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House Renting Tips
1. Have tenants share some of responsibilities. If you have a small yard, require tenant take care of lawn and snow removal. Provide tenants with tools they need such as a mower, rake or shovel and assist whenever possible.
2. Collect utilities in advance. Often utilities will be in your name and difficult to recoup from tenants, especially after they are no longer renting your house. Determine average cost of utilities used and include that amount in rent.
3. Make tenant feel at home. When renting a house, you want tenant to stick around for a long time. Do something special, or provide a service that makes it hard for your tenants to want to leave.
4. Provide parking or make it easy of your tenants to park a car.
5. Provide laundry. Tenants won’t want to drag there laundry in and out of your house rental. This simple feature will go a long way.
6. Pre-wire your house with Cable/DSL service. Your tenants will want this anyway so you are better off having it professionally installed. It will help you rent house and avoid tenants drilling holes in your walls.
Before you Rent a House
Make sure your insurance covers your house as a rental. Some policies may charge extra if you are renting your house but if you don’t let insurance company know, you may not be covered.
Check with your city or town on regulations. Cities often have rules on what rooms in a house may be used for renting or number of non family members that may live together.
Take time to research rents in area. Get most out of your house rental by getting facts on other rentals in your area.
Don Romanek has been investing in Real Estate for 15 years. He runs where landlords can advertise Houses for Rent or find articles, and forms to help manage rental property.