Couple Questions About Renting
Just need a few general questions answered.
1. Do most of you charge your prosepective tenent a fee to pull their credit? Is there a form the people sign to give you permission to pull their credit?
2. If renting out a single family home, do you have the tenant keep the lawn up or do you keep the lawn up yourself? Do you give them the option and if they choose not to keep the yard up, do you charge more rent?
3. How about a duplex, who keep the yard up in a duplex?
4. Does anyone have a sample rental agreement that you could show me? Kind of looking for the best one that is easy for me and really easy for the tentants to understand also.
5. How much do you normally charge for late fees?
Thanks for your help.
Pulling their credit is quick and cheap. I do mine over the internet for $13.
You have to get a signed page or none of the apartment complexes will release their previous rental history.
I pull credit, call all past landlords, do a reverse lookup on all phone numbers, look up all property addresses on the property appraiser to find the real owner, i call on all job references, get a zerox copy of their drivers license.
If you start looking at all this information carefully you will be amazed at the number of applicants who are falsifying information. I reject about 65% of my applicants for lieing on their application. Most of the lies are about previous tenant history.
Brenda
Quote:
On 2004-05-24 09:19, reneeschultz wrote:
Just need a few general questions answered.
1. Do most of you charge your prosepective tenent a fee to pull their credit? Is there a form the people sign to give you permission to pull their credit?
2. If renting out a single family home, do you have the tenant keep the lawn up or do you keep the lawn up yourself? Do you give them the option and if they choose not to keep the yard up, do you charge more rent?
3. How about a duplex, who keep the yard up in a duplex?
4. Does anyone have a sample rental agreement that you could show me? Kind of looking for the best one that is easy for me and really easy for the tentants to understand also.
5. How much do you normally charge for late fees?
Thanks for your help.
Yes, I usually pass the cost on to the residents. There are several websites that will run it or call your landlords association in your city. Whoever you get to run the credit check will have a form for you. Same with rental agreements, check websites for the best one that fits your needs or visit your landlords association.
I have a duplex and I keep up the yard myself. Most residents do not want the added chore of keeping up a lawn. If you do have your residents mow the lawn, make sure you have some sort of storage for their mowers.
I charge $30 for rent not paid by the 5th and $50 after the 10th. Some landlords have a set fee if not paid after a certain date, then $2 to $4 a day.
Hope this helps
THanks and yes it does help.
I have a rental application that has as one of the pages a signature that allows me to pull their credit, inquire about their past rental history, or any other measures necessary to research the application.
I charge $20 per adult for processing the application fee. I also take a couple of hundred in holding deposit. you will get tired quickly of processing an application only to find that they have found another house. The holding deposit is refundable if I reject them, but I keep it and apply towards move in money if they are accepted. I make them sign on the application their agreed upon movein date.
The yard only has to be as good as the neighborhood. My houses are in neighborhoods where the yard is not maticuluous. I tell them that I do not care about the yard unless the neighbords or the county notify me. Then I will get it cut and charge them accordingly (it says that I can charge them for yard maintenance in my lease). Interesting question about the duplex, since I am buying my first one this week.
Got my rental agreement mostly from landlording for dummies. Unfortunately they do not give you a CD.
I charge too much for late fees. Mine is late on the 6th which costs $50 and then $10 a day. I am going to reduce my $10 a day. If someone gets behind they could almost never catch up.
Brenda
Thanks. Great, I have that book Property management for dummies so I will take a look at that rental agreement.
There are also forms online and at office max/office depot type store.
Check what the state legal req. are.
In CA you have to give the prospective tenat a copy o it.
1 - I haven't seen the smaller landlords charge to pull credit reports in my area. The big guys do it, but since I don't have a community pool, gym, social center, or 50 units in one property, I'm not one of the big guys. Anyway, I usually call the various utility companies to find out how they behaved at their previous place of residence. That info isn't hard to get.
5 - In most of my properties, it's $25 if rent isn't paid by the 1st, and $5 per day thereafter. In a few of my properties, it's $50 if rent is not paid by the 5th.
Good luck.
bgrossnickle,
I was wondering, I can see how you can verify who the owner of the property is, but how do you verify that the people actually rented from them, maybe they were just friends with the owner?
You basically ask leading questions to catch them in a lie. If they are covering for a friend or family member, they will answer yes to almost any question that you ask.
You own the house at 123 Main street, correct? Betty rented from you for the last three years, correct (application says last 6 months)? They paid you $500 a month, correct (application says $700)? Betty says she paid by check, correct?
If you still have any questions, ask Betty for a cancelled check made out to the landlord for the exact dollar amount.
Brenda
Oh yes, you can also look at the zerox copy of the drivers license. Look at the address on the license and the issue date. I have caught several people that way. Also, on the credit report, it has the reported addresses and their date. Not very reliable, but always interesting when there are dates not listed on the application.
Brenda