Introduce yourself to your new tenants.  Make sure they know how to get in touch with you in case of emergency and most importantly, make sure they know where to send in their rent payments.

 

Coordinate any remodeling or repair work that you’d like to do, and increase rents.  I also have all my new tenants sign a new lease agreement.  Also, don’t forget to transfer any utilities you include with your tenants’ rent!  You don’t want to receive a call that your new building has no water, or find out there is no longer any trash pick-up.

 

Fill any vacancies and/or increase rents to your tenants, if necessary.  I use two great, FREE services to help fill my vacancies: www.CraigsList.com and www.WestsideRentals.com.  In the past I have run newspaper ads but over the last few years, free online advertising has worked best for me.  Of course, I always install a sign at the property and I always leave rental applications at the property.  Often, tenants like a specific area; installing a sign is a great way to attract potential tenants who want to be in your neighborhood. 

 

Some landlords hold an open house; I too used to do this but I found that I was wasting lots of time.  Prospective tenants often will set an appointment to see a unit and then do not show up.  What I do instead is set a specific time to see the unit, e.g. 11:00AM on a Saturday morning, and I’m out of there at 11:15AM.  I tell everyone who inquires about the property that I will be there at that time.  Usually more than one prospective tenant will show up, making the property seem more desirable; if no one shows up, I don’t waste a couple of hours holding an open house.  Also, if the unit is still occupied you are not inconveniencing your current tenant, who is paying you rent.  If the unit is vacant I sometimes will leave a unit unlocked for an hour or two while I run errands in the area.  That way if someone calls to see it, I can send them right over.  This works best on a weekend day. 

 

Once you have one or more prospective tenants, do a careful screening.  The best way to avoid problems is to do a thorough check of your tenants - resist the urge to fill a vacancy with the first person that comes along.  It’s much better to have no tenant than to have a bad tenant.

 

I recently purchased a property with one vacant unit; the previous tenants were evicted for non-payment of rent and they trashed the place - it’s actually one of the reasons I got such a great deal on the property.  The remodeling of the property was taking longer than I anticipated, as it was summer and everyone was taking vacation: my plumber, handyman and electrician.  Anyway, I broke one of my own rules and started to show the property before it was completed because I was anxious to fill the vacancy.  Over the years I have learned that a property that does not show its best will attract a lower quality of tenant.  I got lots of interest and two applications.  I liked both prospective tenants, they made enough money and had good references; however, both had terrible credit so I decided not to rent to them.  I decided to take the property off the market until it was complete; I rented it to a great tenant with no credit issues a couple of weeks later.

 

Depending on your area and type of property, you may elect to do not only a credit check but also a criminal check.  There are many services available to you as a landlord at a low cost.  I usually do not do a criminal check on most of my units, but when I owned my mobile home parks the credit check service I used included a criminal check as part of the cost.

Application Requirements:

·        A FICO score of 650 or better

·        Ratio of rent to pre-tax income (Rent/Stated Earnings): rent is less than 40% of stated income

·        Debt (credit cards, car payment, etc): no more than 30% of income

·        No negative credit or late payments for the last 12 months

 

I will make exceptions to some these requirements, depending on the rest of the information on the tenant’s application and extenuating circumstances; however, having them in place helps me to focus only on the best applications.

 

Join an apartment association.  There are local as well as nationwide associations that can give you lots of information and assistance as a landlord, including forms, legal advice and referrals to service providers.  We have included several sample forms at www.InvestBig.com. 

 

These are forms I use in with my properties and tenants.  Regulations in your area and/or your specific needs may require you to use additional or different versions of these forms.