Need tips on being a landlord

I'm about to become a landlord, whats the best way to screen tenants? Have no clue how to do credit checks or criminal records. References seem too easy to fake. I'm also concerned about the whole legal side if something goes bad. Thought about using a management company but then I have no say in who rents my place. I can stipulate no pets or smoking but that's about it. Heard a good way was to look at a prospects current residence. If its a mess..... well you get the idea.

If anyone wants a nice 2 bedroom condo in South East Michigan, let me know (sorry, no garage. Why do you think I moved out?) 15 minutes from Waterford Hills and GRMer's get a discount!

I will strongly suggest having the professionals handle the landlordin'. I have had excellent experience and they take care of all advertising and administration. We got a monthly check for @90% of the rent of which 50% we sent to the mortgage company and for OUR insurance on the premises.

I guess you'll still be in the area? Because remote landlording (which is what I ended up with) is a total PITA without a local management company.

I don't think that the management companies do screen tenants themselves, I believe they use services for doing the background checks. You should be able to find someone who can provide that service for you.

At the end of the day it's always a bit of a crapshoot and as someone else on this board pointed out, unless you feel you've got it in you to evict a young family on Christmas Eve because they didn't pay the rent for six weeks, you might be better off selling the place. Just sayin'.

Edit: I'm with John Brown re having the pros handle it, but then again I'm in a situation where I don't have a choice. Find a good management company and they're usually worth the money.

Get acquainted with the local laws concerning landlord and tenants rights. Watching a few episodes of People's Court has convinced me that these laws are crucial to the renting of property and can keep you from making a huge financial mistake. Example? Here in Florida, even tho the rent is due by a particular date (varies by lease/situation) the landlord is not allowed to draw on the funds that the rent check is supposed to make available for at least 5 days (or is it 10?). In other words, if the rent is due on the 1st but you allow until the 5th before it's late, you have to add 5 days after it's paid before you can write a check against that amount. You also have to have, in many states, a seperate escrow acount to hold any security deposit money. And those are just off the top of my head. Also be sure to get REAL familiar with the laws/procedures for evictions.

I rented my property thro a management company....it has it's pros and cons. A big pro? You shouldn't get called at 2:45 a.m. about any little or big problem....short of a fire/flood.

I looked into this once upon a time. A management company is probably your easiest way to go. They handle all the nit picky stuff. Plus they take their part, BUT you can stipulate no pets, no kids, no section 8, etc, and say under $250 in repairs is a no call deal. Over $250, they call you before any repair can happen plus it is inspected to make sure it isn't just a bogus claim. When they move out, management company comes back cleans the place up as part of their deal and rents it out again to someone else for the length of the contract.

Don't advertise or go public w/ it, word of mouth only through family and close friends and be discreet. I'd prefer older 'church people'... just sayin'.

I have been using an online rental management system called Rentmonitor, and I like it so far. They have some nice tools for advertising through craigslist (I got CRAZY response to the last ad I ran, like 20 showings in 3-4 days). They are also set up to do background and credit checks on prospective tenants (for a fee) through Trans Union. Once your tenants are in, you can set up email rent due alerts and payment receipts through the site. I have to pay a small monthly fee because I have more than 1 unit, but for a single unit landlord the service is free. Certainly beats paying a management company for relaying a check every month (I'd imagine, being in a condo, your landlord hassle factor is going to be a lot lower than a typical single family home).

http://rentmonitor.com/

fasted58 wrote: Don't advertise or go public w/ it, word of mouth only through family and close friends and be discreet. I'd prefer older 'church people'... just sayin'.

I couldn't disagree with this advice more. The better you know your tenants, the tougher it will be to evict them if it comes to that, and the less seriously they will take you when you tell them you need the rent NOW. Not that I wouldn't rent to a friend/relative, but I certainly wouldn't do it with the assumption that it will save me any future hassles.

Yes, I'd rather sell it but the market has busted so bad I can't get what I owe. Yes I bought 'responsibly' at the time.

word of mouth has gotten me no where, and we all know what lurks on craigslist.

I'll checkout rent monitor, sounds interesting.

thanks gang