If you don’t set expectations upfront and manage the relationship with your tenants, it can be a rocky road. Knowing this (and after making several mistakes), I put together a tenant on-boarding process. \u00a0This is the process that we follow to advertise, screen and ultimately bring a new tenant into one of our properties.<\/p>\n
Related<\/strong>:\u00a0Tenant Screening is About the Questions You Ask<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n An important aspect of this process revolves around our “New Tenant Information” packet. \u00a0I’ll walk through this packet in-depth in this post.<\/p>\n \u00a0This is our standard 2 page application that all tenants must fill out. \u00a0It includes standard information such as name, current and previous residence, employment, references, etc.<\/p>\n Our lease is 5 pages. \u00a0It contains the lease time-frame, price and a multitude of other information that both us and the tenant must abide by. \u00a0It explains what happens in a variety of situations (such as late payment, noise complaints or abandonment). \u00a0We tweak this as new situations arise that we have not accounted for, but lately it has stayed pretty consistent.<\/p>\n Houses built before 1978 may contain lead. \u00a0We provide this disclosure to all new tenants so they are aware, which is required by federal law.<\/p>\n Accompanying the lead disclosure, the tenants also receive this lead safety book.<\/p>\n We have a separate form for security deposit. \u00a0We record the amount received and the amount still owed (if any). \u00a0Typically we require full security deposit to hold a property, but there are very limited situations where a person may need to provide it over several payments.<\/p>\n We use this form when we first lease the property as well as when the lease ends. \u00a0We walk through the property and document the condition of the property, along with pictures (if needed). \u00a0The tenant signs this when moving in. \u00a0When moving out, we walk through the property again and note any changes. \u00a0This is the basis for any damage and potential security deposit deductions.<\/p>\n We walk through and test each smoke alarm as well as the carbon monoxide detector with the tenant and have them sign agreeing that these devices are installed and are functioning.<\/p>\n We allow some pets in our properties for an additional fee. \u00a0This document outlines the criteria and agreement for having pets in the property. \u00a0By signing, the tenant is agreeing to pay the additional fee and abide by the rules.<\/p>\n Tenants are responsible for paying their own utilities. \u00a0This document includes contact information for the utility providers as well as meter information and current readings. \u00a0We have the tenants call and switch the utilities over to their names at the current readings and agree to pay the utilities.<\/p>\n We recommend that our tenants setup automatic rent payments. \u00a0If they agree, this form outlines when and how we will deduct the money from their account and their agreement to these terms.<\/p>\n This not only makes it easier for the tenant, but also makes it easier for us and reduces issues with trying to collect rent.<\/p>\n Related<\/strong>:\u00a0PayNearMe: An Easier Way for Your Tenants to Pay Rent<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n It has taken us a lot of time\/effort to compile our packet and the process around it, but it has been worth it. \u00a0We tend to get better tenants as a result of the process and we reduce the confusion around various situations that arise from being a landlord. \u00a0Additionally, on the rare occasion that we have to evict a tenant, we have all of the required paperwork and it makes the eviction process much smoother.<\/p>\n Landlords – What does your process look like for renting to \u00a0new tenant? \u00a0Is there anything that we are missing that you would recommend?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Being a landlord is difficult. Unlike some other strategies in real estate (ex. wholesaling\/flipping), you are responsible for the property and the residents of the property for the long-term. If […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1302,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5183],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-landlording"],"acf":[],"comment_count":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1302"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57019"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57019\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.biggerpockets.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"New](\"http:\/\/entreprenewlyweds.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/new-tenant-packet-small.jpg\" "\\"\\"")
<\/a>What’s In It?<\/h2>\n
Tenant Application<\/h3>\n
Residential Lease<\/h3>\n
Lead Disclosure<\/h3>\n
Lead Safety Booklet<\/h3>\n
Security Deposit<\/h3>\n
Move In\/Move Out Inspection<\/h3>\n
Smoke & Carbon Monoxide Acknowledgement<\/h3>\n
Pet Addendum<\/h3>\n
Utility Transfer<\/h3>\n
Automatic Rent Payment<\/h3>\n
How Do We Use It?<\/h2>\n
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