Luckily Alan and I traveled a lot when we were young(er), single and carefree. We have plenty of stories to tell of picking up at the last minute with only a backpack and making our way. Well no more!
We have a one year old, a car, a house, a very large dog, and more things than I was aware of until we started grouping items for pack out. This is a lot of work. I now really admire the many families who do this multiple times in such short intervals.
Another big task is dealing with our house. Since the market isn't so great right now and our neighbor, who is a realtor, recommended that we wait and sell no earlier than two years, we are renting.
Our first step was to interview property managers. We interviewed two and settled on one. The OBC has a good course on getting your house ready for renting or sale that Alan went to. One of the handouts from that course (and also a reference in the OBC) is questions to ask a property manager. I highly recommend looking at that list.
Selecting a property manager is just the beginning. Here are some more tasks that we are looking forward to, and I know I am not thinking of them all right now:
1. Sign contract and meet with actual person that will manage property. Both companies sent sales persons out for the initial interviews
2. Agree on rental price. Both told us we can try a desired price at first, but if there is no or low responses we will need to bring it down until we get interest.
3. Declutter, shape-up and clean for showings
4. Keep the house clean for showing (how is this accomplished?)
5. Keep dog away for showings (since she is big and about half the width of our house in size, again how is this accomplished?)
7. Deep clean, repair and prepare house for renters
By the way did I mention that if you are looking for a great city house to rent, one that comes with a parking space, back yard and takes large dogs - contact us!
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