Managing your property really doesn't have to be that hard. It's like anything else, once you get over the learning curve, you can virtually put your money-generating machine (your property) on autopilot!
So, let's start by breaking down the big picture.
1) Advertise your vacancy
There are many great places to advertise your property.
First and foremost, put a sign in the front yard where it is easily visible from passersby. People that know the neighborhood and are driving around specifically to look for a place to live need to know if it's available!
Post flyers in places where your prospective tenants frequent: the mall, the local church, the grocery store, etc.
Take an ad out in the classified section of your local newspaper or online.
There are a few great and free places to post your vacancy online: Craigslist is terrific for this kind of thing!
You can always list it with a realtor, but unless it is a "higher-end" type of rental, it probably isn't worth your money and their time.
Now that you are being flooded with phone calls, how do you narrow down the competition?
2) Give your interested renters a rental application (you can find great free ones on line too!)
You have to have a filtering process and this is where it starts.
Have your prospective tenants fill out an application and pay for their credit check. This is a great way to see who a) steps up to the plate and b) probably has decent credit.
Collect your prospective tenants completed application form, credit check fee (check with your state to see how much you can charge), a copy of their driver's license, social security card and some form of income/employment verification.
You now sit down with all of these applications and run credit checks (to check their credit) AND public record searches (to see if they have any evictions on their record). A public record search is a standard option with most companies that run credit reports for landlords. Just make sure to select that option as well and DON'T rent to anyone with bad credit and certainly not with an eviction on his or her report!
3) Go over each application package and select the person you think would make the best tenant.
Look at their credit history. Have they paid on time? Any evictions? No? Good.
Call their previous landlord. Ask if they paid their rent on time, if they were a good tenant and followed the rules of the building. And make sure to a) insure they are currently employed by verifying their job and b) make sure their income will cover the rent. A good rule of thumb is to make sure they gross three times the rent amount on their monthly paycheck.
4) Select a tenant and offer them a lease agreement.
But I don't know anywhere to get a lease agreement. Well, there are many places online and even at office stores that will sell a generic lease agreement, BUT and this is a big but, you must for your own protection use a state specific and state compliant lease agreement.
Every state has different laws with regards to lease agreements. Make sure you know that your lease is state specific or have it checked out by a real estate attorney (this can be expensive, so ask for their fees ahead of time). And if you get your lease online, you need to make sure it too complies with the laws of your state.
Stirling_Gardner
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