If you have decided to rent out your Brentwood property, you are putting yourself in an excellent position to establish some financial security and begin building wealth. Investing in real estate comes with a lot of benefits. It also involves risk, and if you’ve never done it before – a bit of confusion.
Now that you’re a landlord, what are you supposed to do? We have a few things you should take care of right away in order to have a successful rental experience.
Prepare Your Home for the Rental Market
Make sure all of your personal belongings are moved out of the home. Don’t leave anything behind, not even things you think your future tenants might appreciate. Once the home is empty, you need to inspect it for any minor maintenance or repair needs. Walk through the house and take a critical look at anything that needs to be repaired, replaced, or updated. If the appliances are from 1980, you should probably buy new ones. Check for safety and habitability issues. Make sure the doors and windows lock. Look for leaks. Change out the light bulbs that aren’t working.
You may not immediately see a problem with the water heater or the air conditioning. But, once your tenants move in and start using the shower in the second bathroom that you never used, problems might begin to reveal themselves. So, have a team of professional plumbers, electricians, and other contractors check everything out before you rent out the home.
Clean the home thoroughly. Hire professionals to really make it shine and sparkle. This will make a huge difference to highly qualified tenants.
Price and Market your Brentwood Rental Property
Make sure you settle on an accurate and competitive rental price for your property. The amount of rent you can charge will depend on the market. Hopefully, you ran some numbers before deciding to rent out the property and established what you could expect in rent.
Things change pretty quickly, so take another look at the market and do some updated comparable analyses before you list your home for rent. If you price it too high, you’ll have a longer vacancy and you’ll end up losing money. If you price it too low, you’re leaving money on the table and you’ll struggle to raise the rent to market value going forward.
Marketing is also important. Take good, high-quality photos and make sure your listing shows up on all the rental sites that prospective tenants are using. Be available for showings and answer questions quickly.
Professional Brentwood Property Management
Working with a professional property management company will help you rent your property quicker and to a better tenant. You’ll be protected from the many expensive mistakes and legal pitfalls that can trip up new landlords and investors before they collect their first rent check.
You may worry you’re going to lose money by paying a leasing and management fee, but you’ll actually earn more when you work with professionals. Good property managers can help you save money on maintenance, retain good tenants, and collect rent on time. You’ll have lower vacancy rates, less turnover, and fewer instances of tenant disputes or conflicts.
We’d be happy to tell you more about our management services. Contact us at Parks Property Management for more information on renting out your Brentwood home successfully.