Renting out the home you have lived in is different from buying an investment property. You know every quirk of the place, you have memories attached to rooms, and you are about to hand the keys to a stranger who will treat it as what it now is — a rental.
Most first-time Perth landlords handle the practical side reasonably well. Where it goes wrong is almost always the same short list: insurance arranged too late or not at all, a rushed condition report, a price set on hope rather than evidence, and decisions made emotionally rather than commercially.
Here is the checklist, in the order it actually needs doing.
Ask a property manager what the property will actually lease for, based on recently leased comparables rather than what is currently advertised. Expect the number to be lower than you assume — this is the most common gap for first-timers, because you are pricing a place you love. Our guide to rental appraisals in Perth explains how the figure is built.
This is the item most likely to cost you badly if skipped, and the one most often left too late.
That last point is worth reading twice. Landlord insurance is not a substitute for managing the tenancy properly — it generally assumes you have.
These are legal requirements in Western Australia, not improvements you can defer to next year:
The current detail sits with Consumer Protection WA, which is the authority to check rather than a blog post — including this one.
Take everything. Garage shelving, paint tins, the spare fridge, boxes in the roof space. Anything left behind becomes your maintenance responsibility and a potential dispute at the end of the tenancy. If you would be upset to see it damaged, it should not be there.
Owners become blind to the dripping tap, the sticking door, the dead reticulation station. A tenant notices all of it in week one, and you will be fixing it anyway — usually at less convenient notice.
Professional clean, carpets done, gardens tidied, reticulation working. This is the cheapest return available: it improves both the rent achieved and the speed of leasing, and it sets the standard you can reasonably hold the tenant to at the end.
Keys for every lock, remotes, alarm codes, manuals for the air conditioner and oven, and the reticulation controller settings. Have duplicates cut before the tenancy starts.
Use the current prescribed form, with the accompanying information for tenants. Forms are updated periodically — download a fresh copy rather than reusing one you were sent years ago.
The bond must be lodged with the Bond Administrator at Consumer Protection. It is not yours to hold, and it is not the agency's either. Lodging late or not at all is a serious error.
If you do only one thing properly, make it this. A detailed written report with dated photographs of every room, every existing mark, every appliance and the gardens is what determines bond outcomes years later. Under WA's current bond release process, disputes are decided on the evidence each party can produce — and a vague report produces nothing. The reforms are covered in our guide to the 2026 WA rental law changes.
This decision carries more weight than every other item on this list combined. A good tenant makes the next three years uneventful. A poor one can cost you more than several years of rent.
Verify identity, income and employment. Contact previous agents, not just the referees the applicant nominates. Check national tenancy databases — private landlords generally cannot access these, which is one of the more concrete arguments for using an agency. And resist choosing on likeability: the person who presented best at the home open is not necessarily the person with the strongest rental history.
Our article on the true cost of a bad tenant sets out what is actually at stake here.
The hardest part of renting out your own home is not paperwork. It is the shift from owner to landlord.
First-time landlords routinely accept a weaker tenant because they seemed nice, let arrears slide because it felt awkward to chase, skip inspections because it felt intrusive, and take damage personally because it was their kitchen. Every one of those instincts is understandable and every one of them is expensive.
A property manager is partly a buffer for exactly this. The relationship stays commercial, the rules get applied consistently, and you are not the one making the difficult phone call about a home you used to live in. Our comparison of self-managing versus using a property manager covers both sides honestly, including where self-managing genuinely works.
If you are renting out your home for the first time, the most useful first step is an accurate appraisal and a candid conversation about what the property needs before it goes to market. A Wiser Choice provides free, obligation-free rental appraisals across Perth's northern suburbs, and the Principal attends personally.
You can request a rental appraisal, read about our property management services, or check the suburbs we cover.
Thinking about your investment? Get an obligation-free rental appraisal from a local property manager.
Call: 0415 730 804
Email: awiserchoicepm@outlook.com
Enquire NowThey cover different things. Building insurance responds to the structure. Landlord insurance is what responds to tenant-related loss — malicious or deliberate damage, loss of rent, and liability as a landlord. Standard home and contents cover generally will not pay out once a property is tenanted, and some policies are void if the insurer is not told the property has been let, so tell them before the tenant moves in.
The main items are mains-powered smoke alarms that meet the current requirements, RCDs protecting the power and lighting circuits, a correctly completed tenancy agreement on the current prescribed form with the accompanying tenant information, a thorough property condition report, and the bond lodged with the Bond Administrator at Consumer Protection rather than held by you. If the property has a pool or spa, barrier compliance applies as well.
Whatever recently leased comparable properties support — not what your mortgage costs, and not what you feel the home is worth. This is the single hardest adjustment for first-time landlords, because the property you are pricing is one you have lived in. Get a written appraisal with the comparable evidence attached, and take the figure seriously even where it is lower than you hoped.
You can, but think carefully first. Furnished properties appeal to a narrower slice of the market in most Perth suburbs, every item left behind becomes something you are responsible for maintaining and something that can be disputed at the end of the tenancy, and sentimental belongings have no place in a rental. As a rule, remove anything you would be upset to see damaged.
Yes, in several ways. Rental income is assessable, most holding and management costs become deductible, depreciation may be claimable, and renting out a former main residence has capital gains tax implications that depend on your circumstances and timing. We are property managers rather than accountants, so speak to your accountant before the property is let, not at the end of the financial year.
Some owners do it well, but the first tenancy is the worst one to learn on. The legislative requirements are prescriptive, the paperwork is unforgiving if it is wrong, and most first-timers find the emotional distance hardest — enforcing the agreement on a home you used to live in is genuinely difficult. If you do self-manage, subscribe to Consumer Protection updates and keep your documentation immaculate.
