Long distance investor from NJ · Member since 2018 · 30 posts · 16 votes
Hi all,
In the process of purchasing my first rental property. I have my tenant lined up already. Was wondering if I create the lease or pay a lawyer to write my lease? I would much rather avoid the fees of a lawyer and do it myself but also want to make sure it is a legally binding document. Thoughts?
In the process of purchasing my first rental property. I have my tenant lined up already. Was wondering if I create the lease or pay a lawyer to write my lease? I would much rather avoid the fees of a lawyer and do it myself but also want to make sure it is a legally binding document. Thoughts?
Are you up to speed with landlord tenant laws in your area? Do you know the eviction process? It's "you can pay now or you can pay much, much more later".
In the process of purchasing my first rental property. I have my tenant lined up already. Was wondering if I create the lease or pay a lawyer to write my lease? I would much rather avoid the fees of a lawyer and do it myself but also want to make sure it is a legally binding document. Thoughts?
Are you up to speed with landlord tenant laws in your area? Do you know the eviction process? It's "you can pay now or you can pay much, much more later".
Are you up to speed with landlord tenant laws in your area? Do you know the eviction process? It's "you can pay now or you can pay much, much more later".
Lease doesn't start till 9/1 so i have a little time to acquire my property. But I am in the process of reading The Landlords guide to Minnesota Law. Learning as much as possible about the laws in the state i plan to operate in.
@Bobby Esposito I have used https://www.ezlandlordforms.com/ with excellent results. They update the state specific leases with all of the new laws for each state.
Grab a generic lease off the internet for the realtor association of whatever state the rental is in. Use this as a template to create your own lease. Spend a couple of hours tailoring it to meet your needs and you're good to go on all future properties also.
Make sure you address who pays for what and what are the causes for terminating the lease. Do you expect the tenant to pay for replacing the air/water filters or light bulbs? If so, make sure it says so in the lease. What happens if the tenant doesn't leave after the initial lease period expires? Do it go month-to-month at the same rate? A much higher rate? Does it just end and there is no month-to-month? Do you require Renters Insurance? What are the Late Fees? Is there an Early Termination Fee? Can they smoke in the unit? Can they paint the walls? Who pays for utilities? When can you enter the unit? When can you show it to prospective renters? All these things need to be spelled out in the lease to protect yourself.
If it isn't in the lease, it will come down to the laws of your state and the whims of a judge. These will frequently be against the landlord and in favor of the tenant.
Learn your State's Landlord-Tenant handbook like the back of your hand.
I actually knew mine well from being a tenant most of my life! (well, also a property manager lol)
And now I just google the Hawaii Realtors Association's Lease agreement and use the same document that Realtors use. I'm making an offer to an owner today for an off market property and I'm doing the same thing, just googled the Hawaii Purchase Contract. Although I wouldn't recommend the latter to someone that doesn't really understand the contract; I only feel comfortable writing my own contracts becasue I worked for a high volume broker in the past and wrote his offers everyday so I'm pretty familiar with the Hawaii PC. But leases are much more simple.
In the process of purchasing my first rental property. I have my tenant lined up already. Was wondering if I create the lease or pay a lawyer to write my lease? I would much rather avoid the fees of a lawyer and do it myself but also want to make sure it is a legally binding document. Thoughts?
Become a Pro member and you get them for free. Otherwise you can purchase the Landlord Forms for Minnesota from BiggerPockets. They're a great starting point and are attorney reviewed by a licensed attorney in the state. They're not perfect...but they certainly cover a lot. You'll be happy you have a good lease the first time you end up in court for an eviction.
@Bobby Esposito Just keep reading the book you have it we’ll talk in depth about leases in the last part of the book including it will go line by line through the Minnesota standard lease. It’s free from the bar association but I would recommend getting language specific to the terms Dor you’re situation. Those trems should be reviewed by an attorney. Reach out and I’ll hook you up when the time is right.
