By Ryan Squires
The question of how to rent out your house might arise due to a move, financial reasons, or an emotional attachment to the property that keeps you from selling it.
The process can be daunting, though. There are legal elements to understand, tenants to screen, and home improvements to ensure your rental is competitive and attractive to applicants.
Don’t let fear of the unknown stop you. There are tricks and tools available that make home rental a breeze. Property management software like TurboTenant can streamline your workflow to take much of the work off your plate.
Below, we’ll take a deep dive into:
- Not only how to rent out your house but how to rent out your house effectively and efficiently
- How landlord-tenant laws can impact your rentals
- How to find, screen, and place tenants
- The pros and cons of property management
- The steps you can take if you want to learn how to rent out your house and not drive yourself crazy in the process
In this guide, we’ll look at how to rent out your house in 12 easy steps.
Renting Out a House: Benefits and Drawbacks
Let’s review some of the most common pros and cons that we hear from both first-time and veteran landlords, which can hopefully point you in the right direction for your own house rental experience.
Benefits of Renting Out a House
When you’re determined to learn how to rent out your house, it can be tempting to focus on the positives initially — and there are plenty! Renting out property can be a fantastic source of passive income, helping you retain property over the long term and providing valuable insights into property management. As a result, you may feel confident using property management software to handle the tasks yourself rather than hiring a property manager.
Let’s dive into some of the benefits you’ll experience when renting out your house.
1. Maintain Ownership
There might come a time after purchasing a home that you’d like to move, can’t afford to own two homes at once, and don’t want to sell your property. Renting out your house means you can generate income to buy a new home without selling anything or giving up a great interest rate. This approach allows you to maintain flexibility while benefiting from the investment opportunities a rental property provides. Many landlords have realized that renting their house keeps more long-term options open and on the table.
2. Create Passive Income
Renting out your home can generate extra income, which aids in covering property costs while contributing to long-term financial stability with minimal ongoing effort. After preparing your property and securing a tenant, the required attention significantly decreases, allowing you to focus on other interests or expand your property investment portfolio.
The workload lessens when you incorporate property management software into your workflow.
3. A Chance to Grow
While some skills are easy to learn from a book, learning property management is best done through hands-on experience. From handling tasks like tenant screening, financial accounting, maintenance and repairs, and lease management, you’ll quickly receive a crash course in property management.
The experience you gain after managing your first property or two helps you move from asking yourself, “How do I rent out my house?” to “How many houses can I rent out?”
Drawbacks of Renting Out a House
While there are several clear benefits to learning how to rent out your house, it’s also worth considering the other side of the coin. Becoming a landlord can be a time-consuming and expensive hobby, with tenants and personalities to manage, problems to solve, and expenses to consider.
1. Staying Current with Laws
One of the key components of renting out your house that we’ve already discussed is the existence of landlord-tenant laws. These laws can be tricky to navigate, and they’re constantly changing, so ensuring you fully understand the federal, state, and local guidelines is paramount. There could be serious consequences for landlords who run afoul of these statutes, not to mention potential reputational or legal risks.
Since landlord-tenant laws can change from year to year, make sure you pay attention to what’s happening in your property’s area. Keeping your finger on the legal pulse is one of the most important aspects of managing property.
2. Creating More Work for Yourself
When you consider how to rent out your house, it’s easy to forget how much time tasks can take from your day-to-day schedule. Finding leads, screening tenants, showing property, managing maintenance, and collecting rent can quickly pile up on your to-do list, and it might be hard to find enough time in the day. And if managing the property isn’t your main gig, adding more to your plate could quickly become untenable.
If you’re not ready for the time commitment it might take to launch your investment business, property management can quickly become a demanding and stressful experience.
3. Financial Challenges
The real estate market can sometimes be an adventure, with house prices fluctuating and interest rates constantly changing. Many landlords wonder how to rent out their houses in times of financial uncertainty, but there is never a clear answer.
However, while property ownership is generally a solid and reliable investment, unforeseen expenses and challenges can arise at the most inopportune times. Even with careful financial planning, there’s no guarantee that renting out your house will be immediately profitable.
From external challenges, like weather and natural disasters, to other challenges, like tenants breaking a lease early and unexpectedly, new costs and expenses can pop up when you least expect it, causing high stress and a financial burden.
