First vacancy of my landlord career

[Tarcizio Goncalves]

Hi BP community, 

I have my first vacancy of my landlord career. My tenants moved out 2 weeks ago and I am currently giving the place a facelift. I want to start to market the apartment for April 1st. I am really at a standstill on how to proceed. I am very interested on how landlords fill a vacancy. 

How does one advertise their apartment? 

How does one screen tenants?

How does one find the market rent to their area without calling a property manager? 

How do you do a credit check?

I listened to podcast #265 and now I am thinking that I need to have a rental policy in place so that if someone accuses me of discrimination or unfair treatment, I can say that I have strict guidelines of who can rent. 

If you have  rental policy in place, how did you build it? Did you work with a lawyer? 

Any help would be extremely helpful

Thank you

[Jack V. Ospina]

@Tarcizio Goncalves If this is your first vacancy I would hire a Real Estate professional to assist you in this particular rental scenario. Once you learn these steps maybe it would be ok to handle it on your own. There is much more to renting a unit then just showing the property and accepting a monthly rent. You have to check credit, employment, background checks, references, etc. Good luck!