What to Prepare before Renting a House to Someone?

If you have a house and want to rent it to earn passive income, do you know what to prepare before renting a house? do you know what to prepare in order to gain higher fee? If you don't have something in mind yet, this article will contribute some idea for you.



Based on my experience of renting a house, there are a lot of things to prepare. Yet, you just need to focus on the major things first. There are 3 major tasks you need to do:

1. House preparation: you need to make sure that your house is clean and all the accessories equipped in the house, such as lighting system, water system and filters, and electricity systems are ready. It is not matter for the new house; yet if your previous tenant left and you plan to rent to new tenant, you need to check all the mentioned accessories and system before letting the prospect tenant checks your house. If there is anything broken, fix it or change it. This will help you to set the price of your house.

2. Contract: you need to have the formal contract which helps to protect you, your benefit, and property. The important things in the contracts are the Know Your Customers (KYCs), referring to Name, genders, proof of identity (Passports or ID cards), address..etc, the terms and condition of the renting (i.e: you rent 1 year with fix price, the second year price will increase XX%), and the responsibilities and obligation of you and tenants. At the end of the contract, there should be finger print of both parties and witnesses. You should reserve a space for acknowledgement from the authorities  in your area, which will help protect you and your property if the tenant does something wrong against the law. You can google for contract sample or template in Khmer language.

3.  Promotion Channels: where can you promote your house to reach the potential tenants? the faster the better because it has opportunity cost if you keep your house unoccupied for two long (i.e: if you can rent $100 per month, meaning you will lose $100/month if there is no one rent your house.). There are a lot of channels both free and charge. First, for the free channel, you can post the advertisement in your own Facebook or in any Facebook page/group. You can also print the advertisement with contact info and stick in on the main road or in front of your house. However, this channels will depend on your luck. If you want to have your house occupied faster, you can use the agents by giving them some commission.

All in all, renting a house is really interesting business, yet also a headache as well. Be ready to accept if your tenant does not really care of your house.