OwnerSecrets.com

Like many other people I know, I have not been able to sell my home. I now want to try to rent out my house. I am wondering what I should include in my Lease Agreement and is there anything else I should do as a new owner?

You can find a good, free Lease Agreement on the web by going to Google and typing “residential lease” (without the quotes). If you try to just make up a Lease Agreement yourself, you might inadvertently leave something important out.

A residential lease should cover obvious items, such as the amount of monthly rent, the due date of the rent, the length of time the lease will run, and the size of the security deposit. It should also cover what day the rent is considered late and what your late policy is ($25 after the 5th plus $3 a day).

You should also limit how the home may be used, how many people or families can live there, the types of alterations and improvements the tenant may make, and what happens if the home is damaged. You should prohibit your tenant from subleasing (sublet) your property. I also recommend that you outright prohibit tenants from having pets.

Before leasing the property, you should screen your new tenant to determine whether you’re letting the right person move into your home.

The Internet makes it easy to obtain a background check on a prospective tenant. Many companies offer this type of service, and you can find one by searching “screen prospective tenant.” For a fee, these companies should uncover whether your new tenant has good credit, has been evicted previously, or has a criminal record.

You should also call your insurance agency to let it know of your plans to rent out your home. It may be necessary to alter your insurance. Yes, the cost of the insurance will reduce your profits, but you will be happy you spent the money if the need arises.

Here is a video I uploaded for you on YouTube about the Lease Agreement.

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I moved a tenant into one of my homes. The tenant will not pay the rent. I have tried to call the tenant over and over again but they will not return my calls. The tenant will not even talk with me to explain why they will not pay the rent. I want to just give up the house and walk away from this whole mess. Can I do that?

No. Do not just walk away from your home. Why reward your dead beat tenant with a house? What you need to do is to serve them a Notice To Pay Rent Or Quit right now. Then after the 3 days is up and they have not paid, file an Unlawful Detainer with the courts.

It’s a pretty simple process but if you don’t want to do it, for a fee you can hire an attorney or an eviction service to do it for you.

In the future, you have to be more careful with screening your prospects before they become a tenant. You can pass off the cost of the background check onto your prospect (non-refundable) and you can do the background check over the Internet. If you see someone that has bad credit and a long list of court case after court case, don’t move them in.

Technorati Tags: background check, bad credit, court case, eviction service, prospects, refundable, unlawful detainer