12 Steps to Renting Out Your House
Renting out a house for the first time can be either a key first step into large-scale landlording or a small step into casual property management. Either way, understanding how to rent out your house begins with preparing yourself and your property to comply with local laws while creating an attractive package for renters.
Key steps include setting a competitive price, advertising to the market you want, screening and approving new tenants, lease signing, and arguably the most important part of renting out a house, collecting rent.
Now, let’s dig into the details.
1. Learn the Relevant Laws
When wondering how to rent out your house, it’s easy to skip over a crucial first step — understanding and complying with local, state, and federal landlord-tenant laws.
One of the most important laws to understand at the federal level is the Federal Fair Housing Act. This law aims to keep housing as fair as possible and requires landlords to avoid discrimination in advertising rentals or accepting tenants. This means landlords can’t use criteria like race, sex, or religion to decide who to rent their property to.
All of this is to say that landlords must stay current on landlord-tenant law. TurboTenant offers updates on new changes to local, state, and federal laws and provides legally compliant lease agreements for all 50 states.
2. Use Landlord Insurance
Landlord insurance protects against unexpected events like property damage or tenant disputes. Unlike standard homeowners or renters insurance, landlord insurance specifically fits the needs of rental property owners, covering risks like property damage, liability claims, or loss of rental income in specific circumstances.
Landlord insurance comes in various types and can safeguard you from a number of challenges that may arise when renting out a house. While TurboTenant doesn’t directly offer landlord insurance, we partnered with Steadily to help landlords choose the best insurance for their needs.
3. Set Your Rent
To successfully rent out your house, first ensure that your property is legally compliant and market-ready. The next step involves researching and establishing a competitive and profitable rental price.
The best way to determine a competitive rent price is to closely examine local listings similar to your property, assessing the features, amenities, and similarities/differences to determine where to set the price. It’s important to also factor in the square footage and condition of the property to establish the proper benchmark. TurboTenant offers a rent estimate tool that can help you streamline the process.
Once you’ve done the legwork, find the amount that will cover your costs — things like mortgage payments, property taxes, insurance, and ongoing maintenance are necessary to factor in when setting the price. Striking the right balance between a competitive market rate and profit will go a long way toward setting you up for long-term prosperity.
4. Create a Compelling Listing
Crafting a compelling property listing with clear images and detailed information about the property will attract better tenants and more inquiries. Visually showcasing the property’s highlights and best features is one of the best ways to show off your home.
Follow that up with a well-thought-out description of the property, using detailed and creative language to excite potential applicants and encourage them to apply. Don’t be afraid to check out other listings to get a feel for the kind of descriptions that other landlords use and then enhance those for your own benefit.
Once you have a listing you like, post the ad to a listing service to start farming for leads. Ideally, you will post your ad on several platforms in order to maximize the listing’s visibility. TurboTenant features an automated advertising tool that distributes your listing to dozens of major rental websites, like Redfin, Apartments.com, Craigslist, and more.
And if you experience writer’s block, consider using our AI property description tool to help you draft your next description fast.
5. Sort Through Applicants
The transition from “how to rent out your house” to “how to select the right tenant” isn’t a straight line. Now that you (hopefully) have a pile of applications stemming from your listing, getting through the stack as quickly as possible can reduce the amount of time your home is vacant while ensuring you get the right candidate before they sign elsewhere.
Digital tools help speed up the review process, organizing information efficiently to increase efficiency and reduce the time it takes to pull everything together. TurboTenant’s free online application tool simplifies the application and review process by keeping everything in one easy-to-find location.
6. Screen Each Tenant
Screening tenants involves looking into the past to help guide the future. In a thorough report, you’ll find credit, background, and eviction histories, as long as your area permits you to review this information. Detailed information provides peace of mind to landlords, who can feel more secure knowing they’ve selected the most qualified applicant. However, it’s also essential to steer clear of discrimination during this process by consistently evaluating every tenant with the same criteria.
Consider TurboTenant’s comprehensive screening service, which includes credit checks, criminal history, and past evictions. Plus, it’ll help you avoid discrimination lawsuits by enabling you to apply the same criteria to every applicant.
