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:
Should Landlords Rent to Illegal Immigrants? Unbiased Pros & Cons
*Note on Terminology: Conservatives and liberals can’t even agree on terminology, with conservatives using the pejorative “illegal aliens” and liberals using the cuddly “undocumented immigrants.” We’ll split the difference here and use the term “illegal immigrants,”...
How to Finance Rental Properties When You’re Self-Employed
Yes, getting a mortgage for a rental property can be tricky for the self-employed. But as a self-employed entrepreneur, you do harder things every day. If you want passive income and financial freedom sooner rather than later, leveraging other people's money is the...
How One Couple Moved Abroad & Retired by 30 with Rentals
I met Ashley Thompson in a Facebook group of Mustachians. No, she doesn’t have a mustache. She, like tens of thousands of people around the world, has embraced the financial discipline and minimalism preached by Mr. Money Mustache. (His blog remains one of the best...
11 Pros Reveal What They Wish They Knew About Investing
Real estate investments are expensive, even if you finance them. That means mistakes are expensive. I already shared some of the real estate investing lessons I wish I’d known when I was just starting out. So I figured I’d open it up to other professional real estate...
20 Questions to Ask Before Starting the Rental Application Process
Time is worth more than money. You can always earn more money, but your remaining time on this earth is limited – and more so every minute of every day. Which is probably why you became a landlord in the first place: to build passive income. And if you’ve been around...
How to Calculate Rental Property Cash Flow: Know Your ROI Before Investing
I cringe every time I hear a new rental investor say “Well the mortgage payment is only $1,000, and the rent is $1,300, so that’s a $300/month cash flow!” Sound the air raid siren, because that investor’s dreams are going to end in flames. How to calculate rental...
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