Realtor vs Craigslist to find tenants

[Felix L.]

Hi All.

Im a new inverstor and was wondering the pro's and con's of using a realtor vs craigslist or other markeing to find my first tennants.

Regards,

Felix

[Kimberly T.]

Well, off the top of my head:

- Pros with using a realtor: you don't have to screen/interview prospective tenants (saves you time/effort)

- Cons with using a realtor: they don't have an incentive to get a good tenant (assuming you will be managing the property yourself once the tenant is placed), costs you money

- Pros with advertising/showing it yourself: you can set your screening criteria and make sure you get a good tenant, you don't have to pay a realtor

- Cons with advertising/showing it yourself: you have to know the fair housing laws (ie, discrimination), takes a lot of your time to show it to people

Do you have access to good applications and leases (and other landlord/tenant forms) you can use?  Do you know what you can and can't discriminate against?  Do you know what good screening criteria is?  Do you know if you can trust the realtor you might use?  Only you can determine which route is better for you.

My husband and I handle it all for our local units, but we have PMs who handle all that for our out of state units.