How to Turn Your Home Into Rental Property

Video Transcript

"Hi I'm Damon Thompson I've been a landlord for over ten years and I have five multi unit buildings. This is how to turn your home into rental property. The first thing you need to do is clear your home out. You want to clean everything out of your home, you want to essentially look like a home for sale. So you want to have everything out of it so when your prospective tenants come by they can see how much square footage, how much space is available to them when they bring their stuff in and hopefully move in to your property. The next thing you want to do is consult with an attorney. You want to find out what the rules and regulations are for your area in regards of being, in regard to being a landlord. You are going to make sure you speak with your attorney he is going to tell you what your rights and responsibilities are. You want to get all the legal things handled very clearly and very accurately because you need to protect yourself because even though you are renting out your home this is still your home. So you want to make sure that all the legal aspects are covered. The next thing you do is you want to make sure that you create a safe and maintained property. You want to make sure that the trash is removed, the snow is removed, the yard is up is kept up. Any maintenance issue that arrives, arise you want to make sure that you are on top of those when they happen. In the end you want to make sure that you advertise the property. Take a ad out on the internet, a newspaper, something where and you use, and use really descriptive terms when you are describing this home, a cozy bungalow on a nice quiet street or close to good schools or something like that. Because you are basically want to sell the idea to your prospective tenants. Then you need to draft a lease. You can find sample lease on the internet, you could find sample leases at an office supply store. You want to take, you want to make sure you draft a lease, make sure the lease covers all the things that you need to cover in terms of protecting yourself and your home and then finally, you want to research and interview prospective tenants. Have them come in, fill out credit apps, rental applications, get them in, review these things, interview the individuals and make sure that you can make an informed decision on the person that you want to rent your home. I'm Damon Thompson and that's how to turn your home into rental property."