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So, What Now?

A Guide To Renting Out Your Home

Looking at renting out your home? The following guide is designed to prime you on dipping your toes into the rental market as a landlord, without making some of the most common and costly mistakes.

Gaining Agency

If you’re wanting to rent your house out, but aren’t sure how to go about the legal, strategic or practical elements of finding tenants, you might be best off engaging the help of an agency.

Finding an agency to vet tenants means that you won’t have to go through the process of checking their details (such as references, employment and rental history). By engaging the use of a rental agency (go here for dedicated property management in Melbourne), you can ensure that you’re fulfilling any legal or industry requirements and that you’re protected in the event that any unforeseen activity affects your property.

A Clean Slate

Moving into a new house is traumatic enough without having to scrub the filth and mess left by previous tenants. If you want to start the tenant/landlord relationship off on the right foot, opt to have the house as clean and fresh as possible.

A refresh for new tenants includes not only clean surfaces and surrounds, but the removal of debris from the garden, the removal of any environmental hazards such as mold and peeling paint, and a check to make sure all smoke alarms and security systems are in correct working order.

If the home has a pool, you will need to make sure it is fenced appropriately – accidents on your property may result in liability if you haven’t taken any legal and necessary safety precautions. If you have heating and cooling installed as part of the home, it can also be a good idea to have these inspected or tested. Some proactive work before you tenant moves in will mean less expensive all-hours calls to service and repair people in the future.

Keeping It Simple

A general rule for almost any transaction involving multiple parties – don’t overcomplicate things. If you’ve taken the step of getting a real estate agent to act on your behalf, don’t attempt to micromanage or insert yourself into the process. By doing so you might create confusion in your tenant, and endanger the long-term relationship.

If you’re set on making sure certain rules and regulations are followed in the home, make sure to express these clearly before any tenancy agreement is signed – and make sure that all parties clearly understand what is required of them in case of any reneging on the agreement.

Terms & Conditions

No pets. No wall hangings. No Parties.

Further to the above paragraph about establishing simple ground rules, there may be circumstances which encourage you to take another path. If your aim is to attract long-term tenants who will treat the place like it was their own, you might need to consider being more accommodating than if you’re trying to lure short-term occupants. Long-term tenants will often save you money on costs such as listing fees, as well as the fact that long-term tenants are more likely to solve their own maintenance problems and will require less intervention by you or an agent regarding emergency maintenance.

Consider whether it’s more important to you to have a continual occupancy (long-term) or a string of shorter occupancies (short-term). Allowing longer term renters the freedom to have pets (or to decorate a bit more freely) may mean the difference between tenants who respect and love your home, and tenants who are there for a good time (but not a long time).

Renting out your home is a great way to earn some extra income – but it’s important to take steps which will ensure you’re getting the best possible outcome for your home. By carefully planning out what you hope to achieve by renting out your home, you can more accurately match with the right agent and the right tenant.