5 steps to rent out your house.

HOW DO I RENT OUT MY HOUSE?

Here are the 5 steps to renting out your house.

1. Figure out how much your house should rent for.

You have decided that you want to rent out your house to tenants. That is great, but how do you figure out how much you should charge? You will need to find out what your competition is charging for similar properties. You can find out what the competition is doing by searching the web for sites like Craigslist and Zillow. You can also see what other landlords are charging by calling all the FOR RENT signs in your neighborhood.

2. Take photos.

Take several photos of the property. The more the merrier. There is no need to hire a professional photographer, the camera on your smart phone will suffice. Make sure you get a photo of the Front of the house, the kitchen, the bathroom, the bedrooms, the living room, the dining room and anything else you feel is important.

Take wide shots were you get the entire room in the shot. A close-up of an electrical outlet or the floor simply will not do.

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3. Advertise the property.

Now that you have all these great photos put them on the web. Here are my favorite sites to advertise properties FOR RENT. The best thing about these sites...THEY ARE FREE.

• Postlets- This site is great. It will send your ad to multiple site such as Zillow, Trulia, and Hotpads.
• Craigslist
• Facebook

Don't forget to place a FOR RENT sign in the front yard. Old fashioned, but effective.

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4. Hold an open house.

You want to be available for as many tenants as possible to come see your house. However, you will quickly find that many tenants simply do not show up to the showing appointment. Schedule a couple open houses for the week and have everyone who calls you come to one of those showings. You will save yourself many hours of wasted time.

5. Screen the tenants and sign the lease.

Now that you have found a set of tenants who want to call your house home make sure they really are qualified to live in your house. One important thing you will learn about this business is that PEOPLE WILL LIE TO YOU. A credit and criminal check is an absolute must. No exceptions.

There are several websites that you can go to have the tenant screening performed. The cost for screening is going to be around $20-$40 depending on how thorough of a search you want performed.

Here are some sites to try.

• Tenantscreeningreport.com
• Screeningservices.com
• Rentscreener.com
• Quickbackgroundchecks.com
• Mysmartmove.com

After they have passed your screening have them sign the lease and move in. You never want to use a verbal lease agreement. Always get this in writing. It is your protection in the event things go south and you wind up in court. There are several websites that will have general lease agreements for you to download. 

Here are a few, 

• Mrlandlord.com
• Ezlandlordform.com
• Rocketlease.com

I personally recommend having an attorney draw one up for you that is specific to the area you are renting your home in. At the very least use a general template then have your attorney review and make applicable changes. It is great to do things yourself to save money, however this is not the part of your business you want to try to cut corners on.

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About the author:

James Wise is the Broker and Owner of The Holton Wise Property Group, a real estate brokerage and property management company operating one of the largest scattered site rental property portfolios in the greater Cleveland, Ohio area. He has been a guest speaker on several real estate internet radio shows and podcasts. He regularly writes blogs and articles for multiple real estate related websites. He is an active member of the National Association of Realtors® and the Akron Cleveland Association of Realtors®.