If your house isn’t selling and your new job is waiting or if selling your house at today’s real estate prices has you bringing money to the closing table, you are probably thinking about becoming a landlord.
Being a landlord can’t be all that difficult. You find a prospective tenant, check their credit, sign a lease agreement and sit back and collect the rent. Sounds easy. Right? I agree on the surface it does sound easy. But before you decide to rent your Spring Texas house you need to ask yourself “Are you landlord material?”.
To find out if you are landlord material, ask yourself these questions:
How do you know a good tenant from a bad tenant? If it’s by their credit score, then what’s a good credit score? What about their criminal history? Do they have the ability to pay you or are they living beyond their means? Are you willing to accept smokers? Are you willing to accept pets? What if the tenant looks good on paper but he turns out to be an arrogant so and so and won’t stop calling you?
How much will your homeowners insurance increase? That’s right … the insurance on your Spring Texas home is higher when you are renting vs living in the home.
Do you know about fair housing laws? It’s your house, you should be able to decide who you are going to rent it to and who you are not. Wrong! Fair Housing Laws prohibit housing discrimination due to race, religion, color, sex, national origin, disability, and familial status.
Who is going to take care of the yard? The Tenant? What happens when the tenant does not take care of the yard. Your home owners association is not going to enforce your tenant to take care of the yard. They are going to enforce you to take care of the yard.
What happens when the tenant stops paying the rent? Who are you going to call to start the eviction process?
How are you going to handle repair requests? Do you have a list of contractors to call when the plumbing gets backed up, the dishwasher goes out, and the air conditioning stops working?
We entrusted Jill Wente with the sale of our current home and purchase of a new home. From the beginning... read moreWe entrusted Jill Wente with the sale of our current home and purchase of a new home. From the beginning she was extremely up front and honest about exactly what we would need to do to get our house sold. We had an incredibly tight timeline, that she explained would be difficult to make - but she helped us make it happen and our house was under contract in 2 days! She had recommendations for all our home repair needs and they were all professional and fairly priced. She worked hard to really sell our offer for our new home - she was able to pull off the tight timeline, securing a rent back from our old house so we had time to move out, and a contingency for our new home. Definitely exceeded our expectations. She was so helpful along the way - as first time home sellers we really relied on her and we feel lucky to have worked with her! You will not regret working with Jill! read less