If you’re ready to move out of your current home, you may be looking into converting this piece of property into a rental as opposed to just selling it, as might be seen as more traditional. But in the right situations, you can often get more value out of the property by keeping it and renting it out to other tenants as opposed to selling off the property. But before you do this, it’s important that you’re able to convert your home into a place that will be able to function successfully as a rental. To show you how you can do this, here are three tips for converting your home into a rental property.
Check With Your HOA
Before you make the decision that you’re going to start renting out your property, you first need to ensure that you’re going to be able to do this legally. According to Laura Agadoni, a contributor to Landlordology.com, if you live somewhere with an HOA or Homeowners Association, there might be stipulations about whether or not you can use your home as a rental property. Sometimes, there are strict non-rental rules. In other situations, only a certain number or percentage of homes within that HOA can be used as rentals. So prior to taking any more steps toward becoming a rental, make sure you speak with your HOA, if applicable.
Make Sure You’re Properly Insured
Once you’ve determined that you’re going to be able to retain your property and use it as a rental, you’ve now got to ensure that you’re adequately protecting yourself in every sense of the word. As a part of this, you’ve got to make sure that you’re properly insured. According to Tim Parker, a contributor to Investopedia, you as the owner of the property are responsible for any harm that comes to people or property on your property. Because of this, you’ll want to get insurance that will help you be covered in these types of situations. Additionally, you can require that your tenants have renter’s insurance for themselves as well.
Choose Updates That Make Financial and Protective Sense
After you’ve taken care of all the logistics surrounding turning your home into a rental property, you’ll likely want to take some measures that will protect your home in a financial sense while also allowing you to ask top-dollar for your rent. To help in these areas, Brian Davis, a contributor to Bigger Pockets, advises doing things like making simple maintenance easy by supplying your renters with the tools they’ll need, protecting your flooring or replacing it with more resilient flooring options, and installing luxe yet financially conservative upgrades to the small details around the home.
If you’re considering turning your home into a rental property, use the tips mentioned above to help you do this successfully.