What to Know About Renting Your House

Video Transcript

"Well let's talk about that. If you're going to be either the person coming in to rent the house, the actual tenant, or if you're going to rent the house, the landlord, the first thing is it's a compatibility thing. There is a relationship that's established between a tenant and a landlord and you have to have a good relationship on either side of the fence there, OK? So you need to if you're a landlord, you're going to want to check the credit of the individual, check their referenced and get a good feeling, good comfort level. If you're the tenant, you're going to want to meet your landlord and make sure that you're comfortable with that person. You're going to sign most likely sign a lease with them and you want to make sure that they're somebody that are going to adhere to that lease, that are going to fix any problems in the house if they occur like a plumbing or electrical issue, etcetera. So you need to have a good vibe, a good relationship, a good feeling with the individual. Now the actual property itself, if you're the tenant going to look at that property and you're going to reside in there let's say, you want to make sure that the property is up to code. You want to make sure that there are fire codes are met. Fire extinguishers and in place, smoke alarms are in place, railings are in place, you want anything dangerous in the house, exposed electrical outlets, any sharp objects, etcetera. Conversely if you're a landlord, you need to fix these items. These items all need to be taken care of. If you're the landlord and you're renting that house out, you need to make sure you have the proper insurance in place. You may want to also setup that rental property where it's listed as a small corporation, an LLC. This is for tax reasons and legal reasons so that if in fact someone gets hurt in that house and sues you, they can only sue that LLC and not the entire asset base that the landlord has. So those are some of the things you need to take into account, again depending if you're the landlord or the tenant as you get into this rental arena."