Rehab Done, Time to List.

The holidays are over. I took a break for a few days to fly home to visit my family.  It’s hard to be away from them for so long, but they are the reason I am here.  So with renewed vigor, am back and ready to get the house rented out and turned over to the property manager.

Before leaving for the holidays, I cleaned the house inside and out.  The inside is white glove clean.  Every crack, crevice, floor, ceiling, wall, and shelf is cleaned and ready to move in.  Over the years I have found that if you turn a house over to the tenants super clean, you usually get it back semi-clean.  Plus a clean house tends to attract tenants that are clean by nature and will keep it clean.

The outside front and back of the home has been cleaned, weeded, cut, and manicured so the tenants have a starting point of the condition they need to keep the yards.  The garage is clean and empty except for my tools tucked back into a corner.  Now to get this posted online. 

It is our policy not to use a realtor to advertise the house. It quite frankly is not in the budget.  A realtor tends to charge anywhere between a half to one full month’s rent to find a qualified tenant, and we are the ones that need to do the background checks to make sure the tenants meet our standards.  Plus, with a background in marketing and real estate, I tend to do a better job of advertising anyways.

Online advertising with photos and video is crucial to renting or even selling a home.  Like it or not, we live in an internet based society.  Almost everyone these days does their research online before even driving by the home.  Full disclosure about the home is important.  You don’t want the tenants to try to hide something from you, don’t try it with them.

Over the years, I have developed a three part system that seems to work quite well in any market and any time of the year as long as the house is priced adequate to the current market value.  If you’re not sure about the price, check Zillow.  Zillow will tell you approximately with pretty good accuracy how much the house can rent (or sell) for.

First of all, be honest.  If you are honest with your tenants, they tend to be a little more honest with you.  Don’t try to advertise a 3 bedroom 2.5 bath house as a 3 bedroom 3 bath house or try to call a closet or game room another bedroom just to make the house would look better on paper.  It may seem small, but small things add up and they do matter.   You do have to promote and if you can turn a potential negative into a feature, great.   By addressing any potential negatives (preferably in a positive light) right away, it shows you are not trying to hide anything.

To Be Continued...