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7. Create a Solid Lease
Once you’ve found the right tenant, a clear and concise lease agreement is your first line of defense against tenant disputes or conflicts. It’s essential that a lawyer review your lease and that it follows all federal and local landlord-tenant laws to be legally compliant.
Since the lease is the defining document in renting out your house, you’ll want to ensure that it includes key clauses about maintenance responsibilities and utilities, pet policies, late fees, and anything else that should be called out for your rental. The lease should avoid any prohibited clauses or language to prevent it from being declared void or unenforceable.
We want to help make this process easy for you. TurboTenant offers landlords fully customizable lease agreements that have been legally reviewed and lawyer-approved to ensure full compliance across the United States.
8. Move-In Time
The next step in learning how to rent out your house is actually renting out your house! You’ve selected an applicant, so now it’s time to review and sign the lease, walk through the property with the tenant one last time, and then hand over the keys.
You can now explain your expectations for the new tenant and how you’ll address their needs. Ideally, this is all captured in the lease agreement, which is a legally binding contract that aims to reduce miscommunication and put all parties on the right track.
TurboTenant features a lease management system that allows everyone to sign the lease electronically and store it in a centralized location within the platform if anyone needs to review any of the terms.
9. Collect Rent Securely
One of the reasons many people want to learn how to rent out their house is for passive income. As such, rent collection is one of the most important aspects of renting out a house. You won’t be in business for long without a solid rent collection process!
Regardless of how many homes you manage, directing all rent payments to an online collection system is one of the most convenient and secure ways to collect.
Not only can TurboTenant manage leases, screen tenants, and advertise your rentals, but it can also collect rent through a powerful rent collection system. This tool allows for secure online payments and enables landlords to send out automatic reminders leading up to the due date, which reduces late payments and keeps everyone on the same page.
10. Use Maintenance Tracking Tools
Managing maintenance effectively is a good way to ensure your properties are ready to rent for the long term. Between ongoing, routine maintenance tasks and tenant requests, staying on top of repairs can keep costs down and tenants happy. A maintenance tracking system can help you stay organized and ensure that any issues are resolved promptly.
Managing a backlog of maintenance requests efficiently can be challenging, so TurboTenant has developed a robust maintenance management tool that can help landlords manage and track maintenance requests, assign vendors, and track costs.
Ultimately, keeping rental units in good repair can quickly balloon costs, so a powerful maintenance tracker can help keep costs down while fixing problems as quickly as they arise.
11. Foster a Positive Relationship
The first thing you thought of when you were wondering how to rent out your house probably wasn’t how to build trust with your tenants. But when you think about it, great communication and a positive relationship could mean the difference between filled and vacant units.
Start by being approachable and flexible with your tenants, answering questions, and promptly addressing repair requests. Make sure the lease is clear to everyone and maintain a positive presence when on the property. Good communication can prevent potential issues and foster a generally positive rental experience. Tenants who feel heard and listened to are more likely to stay on a property long-term instead of seeking other accommodations.
TurboTenant features a centralized communication system, making it easy to directly message tenants through the desktop platform or individual mobile apps for landlords and tenants. When you communicate in the same place where you do business, nothing gets mixed up.
12. Streamline Renewals
Developing a proactive lease renewal process can help avoid vacancies, which could result in losing necessary income, and retain good tenants. To this end, it’s incredibly important to ensure your tenants are aware of when their lease term is ending and provide them with adequate time to review any rent price increases, if necessary.
This process could become cumbersome depending on how many units are in your portfolio. But leveraging software like TurboTenant couldn’t be easier. Because of TurboTenant’s lease tracking and management system, seeing which leases are about to terminate is easy because we display the termination date below the property address in the lease dashboard.
And when it’s time to renew, you can easily convert the lease to a month-to-month agreement or add an addendum.
So, should you rent out your house?
You’ve waded into property management and learned the basics by asking how to rent out your house. But the ultimate decision to rent out property is up to you.
Consider your short—and long-term financial goals. Are you looking for steady income right now, or is renting out property a long-term investment strategy to build a larger portfolio? Are you prepared to take on the multitude of tasks that renting out property can add to your plate?
