Landlording for the First Time

[Chris Dickerson]

Morning, BP

I`m looking to purchase my first investment property in the late spring, early summer, of next year and wanted to take a stab at landlording myself, before bringing in a PM. Currently I am reading through Every Landlords Legal Guide, to develop a better understanding of what to expect.
As street and book smarts can be very different categories, I wanted to know if anyone had any advice that`s more live and learn, than what I could find reading through other materials.

Any advice is greatly appreciated.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Chris Dickerson:

Every Landlord's Legal Guide is a good start. They have another book on managing properties but it probably covers the same stuff. There's not another good book on the subject that I'm aware of, which is why I'm writing one.

Best advice: find your state/local laws. Print them off. Read them. Highlight them. Study them regularly. Once you know the law, start making a list of all the things a Landlord deals with and start developing written policies on how you will handle them. Application screening, collecting deposit and first month's rent, late rent, unauthorized animals, noise complaints, parking problems, and the other 172 things Landlords deal with. It's best to develop a plan in advance rather than trying to solve a problem in the middle of the storm.