Renting out your home is the most labor intensive part of management. Most homes for rent are second homes where the owner must manage the home from a far. There are three parts to making your home rent ready: Preparing your home, showing your home and leasing your home. If you have any questions along the way feel free to email us.

Preparing your home

Step 1 Securing the Home:

Contact your local locksmith and ask him to re-key the home. To obtain a better price, inform the locksmith the house will be re-keyed twice. The first re-keying is to secure the house from prior residents and provide access to outside contractors. The second re-keying is to secure the house for future residents. At the first re-keying, ask the locksmith to install a lockbox and place a single key in the lock box that opens all doors. Have the locksmith hold onto a second key in case the vendor key is lost or stolen.

Step 2 Making the home rent ready:

With the lock box in place, you are now ready to begin the make ready process. The first vendor to go in is the maids and the last is carpet cleaning. With the home clean, have any vendor necessary enter the apartment and make repairs. Do not use a handyman for plumbing. Having access to a licensed on-call plumber when water is flowing will save money. Once complete, have your local carpet cleaning company come in and clean the carpet. If having carpet cleaned, inform the carpet cleaners of pets the prior resident had and authorize removal of any stains or pet treatment including treatment of sub floor, if necessary. Urine left on carpet will soak into the padding and settle on the sub floor. Overtime, the scent or urine will deactivate to humans but other pets will smell and remark their territory. Cleaning the carpet will reactivate urine odor. Treating the sub floor cures urine problems. Lastly, have a inexpensive maid go in and perform a light touch up cleaning.

Showing your Home

Begin advertising your home the moment your home is vacant. Ideally, someone will show interest while the vendors are in the home allowing for an inexpensive self guided tour. Most home owners and real estate agents advertise solely on Craigslist. YourSelf will increase the probability of leasing your home quickly. Many homes are rented unseen.

There are a few ways to show your home: show it yourself, give a friend $20 dollars, or a commission a local Realtor or Notary Public. (I sometimes contract with a Notary Public who is close to the home to open the door, verify id, process the lease and hand over keys. The Notary Public can not sign the lease document but can process the paperwork. Notary Publics are far less expensive than real estate agents. If the Notary Public is not a licesned real estate agent they can only show the home but not discuss lease rates or terms.

Once a prospect is interested, have them complete an application on line and pay the application fee with the debit / credit card. Typically, residents with debit or credit cards are have better credit scores which increases the likelihood rent will be paid on time. Once submitted, the application will be processed within 30 minutes. Deposits, application fees and rents will be deposited directly into your account.

Leasing your home

You have now completed the hard part. Once your prospect is approved and has placed a $100 holding deposit, have the locksmith re-key your home and deliver two sets of keys to a local Notary Public. The resident or Notary can download the lease from our Paperwork Center, verify identification of all parties, and hand one set of keys to the qualified resident and mail the lease and keys to you.

Looking for a local vendor?

At any point you need assistance please email us.