Advertising before rehab complete and renting quickly!

[Chris Mackinlay]

Hello BP. Wanted to get some advice. Thank you so much for all the wisdom on this forum.

A.

Per my insurance, I have until Dec 25th to rent it or they inflate my rate.

The next week I will be traveling and my GC is taking the Thanksgiving holiday off.

That puts me at Dec 2.

The house should be rent ready by Dec 7th. Big projects are: carpet, windows, blinds, deep cleaning.

I’ve read multiple times about waiting until the house is completely rent ready before marketing, but I feel like I need to break that rule because of my rent deadline and the holiday season.

Would you recommend marketing it with or without pictures with how it currently sits with a description about the pending updates? (Remember, gross carpet and worn 1950’s windows) I plan to advertise it as ready on Dec 11.

B.

What makes a rental attractive during the holiday season? It’s a 3/2 house in a great location, but again, time crunch. I don’t want to fudge on qualifications: credit score, rental/eviction history, criminal background check, income.

Would it be to my advantage to incentivize by paying the first month’s utilities? I don’t want to do anything like “free rent for a month” because I think that trains the tenants that I am okay with less than the full rent amount.

C.

I’ll probably use Cozy to collect rent and receive monthly payments. What is great resource to run background checks?