Do you revise your own lease or let an attorney handle it?

[David Moore]

Hi everyone,

I've noticed in several posts people saying something like "time to review and brush up your lease". I am wondering what is the most efficient process for actually making revisions to your lease document on an ongoing basis?

I have what I feel is a pretty solid lease I was given by someone who rents in my state. With only a few properties, this has worked fine, but as I add more units I would like to run it through an attorney to make sure I am adequately covered. Already, there have been many situations I have read on BP that I have found are not addressed in my current lease.

Do you typically make revisions yourself and then send to your attorney for review? Perhaps keep an ongoing list of changes and have the document reviewed once a year? Or don't touch the document at all and just tell your attorney what types of things you want added so they can write their own verbage?

Obviously I don't want to get dinged every time I want to add or revise a little something. Up to this point I have written in my own additions. I have heard it said that attorneys make great reviewers, not architects. I know a guy who spent many thousands of dollars to have a custom contract drafted up and when it was all said and done, he was totally dissatisfied with the outcome. He said it would have been better if he wrote it himself and let the attorney revise as needed to add the correct wording and meet state law.

What are your thoughts?