All Forum Posts by: Roy Mitle

This is my 1st rental so first time

Is there a good rules of thumb people follow while screening tenants. 

I guess the main thing is background check, credit check and making sure they have enough income to cover the rent. For background check I am just making sure they have no criminal past and have no evictions. For credit check just making sure they are responsible => have a credit score above 700? 750?. For income I will just look at past 2 month's paystub to make sure they have a steady income.

Pls let me know if I missed anything. 

How does one get a copy of the lease agreement you get signed with the renters. 

Something which is skewed towards landlords while still being legal. My realtor gave me a typical landloard from form california realtors but it had so many clauses I am having a tough time going over it fully, plus it has addedum for smoke detector, lead paint, megan sex offender and what not.

Is there any legal rule which prevents one from taking cash instead of check for rent...especially for 1st month rent.

Is there any website which does online rental application and credit screening. We tried using cozy.co but it has terrible UI for people using iphone or tablets. Maybe laptop okay.

For people who don't use online rental application and credit screening what do they do. I mean they give papers to everyone and ask them to fax it (then you need to find a efax number or something like that)

Is it better to rent to a family or a bunch of room-mates getting together. I have a 4 bedroom townhome. I have gotten requests from families with 2 kids and requests from 4 friends who want to room together to save on rent.

My goal is not necessarily highest rent but competitive rent with least amount of headache.

Also if you rent to 4 friends how to you write a lease and get checks etc. I mean 1 of the roommates may leave the others. what happens etc? also i don't want to collect seperate checks from everyone.

am trying to close my first deal. It's a town home with the hoa under litigation. The litigation is non structural. We still put a financing contingency. Worked thru mortgage broker and got a conditional approval within 3d. Submitted all the paperwork requested in conditional approval. No big issues.

We have till tmrw to remove the contingency. Now bro ker informed me that underwriter never requested hoa questionaire which would have detailed the litigation. He said he was surprised too but never followed up. He claims the loam processor told him as long as appraisal didn't trigger hoa questionaire then no issue. He said he will get approval from quality control person and if there is no issue there as well we can remove it

However what i think I know is that Fannie always requires questionaire

A. Do I trust my broker that is qc person says okay we are cool

B. When do u remove contingency typically. Conditional approval or fina approval or some other stage

C. Shall I just walk away after all this effort

Thanks so much. I listed urgent since I don't have much time.

hi

I am trying to close my first deal. It's a town home with the hoa under litigation. The litigation is non structural. We still put a financing contingency. Worked thru mortgage broker and got a conditional approval within 3d. Submitted all the paperwork requested in conditional approval. No big issues. 

We have till tmrw to remove the contingency. Now bro ker informed me that underwriter never requested hoa questionaire which would have detailed the litigation. He said he was surprised too but never followed up. He claims the loam processor told him as long as appraisal didn't trigger hoa questionaire then no issue. He said he will get approval from quality control person and if there is no issue there as well we can remove it

However what i think I know is that Fannie always requires questionaire

A. Do I trust my broker that is qc person says okay we are cool

B. When do u remove contingency typically. Conditional approval or fina approval or some other stage

C. Shall I just walk away after all this effort

Thanks so much. I listed urgent since I don't have much time.

I just bought a townhome which I am planning to rent out.

My realtor gave me the California realtor forms used for renter screening, lease agreement, lead based disclosure and a host of other things.  There are C.A.R forms

Do people just use these forms or is there something more they use/put in. I was planning to just send the renter screening form initially.

Thanks

Hi

I am in contract for my 1st property - a townhome. super excited. Thanks to BP members for giving me courage to make this step. Not closed but fingers crossed.

Now, the question 

a) is there any good blog/post showing how best to rent it out

b) my COE is Aug6th. I would like to get renters in asap since rents seem to get lower starting sept and then i'll have to wait till summer. the townhome does require cosmetics improvement - carpet replacement, paint on walls, getting a few new appliances but nothing structural.

I can either show the property as-is and tell would be renters we'll get everything fixed or fix it up and then show it to a smaller section of renters (since some may have booked somewhere else). Am I being too impatient?

c) Anything I am missing. The property is in good location so looking at B+ renters.

for owner occupied conforming loans it seems the rate difference between 5/1 and 30 yr fixed is ~.75% -1% ( I am talking about no-point no fee)

I was thinking the same differential will apply for non-owner occupied. I am looking at a townhome as investment property.

My broker says for no-point, no-fee the and non-owner occupied the price difference is only .25%. Reason: fannie mae charges much more points for 5/1 non-owner so the rate difference doesn't remain the same.

IS that right?