To be honest, knowing the foreclosure process will do nothing but help you.  I am not saying that your house is one that will get foreclosed on, but it is better to know what the process is so you can make sure that you keep your home!  First and foremost, you need to know that the foreclosure process is not going to be the same in every single state, so if you live in one state and move to another, it is going to be completely different. However, it’s important to know the details to avoid real estate foreclosure!

Some states allow up to 180 days for the entire foreclosure process to come into affect, while others only allow about sixty days, so make sure that you do a little research so you know exactly what your state offers.  Knowing how much time you have to foreclose on your home is a great thing to know, that way you know how much time you have before you lose your home.

Foreclosure is something that is terrible – it hurts everyone in the world and more and more people have to foreclose on their homes.  This is one of the main reasons why you should know the process, just in case.  More in part 2!

Now that we have talked about furnishing versus not furnishing and drawing up a contract, it is now time to actually talk about how you can rent your house out.  There are many different ways that you can get the word out there that you have a house for rent, however, before you advertise, you definitely want to make sure that you fix the house up.  You never want to rent a house out that does not have everything fixed and working in it.

Just a simple walk through to make sure that everything is up to snuff will save you a lot of trouble in the long run, so make sure that you absolutely ensure that all of the cabinets look great, the stove, washing machine, dryer, fridge and toilet and sinks work – that way you, as the landlords will not have to fix them whenever the new tenants move in.

After you have done all of that, you are all set to set the payments and start advertising!  Advertising your home for rent is something that is very hard to do in the beginning if you have no idea where to get started.  The internet is a great place and also putting up a for rent sign outside of the house.  Those are just two ways to advertise, doing some research will absolutely assist you in finding more ways!

Now that we have discussed a little bit about renting your house such as drawing up a contract, the next step is going to be deciding whether or not you are going to furnish the house that you are going to rent.  There are pros and cons to doing so and you really have to weight them out in order to see if it is worth it to really furnish it.

Firstly, one of the cons is that you have to actually buy all of the furniture and such and make sure that it looks halfway decent – that is a lot of work for someone that you do not even know.  However, there is a flip side and that is going to be that you do get to charge more when you provide a furnished house, so that is something to consider.

It is all your decision, but just know, that if you do furnish the house, you can absolutely charge more and even put a clause in the contract that the renter’s have to pay for the property if it is damaged.  More to come!

Make sure to get a home insurance estimate before you buy a house you're interested in. It's always important to know the full financial picture, and home insurance is an important part of that!

Renting your home out can be very difficult, especially if you wanted to sell it but do not think you can because of the economy.  While renting is a good thing to do because that way you are still making money, there are a few things that you need to think about whenever you are renting a property.  The first thing is going to be drawing up a contract. 

You definitely want to have a contract in place whenever you are renting something to anyone.  That is going to be the very first step, even before you begin getting your house ready to be rented out.  This will take some legal advice, so make sure that you engage a lawyer to see if they can draw up just a standard contract for you. 

That is one of the main reasons why this should be done first, because as many of you know, engaging a lawyer for anything takes a lot of time and it is certainly something that you need to consider!  More on how to rent your home in the next blog!  Stay tuned…