How to Rent Your Home from A to Z

Enjoy this step-by-step checklist for getting a home rented. This follows the logical order from getting started to wrapping up, but you don’t want to have to hunt down a lease after someone has committed to move in. Or begin making arrangements to be able to show, after you have listed. Those delays can cost you

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Checklist for a Successful Rental Process

  • Consider the strengths and weaknesses for your home and location, and consider special strategies to utilize them.  Is it a college area? If so, you’ll likely handle a lot differently from low-income, or a suburb
  • Get the property in show-ready condition by handling repairs, but also low-cost aesthetic fixes like spray painting rusted AC grates and other things that really stand out.  A sure way to attract sub-par tenants and repel the rest is to show a home with unrepaired issues
  • Decide whether you’re going to allow pets or not.  Before you decide, know that for most landlords it’s the single best thing you can do to increase your “bottom line” profit over the long term.  More on this subject here 
  • Set a rental rate that will balance a minor amount of time on market hassle, with monthly rate.  Whether in the form of owner-occupied showings, stress, or vacancy. Most owners fail to properly account for these subtle but real costs, especially vacancy.  Vacant homes are more prone to breakdowns after move-in, require more lawn, utility, and cleaning costs.  Most importantly the average owner loses over $60 every day their home is not collecting rent.  Makes that $ 50-a-month reduction less concerning right?  How much of your life should you sacrifice to show an average rental home?  If the answer is as little as reasonably possible as it should be, then your rent price needs to be more competitive or you could show dozens of times without success.  Do you know why great tenants have good credit?  Because they’re smart with their finances and rarely overpay. If you want good tenants you either need luck, a truly unique rental, technology and convenience advantage, or a competitive price.  Pricing a rental is an art, not a science, and the skill is to balance vacancy cost with a strong but competitive rate that will attract premier quality tenants.  Interestingly since COVID the housing market has been so ridiculous we often see owners underpricing their homes by hundreds of dollars and having to field hundreds of inquiries a day.  We are flat-out experts at pricing rentals as we do so hundreds of times a month across many markets and housing types.  Contact us to get your rental rate estimate today, here
  • Take professional-grade photos of the home, and don’t neglect the yard especially when it’s a great feature.  For more tips on taking great photos download this guide 21 Tips for Great Rental Property Photos
  • List the home on all significant rental websites, with lots of great photos. Sell the general area by naming nearby landmarks, convenient highways, mass transit, and other positive attributes for your neighborhood and rental
  • Post and share to social media.  Beware of renting to friends, however.  Many of our most upset owner signups come from falling into this trap
  • Quickly field lead contacts, answer questions, reach out for feedback, and schedule showings – Time is of the essence, can you respond faster than we do?  You may lose the lead if not
  • Show the home to prospective resident leads – Rather easy for vacant homes but can be very difficult when tenant-occupied
  • Negotiate rents and upgrades
  • Process rental applications, background and credit check, rental and income references, and other necessary tenant screening steps
  • Operate legally within federal fair housing, state, and local landlord-tenant rental laws
  • Prepare a simple lease that outlines expectations well, protects both parties in event of default, follows industry norms, and most importantly is enforceable in county court. Complex or overly punitive leases often fail spectacularly before judges, and unusual terms typically alienate savvy, and qualified renters
  • Oversee repair and upgrade needs with various vendors
  • Arrange for move-in, payment collection, key exchange, etc.  Don’t forget pool passes, mail keys, and other easy to forget needs
  • Outline reliable and consistent instructions for your renter to make payments, view important documents, and pay rent online.  Shockingly there are actually multiple free programs that do this effectively.  Our favorite is from Apartments.com and used to be called Cozy, and you can read about it here
  • Handle inevitable move-in repair needs.  These often arise when the tenant is at their most stressed and should be handled with care and understanding with great tenants
  • Your home is now rented and you should be prepared for disaster both environmentally and financially.  You’ll need an army of loyal contractors, especially in the event of a major event like a hurricane, and a reasonable knowledge of home repairs and costs

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