Category Landlord Basics

(This post is part of our “Landlord Basics” series, which seeks to help the new landlord / investor understand some of the basics of tenant relations and property management.  Click here to view the entire Landlord Basics archive.)

Organizing the files you keep on a rental property can become a real challenge, especially as your portfolio grows.  By starting early, and having a defined system for dealing with paperwork as it comes in, you can lower stress and prevent paperwork overload!

(This post is part of our “Landlord Basics” series, which seeks to help the new landlord / investor understand some of the basics of tenant relations and property management.  Click here to view the entire Landlord Basics archive.)

The Landlord Basics series has covered a few different aspects of leases so far, from basics such as what a lease is and what it does (here), to security deposits (here), to late fees (here).  The lease is between a landlord and tenant is so important, that I wanted to do another entry on some various clauses you may want to consider adding to your leave to protect your investment.

These are just ideas from clauses, and if you are looking for specific wording you should check with your lawyer, a local real estate agent, or perhaps someone in your investment club.

(This post is part of our “Landlord Basics” series, which seeks to help the new landlord / investor understand some of the basics of tenant relations and property management.  You can view the rest of the series here.)

Being a new landlord or investor can be overwhelming.  Trying to get the most for your rental, while handling maintenance and tenant issues, all while trying to see a positive return on investment!  It can all be very daunting!

Keep these three things in mind while you go about your business, as a way to stop yourself from falling into the red.

(This post is part of our “Landlord Basics” series, which seeks to help the new landlord / investor understand some of the basics of tenant relations and property management.  Click here to view the entire Landlord Basics archive.)

In a perfect world, every tenant pays their rent on time every month.  However, the last time I checked, we don’t live in a perfect world.  Assessing a late fee shows your tenants that you are serious about the rent being in on time, every month.  Please keep in mind that the laws regarding charging late fees vary from state to state and in some cases city to city, so you will want to check with your local board of Realtors or lawyer to see how the laws affect you.

If you intend to charge late fees, they need to be addressed to the tenant in the lease.  At the lease signing, be sure to explain to the tenants that a late fee will be assessed if their rent is late, and that the late fee and rent must BOTH be paid in full.

(This post is part of our “Landlord Basics” series, which seeks to help the new landlord / investor understand some of the basics of tenant relations and property management.  You can view the rest of the series here.)

Marketing your properties can be one of the bigger challenges you face as a landlord / investor.  There are a lot of sites on the internet that offer the ability to post your apartment, either free or for a fee.  However, the one site that I see continued success in using is Craig’s List.  Their website is free to post apartment listings on (in most areas) and I see a pretty good response in the Buffalo area using their service.  They are located at http://www.craigslist.org.  Once you are on the site you can navigate to your state and then city using the navigation bar on the right side of the screen.

I’ve released a video showing how to add an actual apartment listing to their site.  I have also released a list of “marketing buzzwords” that you can use to spice up your ad.  But for now I want to discuss the meat of your ad.

(This post is part of our “Landlord Basics” series, which seeks to help the new landlord / investor understand some of the basics of tenant relations and property management.  You can view the rest of the series here.)

You’ve found the tenant you want to place in your property, collected a security deposit, and now it’s time to sign a lease.  What is a lease?  What makes one lease better or worse than any other?  What can your lease do to protect you as a landlord or investor?  This article will answer all these questions, and more.