your property in front of as many renters searching for homes for rent as possible. Utilizing the following strategy should get your property rented in a timely manner.

Get a yard sign. Even in the internet age, one of the most effective advertising methods is one of the oldest. Place a prominent sign in the yard that clearly states that your property is "For Rent" with a phone number to contact you and a website URL where they can see the property online or with their mobile phone. FreeRentalSite.com automatically creates an easy to remember URL for your property to be included on your sign (ie: FreeRentalSite.com/1234). Get a flyer box to attach to your sign so tenants driving by can get information on the rental and contact you and keep the box full.

Use the internet. 90% of tenants start their search online now, so make sure you blanket the internet with your advertisement. Most investors are only familiar with craigslist, but there are a lot of other sites that generate millions of visitors to their sites through excellent search engine rankings. Put your listing on craigslist.org, but don't go directly to craigslist to do it. Use one or more of the following sites to create an HTML ad for craigslist because you will have to post your ad many times on craigslist to remain relevant: FreeRentalSite.com, Postlets.com, Vflyer.com, RentalHomesPlus.com, Rentals.com. Using one of these services will allow you to post and re-post your craigslist ad every few days to stay on top of the list. Place your ad on these prominent sites in addition to craigslist.org: Rentals.com, Rentalhouses.com, RentalHomesPlus.com, HotPads.com, Zillow.com, and Rentbits.com. Prices for these sites range from free to around $100 for the highest level ad, but they are well worth the money. These sites are the leaders in traffic nationally and will greatly increase exposure to your rental property without having to repost it over and over again. In addition to these sites conduct the following searches for your city to find any local sites that rank well in searches (This is what tenants do): "your city homes for rent," "your city rentals," "your city rental houses," and see which sites besides the ones mentioned above appear often in your searches and advertise there as well. Using all of these sites will cost you $100-250 but will expose your property to 99% of the internet's rental audience. When you consider that you are losing $25-100 per day that your property sits vacant it is well worth your money to rent your property 1-3 weeks sooner. You will do this by using this strategy.

Newspaper. In most cases we do not recommend using the newspaper, but we will leave that decision to you. The newspaper is usually the most expensive option and is decreasing in value as fewer people read it. We are confident that you can rent your property quickly using a yard sign and blanketing the internet.

While you are running these advertisements, you will receive phone calls and emails from interested parties that will have questions and will want to schedule showings on your property. You will save yourself hours of time, energy, and stress if you do a great job creating your online ads. Make sure that you take tons of pictures, and give as much information as possible in your online advertisements. This will give interested parties most of the information about your property, and only serious people will contact you. It is a good idea to have the person drive by the property to see if they are still interested before you agree to meet them at the property so you can limit the number of showings and save on gas. Be extremely careful when showing the property, and if possible bring a friend and only conduct showings in the daylight hours. Always let someone know that you are going to show the property. It is a somber thought, but remember that you are meeting a complete stranger and have no idea who you are dealing with.

Now that you've done such a great job marketing your property, you have a prospect or prospects that interested in renting the property. This is great news, but you want to make sure that you are putting a quality tenant in your property. One that will pay their rent on time, take care of the place, and not have to be evicted. This is an extremely tricky prospect for a landlord. Successfully qualifying a tenant will require the tenant to give sensitive information like social security numbers so that you can check their credit and background. The problem with this is that all three of the credit reporting bureaus require that you have a contract with them, and that they physically inspect your office before you can run credit and background checks. This is generally what a property manager would setup, but is prohibitive for the individual landlord. An individual landlord will have to use a product like e-Renter.com, MySmartMove.com, or National Tenant Network to conduct tenant screening and background checks. These services will generally give you a recommendation on whether to accept a tenant, but will not let you see their files. The laws are very strict on tenant identification security and one does not want to enter any kind of grey area in regards to personal information.

In addition to respecting a tenant's privacy, be sure that you respect all state and federal laws in regard to treating all tenants fairly and not discriminating. Read the Federal Fair Housing act, and conduct a search for "Landlord Tenant Law" in your specific state or area. Not respecting these laws could carry severe criminal and civil penalties.

Now you have a qualified tenant and you need to find a lease form and negotiate a lease. There are many areas to find a lease online, but we do not endorse any of them as each lease is specific to each state's individual real estate laws. Each lease is different, and laws vary by state so you will want to consult your local landlord tenant law. This is critical because each state might have different disclosures and items that must be included in a lease. Examples are lead based paint disclosure which is a federal law, Colorado has a mold disclosure, and many states have renter's insurance requirements. To find this information do a search for your local landlord tenant law. After you find a lease form that you are comfortable with, you need to negotiate the term of the lease, sign it and start collecting rent. Remember that like the tenant, you are entering into a legally binding contract, and it is a good idea to have an attorney review your lease prior to signing it.

When you sign the lease it is acceptable to ask for the first month's rent and security deposit at the signing. A security deposit or damage deposit is money paid by the tenant to the landlord. The deposit protects the landlord if the tenant vacates without making required payments or damages the unit. If the tenant gives proper notice and vacates without owing any rent or damages, the landlord must return the security deposit to the tenant. Each state has different laws regarding the disposition of a security deposit, so again, it is important to consult your local landlord tenant law. NEVER LET A TENANT MOVE THEMSELVES OR THEIR POSSESSIONS IN WITHOUT COLLECTING FUNDS AND INSURING THAT THOSE FUNDS CLEAR! In many states, once a tenant moves in they have possession of the property and in order to get them out you must go through the complete eviction process. Make sure that you have received all move-in funds and those funds have cleared the bank.

Make sure that your lease clearly states when the rent is due, and define what the late fee will be and enforce it. You can use a product like MyRentalInvoice.com to invoice your tenants electronically each month and provide them with a receipt for payment. If you need to prorate the first month's rent you can use this tool: prorated rent calculator.

Now that you have your new tenant and you have signed the lease and collected all move in funds, it is time to conduct a move in inspection. It is a good idea to give the tenant a move-in checklist or condition checklist and conduct an inspection with them. A move in check list is a document that allows the tenant to indicate any damage to the property so that they will not be billed for it when they move out. In many states, if you do not provide this form and damage occurs during the tenancy you cannot deduct the charges from their security deposit. This is also a great opportunity to show the tenant important items about the property like how to operate the thermostat, washer and dryer, etc.

If you have questions, comments, or additions to this document, please submit them here. We will respond and if appropriate add them to this document.