Advice for investors on their first rental

[Brian Washburn]

After 6 months, 50+ properties analyzed, 10+ property tours, and 2 offers, I am finally under contract to buy my first rental property in Omaha, NE! A 3BR/1BA in Midtown near UNMC and the VA hospital.

While I feel like I have learned a ton about finding deals, I am starting from scratch on how to find tenants, how to screen them, what little things to include in a lease, how to run credit checks, etc! Other than reading one of Brandon Turner's books, I am looking for advice in the following areas:

- Good sources of rental apps and leases (NE is not available through BP yet)

- Non-standard items to include in a lease or app that can be a real lifesaver (pest control, charges for clogged drains, etc)

- Free/cheap/effective places to post my listings besides FB and Craigslist

- How do I run credit checks for applicants?

- Tips for collecting rent (Can I use PayPal / Venmo for convenience and avoid paper mail?)

- Other things a 1st-time landlord needs to know but does not think about.
 

 Thanks in advance for all of your input!

[Chris Egan]

Congratulations, thats a great area for rentals. I used to use tenantdata.com to do my background and credit checks and they did a great job the only problem was that I had to collet the application fee and the paper application and then input it to get the report. I started using buildium.com and that was good but kind of expensive and more then I needed for property management software. Another investor told me about cozy.co and am now using that, for me its seems to have all the functions I want and doesn't have a monthly fee. When I show a house I have I just text the prospective tenant the link to apply then they do it all on their end and I receive the report. It has been handy also for rent collection (however it is slow for the free version I think it takes about 6 days to post in my account). Getting a good lease is important, I got a copy from MOPOA a few years back and have used it since. Zillow, craigslist and a yard sign are what I do for advertising. I am an agent but I don't post them in the mls I get more traffic on the rentals from those other things. Best of luck!