how to be a successful landlord (i.e. right way to choose tenant and avoid problems)

[Anonymous]

Don’t rent to lawyers or law students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Picking tenants is tricky, some things I look for as red flags that often cause me to ghost them

Too nice of a car (if you’re renting with a 60k plus car)
More kids than adults esp teens
Single moms
More than one pet
Any public assistance
History of multiple 1 year only rentals
Stay at home spouses

Lol
We meet a few of these criteria and have perfect credit and make more than $400,000 a year. We’ve primarily rented for more than 20 years. You’re both judgmental and ignorant.

Same. Because of DH's job we've sometimes been in a position where renting made more sense than buying. Our HHI is $450K. We drive a new Audi and Mercedes. I work PT from home...so I'm sort of a "SAHM" in some sense of the term. This person is indeed sick in the head. But hey, don't take my money and my 850 credit score. Your loss not mine.

[Anonymous]

Hire a good handyman and don’t be irritated or a cheapskate when your renters call with repairs. Houses require maintenance and if you discourage your renters from calling, retain a bad repair person or do bad/cheap repair work yourself, you’re telling your tenants you don’t care about the place and they will likely act the same. You do not want them to ignore bigger issues because they think you don’t care or will feel put out.

Do not hire an unprofessional property manager. They can destroy a good tenant-owner relationship with disrespectful and unnecessarily aggressive or defensive behavior. We have rented 10 houses and the only bad experience we had was with a McLean rental agent with a big RE firm. But every direct from owner lease we had ended in friendship.

[Anonymous]

Appreciate all the advice!

[Anonymous]

We’ve been doing it for almost 20 years. We had great tenants…until one time we didn’t. When it’s bad, it’s terrible. My real advice is consider selling the house and investing in a REIT instead. Being a landlord is a job, and you have to do it at inconvenient times, like while you are on vacation. I can’t say I would make the same choice again.

[Anonymous]

Your number one priority as a landlord is to provide safe housing.

It’s incredibly REWARDING but it is far from passive, hands-off work.

[Anonymous]

Make sure the lease specifies that drain clogs and garbage disposal jams are paid by the tenant (because they are always caused by the tenant).

Retire the tenant to keep the yard maintained, or to allow you to send a landscaper regularly.

Avoid roommates if you can -- they will become a never-ending cycle of chasing rent payments, people cycling through the house and absolutely zero cleaning.

Avoid tenants whose parents come with them to see the place. You are legally allowed to refuse to rent to tenants who need mommy and daddy to cosign to qualify.

I agree with not renting to lawyers -- they will send back any standard lease form marked up with ridiculous changes. But they are hard to avoid in DC.

Make regular, announced in advance visits to the place to change air filters, check the furnace, whatever. You need to see inside more than once a year. I once visited and found two twin mattresses laid out on the living room floor, along with personal effects piled up on the window sills. The two roommates who rented the place (a 2BR/2BA TH) had decided to lower their costs by adding two more roommates. That lasted exactly a day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Your number one priority as a landlord is to provide safe housing.

It’s incredibly REWARDING but it is far from passive, hands-off work.

This is so important. Too many people seem to think renting is easy money. It’s work, inconveniences, maintenance, and expenses.

And your experience will vary wildly, depending on if you’re renting cheap apartments to college kids or nice houses to senior military officers.

[Anonymous]

Find a middleman, a rental agency. Big real estate companies (the ones you've heard of) often have a rental side.

These rental real estate employees manage rental properties.

They market your rental property, show the property, do due diligence on a potential renter (credit checks, etc.), handle all contracts and paperwork, and once an upstanding tenant is living there the rental agency side serves as the renter's contact for any issues. You never have to deal with the renter directly.

The rental agency also contacts you in case of any repairs to let you know what needs to be done, the contractor they will call, and the amount of the repair. You get final say. They deduct the repairs from your next rent check. You receive a copy of the repair statement for your records.

The rental agency deducts a small percentage from your monthly rent check (they also collect the rent from the renter for you) as their payment.

They also handle contract re-upping. If renter moves out, they put up the "for rent" sign and get about re-renting the place. They show it, market it, contract it, rent it. With your approval as owner, of course.

Going this route takes all the headache away. All you have to do is say yes or no. Highly recommend.

