Tell me about renting out your home

[stephm0188]

We're thinking about relocating out of state for a few years, but would like to come back to our house. We love the house and neighborhood and want our kiddo to go to middle & high school here. Selling isn't an option. This is our forever house.

We bought the house nearly 2 years ago. It had been rented out for several years before that, and it showed. We have lots of work to do, but haven't do anything yet that I'd really be worried about having destroyed by a renter. I could deal with cosmetics because we'd be coming back and updating it all anyhow.

We're located near an AF base in a desirable school district, and the pricepoint and neighborhood would hopefully mean we'd have responsible renters. We have a few military families in the neighborhood who are renters, so I'm not too concerned overall.

Anything aside from finances we need to consider?

[tarheels]

Were you around for all of my house drama? We had one of the most expensive rental properties on the local market in a very exclusive neighborhood and two families treated it horribly, even though on paper they were great. One family that left the house FILTHY and infested with fleas was retired military. The other that did $7k worth of damage was the CEO of a well-respected local business.

Get a custom lease done. Do not rely on the standard boilerplate - it won't protect you enough. You need to have things written in about your own house's quirks and your [legally realistic] expectations.

[stephm0188]

I was! Your tenants are my worst case possible scenerio.

We'd go with a property management company but would want a custom lease to cover terms like the lawn, care of the water softener system (which is dumb, because all you do is put a bag of salt in, but apparently the last people to rent this house couldn't figure that out) and of course, damages. I fully expect to have to come home and repaint everything and replace the carpeting. The blinds will probably come down and be replaced with cheapies.

[pitterwoo]

Will you be making arrangements for anyone locally to be able to check on the property or deal with issues they may have? That seems hard to manage totally from far away. I knew someone who had a distance rental and the tenants called with a plumbing problem that ended up being something so minor like they weren't turning the faucet all the way off and maybe needed new washers. Anyway he had to pay a plumbing consult fee for something that if he'd been there he could have dealt with.

[tarheels]

If you can't find a PM company that inspires 100% confidence, don't hire them and DIY. We have one PM who I love. The other I may assault if I recognized in public. A bad PM is actually harming your house bc he's telling you things are fine and they're not, so maintenance isn't getting done (hello, basement water leak) and tenants are allowed to move out without paying for damage and cleaning.

[stephm0188]

We do have neighbors that we would trust to keep an eye on things, and we'd come back at least once, if not twice a year for other events, so we'd probably want to check up in person then too. I'd ask around for PM recs.

[emoflamingo]

We just started doing it, but we're renting to a friend which is probably a lot worse than strangers. However, we're in town (I currently work right across the street) and the friend is more like family than a friend, so hopefully it'll all work out. It's better than a vacant house since it didn't sell before the winter hit and we weren't interested in having the carpet ruined if someone came in with snowy, muddy shoes for a showing.

[pickel]

I have a townhouse that I rent from out of state. I am really looking forward to getting rid of it. lol. I have a good tenant now, but the tenant before him let her cat pee EVERYWHERE. I had to replace all the carpet and pad (and some treatment on the subfloor). It was seriously the most disgusting thing I've ever seen someone live in and my current tenant says you can still kind of smell it in one of the rooms. I was lucky that she had given me a decent deposit but the stress was not worth it to me. You'll probably have a run of good tenants but it takes just one to cost you thousands of dollars.

[pickel]

Oh, as far as things to know...I use a Realtor to find tenants. It costs 75% of the first month's rent, but they do a good job with background checks and evaluating ability to pay. I picked my nightmare tenant because she was the first one to put in an application and I was desperate to get it rented out (was not working). So...don't do that. lol. Take your time and find the right tenant.

[krystee]

We are about to rent our house out as well. Good property managers are hard to find! I contacted about 10 before I got a single call back. (And that single call-back came five minutes after I sent him an email on a Friday night at 7 p.m., so I was very happy with him!) We are looking to rent much closer to work and there are a whole lot of shady PMs managing property. One just asked us to sign two leases--one at the listed amount and one $250 per month higher so the owner could qualify for another mortgage. Essentially, he asked us to commit mortgage fraud, not five minutes after my husband told him he was a lawyer. It's disheartening.