Early preparation is key to renting home for Masters

Preparing to rent a home for the Master's comes with a few tricks, but those familiar with the experience have lots of sage advice to offer.

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Joy and Frank Askin have rented their West Lake home for several years, and Mrs. Askin said her best advice is to start planning early.

"From the beginning, you need to have a game plan and start early enough that you can get everything that you want, and that needs to be done, done," she said. "Set goals and try to stick to them."

The Askins have used the money earned from renting their house for family vacations to the Bahamas and home improvements, and have tucked some extra funds away in savings accounts.

"The first year, you absolutely feel like you are paying so much by investing in new linens and new dishes," she said, "But if you rent year after year, the bulk of the work will have been done that first year."

This is the first year renting for Deanne Hall, who also advises early preparation.

"If you are looking to rent your house, start early," she said. "I went ahead and took all of my pictures and filled out all of the forms before Labor Day. By Dec. 5, I had the house rented."

Hall's renters are coming from New York, and to prepare for her guests she has painted the upstairs and cleaned the carpets.

She also has dusted baseboards and done some "deep cleaning" that she might not have done otherwise.

"We're buying more than we probably thought we would," she said, "But I'm not finding it not as much of an inconvenience as some people say it is."

In addition to basic cleaning, Askin said painting, construction and touch-ups are among the maintenance issues involved in renting during the Masters. Renting forces her to take care of matters around the house that she might otherwise let slip.

"It forces you to do what you might procrastinate on," she said.

The trip the Halls will take to Jamaica during spring break will be a breath of fresh air after all her work to prepare her house.

"We were already going to go to Jamaica anyway," Hall said. "But when I come back from vacation this time, I will have a sparkling house and a beautiful yard that I can enjoy all summer."