Should You Rent Your Home?

Approximately 68% of Americans own their home. What if you were offered a dream job out of the area? Should you Sell or Rent your home? Before making that decision there are many factors to think about. Do you like the home and neighborhood that you want to hold on to it incase you decide to make back? Are you looking for a extra tax break through the properties deprecation? Would you want to us this home as for a retirement investment? These are just a few of the reasons for retaining ownership. A few more would be, are you prepared to be a long-distance landlord or hiring a Property Management company? What about the costs involved such as advertising, turnover costs (cleaning, painting and repairs between tenants). How about property taxes, insurance, utilities between tenants and accounting costs? A good rule of thumb is expenses typically run between 30 to 40% of the income before the monthly mortgage costs. 

Different Ways to Rent the Property

Typically there are 3 ways a property is rented. One is by the owner. The homeowner who chooses to do everything themselves would be responsible for marketing, showing, maintenance, showing the home to perspective tenants, accounting, running credit reports, evections and so on. Not many homeowners would want that responsibility. Another choice is to hire a Real Estate Agent who does not do property management but for a one time fee will market the property, show the home, run credit and background reports on perspective tenants and handle all the needed paperwork (Lease Applications, Lease and other addenda). The third choice would be hiring a Property Management Company. The will manage the property and handle tenants, paperwork, repairs and so on. They typically will charge a letting fee and monthly fee. Be sure to get a list of fee's prior to listing your home.