[Anonymous]

As a long time renter our big red flag is landlord. We only rent places with a management company. We rent SFH in the 5-7k range for multiple years (currently in rental for 5 years). We will not deal with a landlord directly. We have in the past and they lead to problems due to their feelings rather than referring to the contract they signed.

[Anonymous]

Don’t love the house. Accept that it’s just a house.

Understand and familiarize yourself with what constitutes regular wear and tear. Marks on the wall, wall dings, - normal wear and tear.

Understand and familiarize yourself with upkeep that is expected - you aren’t going to be able to charge the renter to repaint or recarpet - those things are on you. Working Heat is usually a must and gets treated as an emergency but working AC might not be.

Plan to visit the property once a year. Often renters don’t want to bother the landlord with little things but little things add up.

Pets - limit yourself to small pets in a cage - hamster, etc or small aquarium - desktop size.

Applicants - be honest with yourself and believe applicants when they present themselves and how they present themselves. If you are hesitant when you meet them don’t bother going forward. Don’t fall for hard luck stories and don’t rent to anyone who has to bring a friend/pastor/etc to vouch for them. Someone who just makes barely enough to qualify to pay the rent - accept if you rent to them they will be late at some point and may never catch up.

[Anonymous]

My best advice is to emotionally let go of your property. It is not your former home anymore, it is the tenant's home. The tenant will not make the same choices you would and (within reason) that is ok. I have seen so many owners get bent out of shape because tenant put nails in the wall, tenant always has bikes on lawn, tenant isn't friendly with neighbors ...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find a middleman, a rental agency. Big real estate companies (the ones you've heard of) often have a rental side.

These rental real estate employees manage rental properties.

They market your rental property, show the property, do due diligence on a potential renter (credit checks, etc.), handle all contracts and paperwork, and once an upstanding tenant is living there the rental agency side serves as the renter's contact for any issues. You never have to deal with the renter directly.

The rental agency also contacts you in case of any repairs to let you know what needs to be done, the contractor they will call, and the amount of the repair. You get final say. They deduct the repairs from your next rent check. You receive a copy of the repair statement for your records.

The rental agency deducts a small percentage from your monthly rent check (they also collect the rent from the renter for you) as their payment.

They also handle contract re-upping. If renter moves out, they put up the "for rent" sign and get about re-renting the place. They show it, market it, contract it, rent it. With your approval as owner, of course.

Going this route takes all the headache away. All you have to do is say yes or no. Highly recommend.

This was exactly the what our worst ever experience was though. IME, it seems like the least successful agents must be assigned to rentals. It’s probably the only way they get listing contracts because it’s in the fine print that if you sell, you have to use them. They were unprofessional, inconsiderate, and completely lazy. Big name agency.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Find a middleman, a rental agency. Big real estate companies (the ones you've heard of) often have a rental side.

These rental real estate employees manage rental properties.

They market your rental property, show the property, do due diligence on a potential renter (credit checks, etc.), handle all contracts and paperwork, and once an upstanding tenant is living there the rental agency side serves as the renter's contact for any issues. You never have to deal with the renter directly.

The rental agency also contacts you in case of any repairs to let you know what needs to be done, the contractor they will call, and the amount of the repair. You get final say. They deduct the repairs from your next rent check. You receive a copy of the repair statement for your records.

The rental agency deducts a small percentage from your monthly rent check (they also collect the rent from the renter for you) as their payment.

They also handle contract re-upping. If renter moves out, they put up the "for rent" sign and get about re-renting the place. They show it, market it, contract it, rent it. With your approval as owner, of course.

Going this route takes all the headache away. All you have to do is say yes or no. Highly recommend.

You must be an agent. Their contractors always charge top prices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:As a long time renter our big red flag is landlord. We only rent places with a management company. We rent SFH in the 5-7k range for multiple years (currently in rental for 5 years). We will not deal with a landlord directly. We have in the past and they lead to problems due to their feelings rather than referring to the contract they signed.

We’ve done the same at the same price but had opposite experiences. Property managers doing cheap, sloppy repairs, rental agent who treats tenants like a problem because they have a life and can’t accommodate her no notice demands, and owners who panic because they’re so removed and believe the unprofessional agent.

On the other hand, we became friends with every owner we rented from directly.