Renting out a property is a serious decision and takes considerable thought and discussion.
Times are tough in today’s economy. A lot of homeowners have to downgrade and move into smaller homes, leaving their present home up for sale. When selling doesn’t pan out, many homeowners look to rent.
However there are those who have investment properties still; a form of tangible retirement savings.
No matter the reason why you are renting out your property; a good quality tenant can help look after your investment
But how do you go about doing that? There are the obvious things you will want to look for; such as verifiable income. Income is not limited to money received from a job: retirement benefits, SSA/SSI payments, spousal and/or child support; are all examples of verifiable income.
Bounced checks and delinquent payments will show up on their credit reports; make sure you run their credit.
If they have rented before be sure to call their previous landlords. Ask if they paid their rent on time, how they kept the home, if they’ve moved, ask if they got their security deposit back.
If you are one of the lucky few owners who have too many qualified applicants, how do you decide who to rent to? One option is to evaluate how they’ve conducted themselves throughout the application process.
The following are some characteristics to be on the lookout for in a potential tenant:
* Arriving late to a scheduled appointment could mean they don’t value you or others valuable time. Their tardiness could trickle into their financial matters and they could be late with their rent.
* Potential tenants are very difficult to get a hold of. Messages left for them take several days to be returned. This could be your first indicator of hard to reach tenants. Maintenance issues arise with rentals; if your repair persons cannot get a hold of your tenants in a timely manner, the delay could create more extensive repairs to be required.
* When you showed them the residence they and their children, if any, were respectful of the home. Someone who isn’t respectful at the initial showing of the home will not be respectful of it two years from now.
Renting out your property is a huge decision, and deciding who to rent your property to is an even bigger one. Hopefully this article has helped shed some light on such an important choice.
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