Costs of renting a house out

Do you want to rent a house out? That means you want to become a landlord! Being a landlord is a fantastic way to make extra cash or add money to your savings. This can only happen when you have a free room or a whole house to spare.

Renting out a house is a choice that can bring in many profits, but you must be willing to invest your money and time to make it feasible. Perhaps you want to move from your house to a new one, or maybe your parents' house has been passed down to you, and you are not planning to reside there.

Regardless of what has brought you to this point, you are interested in knowing the costs of renting a house out. Fortunately, we have just the right answers for you.

Main Costs Of Renting Your Property Out

There are a few considerations before deciding if you are ready to rent your house and how much it should cost. Some of these factors are discussed below.

Monthly expenses

There are monthly expenses on the house that you will cater for. You want to calculate those expenses as this will help you decide what to charge. Firstly, get your worksheet and calculate ongoing costs of owning the house, e.g., association fees for homeowners, maintenance, and mortgage.

Insurance coverage is one place that might need some upgrading. You should include landlord insurance; this is strictly advised if you seek the help of a house/property agent. This is because when you want to rent out your house, the homeowner's insurance might no longer cover it. Hence, landlord insurance is needed.

Homeowners insurance is responsible for possible break-ins, house fires, and medical bills if someone gets hurt while living in your house. All this might be nullified if you put your home on rent. Thus, you can only protect your investment property with the help of landlord insurance. However, landlord insurance costs more, especially if it is an already furnished apartment. This is because of personal possessions that you are relinquishing to the new owner.

Vetting prospective tenants

Make out time to check out the backgrounds of your likely tenants. Specific platforms will help you with all there is to know about your renters. This ranges from criminal records to credit reports, including reports on previous eviction. Of course, you will need your prospective renter's permission to access such information.

Some landlords even go as far as charging a fee for applications that will cover background checks. You will also need the help of a lawyer here because the application is a legal document.

Upgrades and maintenance

You might be one of the most careful landlords and still won't be absolutely sure if your tenants will take adequate care of your house. Therefore, it is often advised that if you are not close to your property, you should make provisions for somebody else to keep a close watch on the place for you.‍‍

Getting your house professionally inspected is also essential to properly maintaining it. Specifically speaking, if renters don't take upkeep seriously, it is always advantageous to be in the know sooner rather than later. Failure to do so might result in more costly trouble eventually.

Sometimes, the tenants might be thorough and adequately conscious, but that doesn't guarantee that specific problems will not arise. Failure of boilers, roof leakage, and even faults in household appliances like the washing machine are a few issues that might still occur, irrespective of how conscientious your tenants are.

Getting quick information on problems that have cropped up and possible appliances that might need to be replaced or repaired will aid in saving money in advance. This is always the most proactive way to act before it becomes an emergency that will cost more.

Seeking the services of a property agent/manager

The stress of going through all these processes might come off as overwhelming, and you might want to save yourself the effort by hiring a property manager. This is especially helpful because details of the property would be taken care of, and the agent will also oversee the property.

Of course, this comes with a price. Some of the management companies will charge you monthly depending on how long you need their services. Other firms will settle for just a certain percentage of the rent.

The services of a property manager or a management company go a long way as they can offer help in terms of the amount you want to charge and prepare a lease. Often, the firm is also tasked with the responsibility of looking for tenants and thoroughly investigating them.

A lot of these companies have emergency lines and are active 24 hours. Hence, they are always available to take care of instant issues like electricity and plumbing, and you can pay later. By estimates, you should anticipate paying a management firm about 8% of your gross annual rent.

Tidy record keeping

Irrespective of the involvement of a house manager/management firm, always try to keep thorough business records on your rental properties. Professionally, owners of houses are always advised to have receipts for expenses incurred and to store them diligently.

There are always some complications with liability and tax issues. So, it is recommended that expenditures made on maintenance and others made on problems like getting new patios or decks are recorded differently with different receipts. This will make tax preparation more manageable, so you should seek the opinion of a tax professional here.

Worth of the house

The determination of how much exactly to charge is very dependent on this factor. Knowing exactly how much your house is worth in the present market is critical. Figuring this out can be a very cumbersome procedure sometimes, but certain websites can help you make a reasonable estimate of how much your house is worth.

Getting a more detailed assessment of the worth can be difficult, but this will help quantify the actual cost based on the location and condition of the home. Generally, landlords charge their tenants about 1.1% of the home's true worth or value. Putting these words into numbers, if your house is worth $300,000, you (as the landlord) may want to charge about $2,500 monthly.

This only applies to some landlords, as it is always better to charge less if your house's value is higher; this helps invite more renters. You don't want to rent an unaffordable house as this will scare away potential tenants. It is also possible to charge weekly rent, especially if you rent out via platforms like Airbnb. 

Rent of other landlords

Asides from the worth of your home, you will need to make findings on how much other landlords charge for houses that look like yours, as this will help you make needed adjustments. This way, finding a tenant will be easy since there are similarities in terms of cost.

In some states, deciding on what rate you want to be paid for rent is challenging because there is a limit as to what can and should be charged for rent. This is due to laws for rent control.

Selecting your tenant

Selecting a tenant looks and sounds very simple, but it really isn't because you will have to go through the process of vetting the prospective renters before you reach a decision. Make sure you avoid breaking any laws, especially laws on discrimination. Hence, applications should be processed strictly by who comes first.

Take your time reaching a decision; you might want to indulge your lawyer one more time or even a property manager. This is done especially when you have a lot of qualified people to choose from.

Once you accept a tenant and sign the lease, you are officially a landlord. Congratulations!

Get An Inspection Before Renting Out

Putting your house up for rent is more challenging than people make it seem. It would be best if you learned to pick a reasonable rental rate, as it is essential to being a landlord. The factors mentioned earlier will help you make profitable returns on your property and make it easy to get the most qualified tenants at the quickest times.

One of the most vital things to do before renting out your house is to conduct a rental property building inspection to ensure there are no structural issues that could harm your tenant. This will make your property even more renter-welcome.

Therefore, contact a professional building inspection company to help inspect your property before you let any renter move in. This will safeguard both your property and your tenants.