Preparing to Lease Your Home

Here are some ideas and suggestions to consider as we team-up to lease your home. If you can get most/all of these items done, it will assure a smooth transition to investment property.

• Do you have any interior or exterior photos you like? If so, perhaps you could email them to me. They can be either when the home was vacant, and/or furnished. If you don’t have any, that’s OK – I’ll take some the first time we meet at your home.
• Please prepare a list of utility companies with their respective contact information. Please email that list to us. (sample list below)
• (You could even add school information to the utility list if you know the names of the appropriate schools that would serve your community)
• Do you have a flyer, or other description of your home and its features? If not, please list items, features, and benefits of living there that should be considered for our advertising.
• Manuals – Please get together any appliance manuals, or operating instructions for any systems (E.g.: programmable thermostat)
• Paint – Identify paint used in the home, and discard others. Please provide color Manufacturer/color codes for current paint used in home. (This greatly simplifies touch-up and repairs, and reduces maintenance expenses significantly)
• Utilities –  Contact all utility companies to inform them of your intent to rent out the home and provide them with the necessary landlord/continuation agreements.
• Verify with the HOA that it is OK to rent/lease your home, and any notifications you are required to give them when you rent/lease your home. Also provide your HOA with PPS Homes contact information and authorization to make decisions concerning the home on your behalf.
• Covenants/Rules and Regulations – Please have copies of any rules and guidelines that govern how the neighborhood or complex is run.
• Condition – If there is painting, or any repair needed, it’s best to get that done prior to showing it. I suggest having the carpeting cleaned (if necessary) prior to showing, or leasing. It’s easier to hold a tenant to higher standards of care when we turn over your home in the best condition possible. I will be documenting the condition upon move-in (you moving out) by using a move-in/move out checklist, and dozens of digital pictures with date overlay.
• Keys, etc. – Please be sure you have your home door keys (2) , mailbox keys (2), mailbox #, gate and garage remotes handy. Ideally, I would like to check out 2 sets to the tenants, and maintain 1 set in our file. A note – many owners Re-key all outside doors to reduce liability in the event someone else has a set of keys.
• Professionally clean the carpeting.
• Spruce up the yard. Cut the grass, trim the bushes, prune trees and pull weeds. Fix broken sprinkler heads, replace dead or dying shrubbery and add some new flowering plants (if it’s the season) to flower beds.
• Change the air filters. In addition to changing the furnace air filter(s), clean the vents and surrounding ceiling area (return air intake).
• Get a professional top-to-bottom interior cleaning. Renters expect their rental property to be clean for move-in, so have the property professionally cleaned. Professional cleaners can get every area of your property clean – from refrigerator, to oven, cabinets, bathrooms, and windows.
• Replace any burned out light bulbs. Consider putting in energy efficient bulbs which reduce energy costs, and don’t need to be replaced as often. (Don’t forget outside bulbs).
• Inspect ceiling fans. Make sure that all fans operate properly, and are dust-free.
• Clean away all webs (cob and spider)
• Clean, repair or replace window and door screens.
• Maintenance Tips – Are there any suggested maintenance items we should pass on to our tenant? (E.g.: changing furnace filters with filter dimension/specs) This can even include any yard maintenance items that will become the responsibility of the new tenant. If there are any recurring maintenance items where you may have found a good product or solution, let’s pass that information on to our tenant. I have a great example of a “Home Operations Manual” you could prepare for a tenant. Please ask me to email it to you if you would like to use it as an example to prepare one for your home.
• Utilities – Just prior to leaving, you should discontinue newspapers, garbage, and cable/satellite TV/Internet service. Please leave the other services in place. We will need them for showings, and to protect the home from freezing. We will assist the new tenant with establishing utility accounts in their name, and closing your accounts.
• Yard Maintenance – Please make arrangements to have the yard maintained (mostly just lawn mowing) during the time between your occupancy, and our new tenant taking over.
• Heat in Home – I suggest leaving the heat set to hold about 60-65 degrees. With that setting, your energy bill will likely go down, (from its current level) and prospects will find it easier to “see” your home when they are comfortable, and not shivering.
• Freeze Protection – If our marketing is taking place during winter months, please be sure outside faucets are protected from freezing, and sprinkler systems are winterized.