@Bobby Esposito why would you reinvent the wheel and pay a lawyer for a simple state specific lease? Borrow one from another landlord, buy one online, or got to a local stationary shop and pick one up.
I’m curious about the tenant you have lined up for September. Perhaps a student starting college. Is it someone you know? Bad idea to rent to family or friends.
I got my lease by combining a few that I got from acquaintances. Did not have attorney review it. It did hold up in one eviction.
@Bobby Esposito why would you reinvent the wheel and pay a lawyer for a simple state specific lease? Borrow one from another landlord, buy one online, or got to a local stationary shop and pick one up.
Unless the leases where you are, are significantly better than the ones where I invest, from my perspective this would be ill advised. All the leases I have seen in my market are terrible and don't cover nearly enough which causes for a BOAT load of headaches for me and my property manager. I'm making my PM rewrite the lease so that it's more comprehensive.
@Elizabeth Colegrove has a fantastic blog article that covers much of what I'm referring to being missing from a standard lease and why I do not encourage this path, unless you're using it as a template and then modifying it...or you really enjoy taking Aspirin for headaches.
@Bobby Esposito this is our first full year investing in rentals. We had a lease we found online and tweaked a little to our satisfaction.
Long story short.. we had to start the eviction process on a tenant we inherited at one of the units. I reached out to a lawyer for help in the process and he quickly pointed out all the things wrong with the lease. My personal opinion is to get with your lawyer or potential lawyer that would be representing you in a worst case scenario and have them draw the lease for you.
@Bobby Esposito Pay a local lawyer with experience in landlord/tenant matters to write up a boiler plate lease for you that can be used for any tenant. This way all you have to do is change the tenant specifics each time you need to write up a lease and you are not starting from scratch.
@James Masotti if your issue with state specific, non-customized leases is that it isn’t as comprehensive as you would like then I would still suggest starting from a pre-made template then adding in the additional addendums you want. Just make sure they are legally enforceable. Posters often mention the dumb restrictions they add to their lease thinking their cleaver, and these addendums are often innocuous and voidable or overreaching enough to denigrate their lease.
For the average Landlord of a simple SFR there isn’t good cause to pay a lawyer to write a lease with much cheaper, to free, resources unusually available . Obviously most people who already unnecessarily paid for that option are going to be emotionally attached to that decision
I can't tell you what to do, only what I did. I coughed up $800.00 for a real estate lawyer to create a lease, and I'm glad I did. The thing is rock solid, and includes up to date info that boiler plate leases may not. I had a management company for a period of time for one property, and parts of my lawyer created lease are better than theirs.
I've used that lease now on 12 tenants....cost per use is little using a lawyer.
@Bobby Esposito my recommendation to this question has always been to call the 3 or 4 best/most experienced PMs in your market. Tell them that you're new to the biz and your intentions. And then ask them if you can use the wording in their lease and to send you a copy. At least one of them will likely say yes.
The best/most experienced PMs in your market will already have local and state specific laws already in place along with all of the other items you would need for a general lease.
I created mine from leases that I had signed in my younger days. Print out your landlord tenant laws, read them, highlight them, take notes over them and then repeat process. Know what's covered and what is not covered in a generic lease vs your laws. Define who pays and how much.
@Bobby Esposito if you pay an attorney to draft a lease, they will just pull a copy of a standard form they already have and put your name on it. On the plus side, it will be locally drafted to account for local laws. See if you can find a law firm that will do this affordably. Some will charge a days worth of billable hours for a form that was already done!
Another option is to buy a lease from BP or someone like legal zoom. Use that as a template to modify. Don't delete sections, just add and modify where necessary.
Don’t write your own lease. Focus on building your business and becoming a Landlord. Get a lease from a local Real Estate Association, Local Apartment Association as well as BP. Get a lease from a company that updates them regularly and is comprehensive. When you get more experienced you can read other leases and create your own addendum. Right now just focus on getting started.