Preparing Your Home for Rent

While preparing for your new life on the road, there are many other things that also need to be considered. If you own your home, you need to decide whether you want a base to come back to, or you are happy to see the end of your home.

If your plans are to come back eventually, it’s time to consider renting your home to tenants. If you’re lucky enough to have family or friends that will take it on, that’s great. It’s a big load off your mind. However, if this isn’t your situation, then you need to prepare to have strangers live in your home.

One really big consideration is to have your home managed by a reputable property agent. This will give you peace of mind that your home will be monitored by a professional who will conduct inspections, usually at 3 month intervals, who will make sure your home is being treated well, and also that the rent is being paid, and on time.

You will also need to consider landlord insurance. Nowadays, there are insurances for everything. And they usually cost a bucket, but to not have this insurance behind you can sometimes lead to pretty big expenses.

Now it’s time to get into the physical work ahead!

Furniture

You will need to consider whether or not you are leaving your furniture in the home for tenants to make use of. Leaving standard white goods such as a washing machine and dishwasher in the home are more than likely going to help your investment reach a better rental price. Having these items in the home already is quite appealing to renters. If you are leaving any furniture, especially electricals, make sure they are in good working order and aren’t likely to pose a problem in the near future.

Repairs

Live-in home owners tend to put repairs to the “to-do list’ if it isn’t a necessity. However, it’s not ideal to rent a home to tenants if there are items that need to be repaired. Especially things like the structure of the building and things that add value and comfort to your home.

Do a walk around your home checking for things like taps that leak, windows and doors that don’t seal, mouldy grout in wet areas, roof panelling/tiles, worn carpet and paint chips. Fixing these types of things will more than likely save you money down the track.

Conduct a deep clean

When a land agent does the initial ‘walk-through’ survey of your home with the tenant, they will record the condition of the home. If you want your home left in a high standard, you need to set the bar.

Conducting a deep clean yourself or hiring someone if you have the means to do so, is a pretty important job. We’re not talking just vacuuming and dusting. Nope. This means have your carpets steam cleaned, wash your walls, clean windows and window sills, clean cupboards and drawers, wipe down skirting boards. You should also consider including a garage hose down, wash the curtains, clean flyscreens and extractor fan/ducted air con vents and ceiling fans as these are a magnet for dust.

Modernise

If you’re hoping to fetch a good rental price and attract a vast amount of interest in your home, it would pay to consider whether or not the house is outdated. From painting, to replacing kitchens and bathrooms, the more modern the home is, could be the difference between many potential tenants showing interest, or the home sitting on the rental market for longer than you wish.

There’s also the cost involved in modernising the house though. Painting, for example, generally isn’t overly expensive, however it can be time consuming especially if you are living in it at the time. But when you’re looking at getting more involved, cost is a big factor. We have recently gone through the exercise of quoting a new kitchen for our home, but quickly put that to the ‘too expensive’ basket when quotes began at $25,000. Bathrooms can cost around the same.

Make it presentable

Potential tenants generally don’t want to waste their time looking at a home that doesn’t seem appealing. With this in mind, you’ll want your home to look its absolute best when the agent and photographer come to take the photos for the listing.

This means tidy the yards, put things away, pull up weeds, clean the gutters, ensure fences and gates are in good condition, change light bulbs to higher wattage, mow the lawn, blow the leaves etc.

These simple tasks will ensure that the photos taken by the photographer with their in-detail camera equipment aren’t going to pick up anything that will deter renters to come in droves.

See our planning resources here

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