My first Rental

[rockundergirl]

So the time has come for me and my son to move out of the 3 bedroom home we lived in when I was married to his father. Its to much work! Since I have so little left on my Mortgage, and the market is so bad I have decided its wise to rent it instead of selling it. (We are going to live with my mother for a year).

I have no experience with being a landlord! I was hoping for some tips from both landlords and renters about how to make the process smooth. Or any general advice anyone has. I live in Central New Jersey if that helps.

 

[Calliaz]

I really like the information at landlord.com. We've used their rental agreement for 9 years now. In general, the biggest thing is to find good tennants. We run a credit check, but we also take the whole picture into consideration. Our current tennants had moderately bad credit, but excellent references from their last landlord. They've been in for 6 years and paid on time every month.

Once you have someone in, make sure you make a general inspection every 6 months to a year. Sometimes tennants won't tell you when something needs repair (like a leak).

Make sure you are financially prepared to fix things like air conditioning/heating, refrigerator, etc. on a moment's notice.

So far I've found that if you are a reasonable and kind landlord (but cautious) you will have good tennants. Either that or we're just lucky.

 

[LSchrow]

we found that going with your gut when interviewing helps also.
if they seem shady or you're not comfortable, move on down your list of perspective tenants.
we no longer rent out, but we had 2 of the best tenants anyone could ask for (quiet, shovelled snow on my walkway when i was pregnant, paid on time).
they said we were great landlords, but a lot had to do with them

 

[rockundergirl]

great advice, I'm so nervous about the whole thing, and so far everyone is scaring me with how picky they are! They come and look at the house and ask for me to paint and replace carpets and etc... keep in mind the house is priced 300.00 less then other houses in the area cuz i want my choice of tenant. I don't think i can afford to remodel the house for someone... lol

 

[lorilori]

We live in NC now but still have rentals in Hillsborough, not too far from you. The best advice others have already given and that is to make the best choice possible for a tenant. We've let something be vacant for a little while rather than take a tenant we thought was the wrong tenant. Good luck! Oh, and doing a visual every 6 months has always worked as well but that must be put up front into the lease.

 

[Irin997]

great advice, I'm so nervous about the whole thing, and so far everyone is scaring me with how picky they are! They come and look at the house and ask for me to paint and replace carpets and etc... keep in mind the house is priced 300.00 less then other houses in the area cuz i want my choice of tenant. I don't think i can afford to remodel the house for someone... lol

To be honest it might not be a bad idea to invest a little bit of cash to give the home a fresh coat of paint and replace the carpets (cheaply). You should be able to charge more if you do those things too. I once walked away from a very very cheap apartment ($300 less per month than I pay now) in a great neighborhood simply because there was an extremely noticeable cat urine odor and the owner would not pay to replace the carpets. I'm not about to invest my own money in someone else's home.

 

[HH524]

Also be very specific about what tenants can & cannot do regarding painting and such.


Our first rental was horrid. They pulled down the wallpaper, bringing chuncks of sheetrock down with it, painted black in one of the bedrooms and pulled up all the shrubbery.


I also reccomend hiring pest control from someone you like, the guy we used went into the house every month and could report back about the condition of the home

 

[Crystal0608]

An ugly side to renting: My MIL bought a brand new house in a then desirable neighborhood that is now a lot of rentals and only lived in it a few years before she met and married her current dh. In the past five years, I don't think I can count on my fingers how many renters she has had. Each time she is paying the mortgage without getting a rental payment when someone moves out. She now charges a full months rent as deposit, non-refundable if you move out before the years lease is up and any repairs when you move out comes out as well. The painting, carpet cleaning, etc add up between each move.

 

[NeverlandClub23]

Be prepared to pay for unexpected things! My brother started renting out his townhome last year and it seemed like everything broke right away (and it's not like you can take your time fixing things).

 

[ZPT1022]

The painting, carpet cleaning, etc add up between each move.

Not sure if you're suggesting that the tenant should be responsible for the painting and carpet cleaning in between themselves and the next tenant but in my state at least, that's not legal. Those are considered to be the responsibility of the landlord. Excessive cleaning however, is a different story

 

[ceecee]

A lot of people charge extra for a pet deposit so when the renters with the pet move out, the carpet can be professionally cleaned to hopefully get all the pet smells and hair out.
My mom has had renters ask for a washer & dryer, new appliances, dishwasher, ceiling fans (which she did have put in, because she liked the women and wanted to keep her) a shed for the backyard, a privacy fence (instead of chainlink) and the best one....one lady asked her to pay for her perennials because they would come up the next year even if she moved out. The last 3 renters she had didn't give notice, so that was the deposit. 2 of the 3 said that's what they thought it was for. We have had some real winners. Make sure to do a credit check, if you ask for references they will just put down their friends as their previous landlord half the time.

 

[rockundergirl]

Not sure if you're suggesting that the tenant should be responsible for the painting and carpet cleaning in between themselves and the next tenant but in my state at least, that's not legal. Those are considered to be the responsibility of the landlord. Excessive cleaning however, is a different story

In my case everything is very clean, the carpet is new but one perspective tenant did not like the color..

 

[ZPT1022]

In my case everything is very clean, the carpet is new but one perspective tenant did not like the color..

That's a totally different story, and not an obligation you have to them. In between tenants though, a fresh coat of paint and a carpet cleaning does wonders for freshening the place up and would be considered basic upkeep. If the renters do a lot of damage or leave some sort of really nasty mess, that's when you would bill them