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Top 7 Factors to Consider While Renting Out Your House

Top 7 Factors to Consider While Renting Out Your House
Being a landlord can sometimes become exhausting. Right from finding suitable tenants, creating a rental agreement, collecting rent, attending home repairs, it can be a lot to take in. To ease all this, the one sure shot way is to take the help of a local estate agent. For example, if your property is located in Orpington, estate agents in Orpington will help you find the right tenant that suits your requirements. Here we have listed the steps you need to follow before renting out your property to ensure smooth letting of your property.

Setting The Right Price

One of the most crucial steps to rent out your property quickly is to set the right price. You need to do complete market research to analyse the trends and set the right rent for your property. If you think it would be difficult for you, you can always seek the help of local estate agents. For example, if your property is located in Beckenham, choose estate agents in Beckenham who will have the right data about properties in the region and will help you fix a rent for your property.

Take The Help Of an Estate Agent

If you have a busy daily routine and cannot spend time looking for a tenant, a local estate agent can help you. He will be able to streamline the process, screen applicants and help arrive at a rental agreement. You can also subscribe to property management to have peace of mind with all the things taken care of in your property.

Do a Screening Process

Screening helps find the right tenant who can primarily pay your rent on time and take care of your property. Moreover, as a landlord, you may want to have a set of rules followed in your property. Screening can help you find tenants who can do that. This will help in having an amicable relationship with your tenant. While screening select tenants who have a good history of paying the rent on time and have no criminal cases registered against them.

Prepare an Application

To help you with the process, you can prepare an application that will give you good information about the tenant like his identification details like name, current address, why they are looking to move, employment information, their annual income and the present landlord references and so on. This information will help you filter the application and shortlist potential tenants.

Encourage To Apply for Renters Insurance

It is always safe to acquire insurance as the landlord. However, it would be best if you also encouraged the tenant to do the same. Renters insurance will help you avoid litigation and damages to tenant’s belongings. As renters insurance has a small premium, most will willingly take it up for their security. You can also add it to your rental agreement if you want your tenant to apply for a renters insurance if they are moving into the property.

Do a Credit and Background Check

Credit checks can help you determine if the potential tenant is financially responsible. The background reports will help you assess his social responsibility. The red flags to look for while doing these checks are severe debts, missed payments, bankruptcy and eviction notices issued against them. A good credit history will tell you that you will receive your payments on time. If there is no criminal history, you can be assured that your property will be taken care of.

Draft a Solid Rental Agreement and Implement The Same

Always prefer to have a written rental agreement. Oral agreements are legal only for rental agreements less than 12 months but are less effective than the written ones. First, ensure that all the rules and clauses incorporated in your rental agreement adhere to state laws. Then, review it with a lawyer to ensure that it is legally correct. You can mention all your rules, including raising a pet, late rent fee, deposit amount, noise restrictions and so on. You can even add quiet hours and guest parking rules in your rental agreement. Having a rock-solid written agreement will prevent fallout between you and your tenant in the future. To ensure that all the rules in the agreement are adhered to, make sure that you are strict about them right from the beginning. Especially on late rent fees to avoid frequent flouting of the due date.

Every step from receiving applications, screening potential tenants, collecting rent and implementing the rental agreement matters. If you think it might be overwhelming for you, you can always entrust the job to a local estate agent who will ease the process for you

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