Finally, what are your plans for the future — not only for yourself but for your property? Is this property one you plan to live in yourself someday? Or have you decided not to occupy the home again but want to build on the investment you’ve already made in the house and focus on a long-term growth strategy?
Asking yourself these questions and taking the time to consider why or how to rent out your house can help you achieve success or avoid disaster.
How TurboTenant Can Help
Whether you have one unit or 1,000 units, TurboTenant is here to help with all of your property management needs. When the tasks start to pile up, finding the most efficient process to streamline your day-to-day workflow is critical for long-term success as a landlord.
As a best-in-class, free property management software, TurboTenant offers landlords features like:
- Online rent collection
- Lease management
- Maintenance tracking
- State-specific, legally reviewed lease agreements
- Property listing syndication
- Tenant screening
- Financial and accounting tools
How to rent out your house doesn’t have to be a scary question. With software like TurboTenant, jumping into property management for the first time has never been easier.
So, sign up for a free account today!
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Written by Emily Koelsch
“Renters by Choice” is a relatively new and increasingly widespread phrase. It’s a broad term that refers to anyone who chooses to rent for reasons besides financial necessity.
Recent data indicates that more people choose to rent for the long term. These tenants no longer see renting as just a stepping stone towards homeownership.
Renters by choice are ideal tenants for most Landlords. They’re financially stable and want longterm Lease Agreements in class A properties. As a result, real estate investors should pay attention to this trend and consider it when making investment decisions.
To help you do that, here’s an overview of the movement towards renting by choice and some ways it will impact investors.
What Does It Mean to Be a Renter by Choice
A renter by choice is someone who has the financial resources to purchase a home but chooses not to. It’s important to note that people in this category don’t necessarily have the means to purchase a home in the same market where they’re renting. However, they do have the resources to purchase a home and have housing choices.
There are many reasons people opt to rent rather than purchase a home. Some of the most common are:
- Flexibility and not being bound to a mortgage
- Not wanting to deal with the headaches and expense of home maintenance
- Running the numbers and deciding renting is a better financial option
- Enjoying the amenities and services that come with some rental units
- Enjoying the community and social aspect of multi-unit buildings
- The flexibility that comes from being able to “lock it and leave it”
While many different reasons push people to decide to rent, rising home prices and rising mortgage expenses are at the center of this decision. As the cost of homeownership continues to rise, it’s forcing people of all ages to reexamine their goals and look for alternatives to purchasing a home.
How Common Is the Trend of Renting by Choice
A 2024 Entrata survey of 2,000 renters showed some noticeable shifts in the mindset of renters. Of the 2,000 tenants surveyed,
- 41% said homeownership is no longer part of their idea of the American dream
- 20% said they plan to be renters for life
- 17% said they prefer renting because they’re not bound to a mortgage.
These results differed from previous years and indicate some clear shifts around the idea of homeownership. When analyzing this data, it’s important to note that all renters surveyed live in large multi-unit buildings in urban areas. It seems clear that renters in high-density, urban areas are changing their views on homeownership and renting.
Thus far, it’s less clear how much this change impacts renters and buyers in smaller and more rural areas. Time will tell whether this trend extends to all areas of the country or is unique to urban areas. Regardless, there are more renters today than any period since 1965 and nearly one third of renters have housing choices.
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How This Cultural Shift Impacts Real Estate Investors
Renters by choice are an excellent group for investors to target when purchasing or upgrading properties. Here are a few things to help your properties attract renters by choice:
- Properties in desirable mid-sized cities where renting is socially accepted and financially appealing will attract tenants who are renting by choice.
- Investors can target rent-by-choice baby boomers by offering more space and storage than other rentals on the market. This group wants at least 3 bedrooms, storage space, and parking for two vehicles.
- Investors can target rent-by-choice millennials by offering amenities and having properties near restaurants and entertainment.
- Rental properties must be priced competitively to attract renters by choice. Despite the many factors impacting housing decisions, the cost of homeownership is ultimately what is leading people to opt to rent. Overpricing a rental unit will drive away renters by choice.
- Consider single-family built-for-rent properties. More homebuilders are developing build-for-rent communities, that specifically target people who plan to be lifetime renters.
- Prioritize good property management and landlord-tenant communication. Tenants who are happy in their property are increasingly choosing to stay for the long term.
