Ten Tips for Landlords
Simple suggestions to help your landlord or property management business run smoothly.
1. Screen tenants.
Don't rent to anyone before checking credit history, references, and
background. Haphazard screening and tenant selection too often results
in problems -- a tenant who pays the rent late or not at all, trashes
your place, or lets undesirable friends move in. Use a written rental
application to properly screen your tenants.
2. Get it in writing.
Be sure to use a written lease or month-to-month rental agreement to
document the important facts of your relationship with your tenants --
including when and how you handle tenant complaints and repair
problems, notice you must give to enter a tenant's apartment, and the
like.
3. Handle security deposits properly.
Establish a fair system of setting, collecting, holding, and returning
security deposits. Inspect and document the condition of the rental
unit before the tenant moves in, to avoid disputes over security
deposits when the tenant moves out.
4. Make repairs.
Stay on top of maintenance and repair needs and make repairs when
requested. If the property is not kept in good repair, you'll alienate
good tenants, and tenants may gain the right to withhold rent, repair
the problem and deduct the cost from the rent, sue for injuries caused
by defective conditions, and/or move out without needing to give
notice.
5. Provide secure premises.
Don't let your tenants and property be easy marks for a criminal.
Assess your property's security and take reasonable steps to protect
it. Often the best measures, such as proper lights and trimmed
landscaping, are not that expensive.
































