Can't Sell It? Rent It Out

Money Management

While the process of getting a property rented and managing it can be all-encompassing for novice landlords, dealing with the dollars and cents is a critically important factor.

• Insurance: Talk to your insurance company about renting out your property, Mincher says. “You’re going to transfer your coverage from a homeowner’s policy to an investment property policy, which will cover the actual structure but not the contents,” he says, adding that it is critical that landlords make it clear to their renters that their coverage does not protect the renter’s possessions or liability. “Renters’ policies are so cheap,” he says. “We pretty much make our tenants get them. We practically walk them down to the insurance office.”

• Taxes: This can be complicated for owner/landlords. If you plan on selling the property in the next few years, you probably just want to deduct your property taxes as you normally would. But if you’re transferring it to a true investment property and don’t plan to sell for a while, there can be other tax benefits. You can depreciate rental property, says Mincher, which is a real tax benefit because home prices actually should appreciate. “If a property is held for investment purposes and you generate rental income, you can depreciate the property,” he explains. While it’s best to consult an accountant, he explains that residential properties are depreciable for 27-1/2 years. “So, if I owned 50 rental properties, I can depreciate an average of $10,000 a year for each one; that’s $500,000 a year in tax deductions I get that I never had to write a check for.”

• Collecting deposits and rent: Take your renter’s security deposit and open a separate bank account for it, Mincher says. “Note on the account that it is a ‘trust’ account, which signifies that it’s someone else’s money you’re holding,” he says, explaining that since it’s a deposit and the renter should get all or most of it back if they uphold their agreement, it’s really their money, not yours. Mincher says setting up another account for rent is also a good idea. “I used to have 20 tenants at my door the first of every month waiting to pay their rent,” he says. “But I came up with a system where I send them an invoice and a deposit slip now, and they can just deposit their rent at any branch of my bank each month instead of trying to come to my house to do it.” He also suggests setting up automatic draft so tenants can elect to just have their rent drafted out of their account each month. “Almost any bank can set that up,” he says.

• Returning deposits: You can’t just collect a $2,000 deposit and then only decide to return $1,500 of it when the renter moves out, Mincher says. “You have to send them a detailed itemization,” he says. Once your tenant moves out, make sure to call all the utility companies your tenant had service with to see if there are any outstanding bills. If so, deduct that from the deposit, says Mincher, along with a detailed, itemized list of any repairs you’ll have to make.