Maximize Your Rental Returns
While some areas are more impacted by this trend than others, renting by choice is increasingly common across the country. Investors in urban areas and desirable mid-size markets are particularly well-positioned to attract people who want to be longterm renters.
Once you find an investment property, ezLandlordForms can help you get the most out of it. We’re here to support you through every phase of the Landlord lifecycle, including Tenant Screening, Lease creation, and rent collection.
Create an account today and let us be the property management partner you need.
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By Kathelene Williams
As affordable housing remains a challenge across the U.S., fair housing laws aimed at preventing discrimination against low-income applicants have gained attention. Though not federally protected, the source of income discrimination is being addressed at state and local levels, particularly as it relates to residents relying on government subsidies or housing vouchers.
Coupled with the issue of “steering,” these practices not only violate fair housing principles
but also perpetuate inequality, thereby affecting the vulnerable populations most in need of
housing opportunities.
Steering occurs when housing providers subtly direct potential residents to or away from specific housing options based on income, race, or other protected characteristics. Despite being illegal, this practice often results in economic or racial segregation.
With increasing scrutiny on such behaviors, housing providers must be vigilant in their application processes, ensuring that they don’t inadvertently participate in discriminatory actions that violate both ethical standards and legal obligations.
UNDERSTANDING THE LEGAL LANDSCAPE
Discrimination based on income source is becoming an area of heightened legal focus. While
the Fair Housing Act protects individuals from discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex,
disability, familial status, and national origin, it does not directly address the source of income.
However, an increasing number of states and local jurisdictions have taken proactive steps to address this gap by passing laws that prohibit housing discrimination based on income source, particularly in relation to housing vouchers or government assistance programs such as Section 8.
In these regions, it is illegal for property managers to refuse an application solely because a potential resident’s rent payment comes from a subsidy program. This means that landlords and housing providers must accept all legal forms of income as part of their applicant’s financial qualifications and may not exclude individuals simply because their income comes from non-traditional sources, such as government programs.
STEERING AND ITS DETRIMENTAL EFFECTS
While discrimination based on source of income is overtly unlawful in areas where it is protected, steering is a more covert form of housing discrimination that can be harder to identify and combat. Steering typically manifests as subtle suggestions or behaviors that guide individuals away from certain properties or neighborhoods based on perceptions of their financial status.
Housing providers may not directly say that a unit is unavailable to someone with a low income, but they may recommend different properties they perceive as “more appropriate” for that individual.
Steering is harmful because it reinforces housing segregation and limits choices for residents,
especially those from lower income backgrounds. Furthermore, it violates fair housing laws and can lead to significant legal and financial repercussions for housing providers who engage in this practice, whether consciously or unconsciously.
BEST PRACTICES FOR PROPERTY MANAGERS TO AVOID DISCRIMINATION AND STEERING
To avoid both overt and subtle forms of discrimination, property managers must adopt clear and unbiased practices in resident screening and communication.
Below are some essential best practices that housing providers can follow to ensure fairness in their processes:
✔️ Property managers should implement standardized, objective resident screening
processes that are applied uniformly to all applicants.
✔️ They should ensure clear communication of financial requirements like income
to-rent ratios without excluding legal income sources, such as housing vouchers.
✔️ They must also stay informed of local laws regarding sources of income
discrimination and adjust policies to remain compliant.
✔️ Regular training is essential to avoid steering and ensure fair treatment for all applicants.
Additionally, internal audits help monitor compliance and a commitment to diversity fosters inclusive housing environments for individuals from all financial backgrounds.
CONCLUSION
As the legal landscape continues to evolve, housing providers must remain diligent in their
efforts to avoid both income-based discrimination and steering. Property managers who operate with transparency, fairness, and respect for the law are not only protecting themselves from legal risk but are also contributing to the creation of equitable housing opportunities for all.
By understanding and complying with local regulations, offering training on steering practices, and implementing fair screening processes, housing professionals can ensure they are fostering an inclusive and fair housing environment.
In this way, the entire housing industry can contribute to a more just and equitable system, where residents are judged on their ability to pay rent—regardless of the source of that income—and have equal access to housing opportunities across all neighborhoods and price ranges.
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