Leasing & Onboarding New Renters
Everything you need to know about signing new lease agreements and onboarding new tenants.
Preparing to sign a lease agreement?
Don’t sign it lightly.
Have you collected rental applications from a large pool of candidates? Have you run credit, criminal and eviction reports on all applicants? Collected application fees or charged the screening reports to the renter, to verify they’re committed?
If you’ve done all that, and made all the phone calls to verify income, employment, housing history, etc., and you feel 100% rock solid about this tenant… now you need to make sure you have a defensive lease agreement.
Think of your lease agreement as your shield, your armor. Most state landlord-tenant laws are extremely tenant-friendly, and designed to protect the renter, not the landlord. That means you’re responsible for protecting yourself.
How do you do that? With a comprehensive, protective lease package. Read on for more details, and happy leasing!
“Required Reading” – Start Here First!
Want more? We have you covered! Here’s some further reading on lease agreements, security deposits, move-in and everything else you need to know about onboarding new renters.
Full Library of Leasing & New Tenancy Articles:
Billions in Deferred Capital Gains Become Taxable This Year. Here’s Where That Capital Lands Next.
The Short Version: Current Qualified Opportunity Zone designations expire at the end of 2026, meaning investors who deferred capital gains face a taxable event regardless of whether they've exited their fund position Congress made the QOZ program permanent but with...
Tariffs Are Hitting Consumers Hard and Why Real Estate Investors Are in the Right Place
The Short Version: Goldman Sachs projects 67% of Trump's tariff costs land on US consumers alone by July 2026... and that number has a direct and underappreciated effect on real estate demand Tariffs raised the cost of building a new single-family home by roughly...
Congress Just Banned Institutional Investors From Buying Single-Family Homes. Who Really Benefits?
The Short Version: The Senate passed a near-unanimous bill forcing institutional giants to offload their single-family home portfolios but the real story isn't what they're selling, it's where that capital flows next Most coverage celebrated this as a homebuyer win,...
The Least Glamorous Real Estate Investment (That Keeps Paying Anyway)
The Short Version: A secured note investor can still get paid even if the deal itself falls apart… because their return isn’t tied to appreciation, rent growth, or a successful exit. In a foreclosure scenario, “first position” determines who gets paid first… and who’s...
The Tax Advantage Most Real Estate Investors Are Leaving on the Table
The Short Version: High earners hand nearly 40 cents of every additional dollar to the government... while passive real estate investors collecting real cash distributions often pay close to zero on that income The tax code treats real estate fundamentally differently...
The Five Risk Categories Every Passive Real Estate Investor Should Evaluate
The Short Version: Most investors ask the wrong question before wiring funds... and that single mental error is why so many passive real estate deals quietly underperform Five risk categories sit underneath every syndication deal, and weak ones always fail somewhere...
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