Rental will also depend on how long you plan to have it be a rental or how much personal use you would like. We bought initially thinking we were five years away from retirement and rented our new house out unfurnished on an annual basis.
We bought the house, took lots of photographs of it empty and measured the windows for blinds. We advertised it for rent three weeks before we settled on it, and had it rented within a week of posting the advertisement. (This was the beginning of Dec.) Our tenants asked us for a washer and dryer (which we ordered from Home Depot on-line) and for window blinds, which we also ordered on-line with contractor installation.
We settled on the house and had about five days to get the installations done on the blinds and washer and dryer before the tenant took occupancy. We also decided that we would have the garage floor sealed before the tenants moved in and managed to get that done ahead of their arrival, while the garage was new and empty. (We consider the garage floor seal one of the smartest things we did for timing and our future use.)
We rented the house and then spent a great deal of time figuring out financially and otherwise how we could speed up our own timing and be the next occupants of the property. And, long story short, we made it happen.
We liked renting the house out unfurnished and there were plenty of people who were interested. (Our ad was up for a year and although it was posted that it was already rented, we were getting inquiries for future tenancy.) You don't get the high season rents, but then you have the peace of mind of having it rented all year and the money becomes a wash with the steady 12 month rents.
We bought a new house. In hindsight, the only other thing we should have done was to make certain all our warranty items were identified quickly. Some things have to be reported within 30 days of settlement and some within 12 months of settlement. We had a professional inspection done at 11.5 months, which identified more items than we would have found (to be repaired, replaced, repainted, etc.) but little items like scratches on the tub or on a mirror or on granite were not submitted within the first 30 days, so they were not fixed by The Villages Warranty.
Get the home you want, the lot you want and the location you want while you can. The rest will fall in to place.
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