In today’s blog, we are talking about what to do if you are relocating and leaving your property behind. When folks move out of the area or decide to upsize or downsize, it’s hard to decide what to do with your current house. We have another blog that helps you decide whether to rent or sell. If you decide to rent, we have also talked about whether it’s best for you to manage the property yourself or turn it over to a professional property manager.
There is a lot to think about when you’re relocating. Sometimes, people will call me six months ahead of time to talk about what needs to be done, so I thought I’d walk you through the process. The first rule is – worry about your new house first. We always tell our clients to focus on finding a new home, wherever you happen to be moving. Getting your current home ready for the rental market will be much easier than finding that new home. A good property manager will be able to take care of everything for you when it comes to your current home. We can have your house packed and ready to move with very little notice. So, always worry about your new home first.
Get a rental analysis done so you know what your house will rent for. You also need to know what it will take to get the home rent ready. We provide a three-page checklist for our property owners. It includes all the things you would expect, like check the walls to see if new paint is needed, make sure the light bulbs work and clean the carpets. You can handle taking care of all these things yourself, you can have us handle all of it or we can share the responsibility. There are some things we want to do on our own, like changing the locks. This keeps your property protected and your tenants protected. We also do all the battery changes on smoke detectors and carbon monoxide detectors. After everything else is done, you’ll need to spend a little money on those costs.
When should you show the home? Whenever you are comfortable with people seeing it. If you don’t want the pressure of having to keep the home clean all the time and you don’t want strangers coming through and looking at your belongings, wait until you are all moved out. It is much easier to show a vacant home because tenants can visualize how their belongings will fit. Our vacant homes rent quicker than our occupied homes. We understand that you want to minimize the vacancy period, so we can start showing immediately if you want. There’s no need to show more than 6 weeks ahead of time.
On average, we take about 28 days to rent a house. That means you can expect a month or two of vacancy, so plan for that. Your property manager should walk you through this entire process. If you need help, or you have any questions, please contact us at Alarca Property Management.
