A tight comprehensive lease agreement

[Ana Vhan]

How do we ensure that we have a comprehensive lease agreement in place and we have covered ourselves from all the potential liabilities? Is there a good template for Arizona that is comprehensive? If not, should I get a lawyer draft me a lease with all clauses? What specific clauses should we have in the lease specifically for Arizona? 

Please recommend a good source for the lease template or a lawyer who can help draft such a lease. 

Thank you. Appreciate all the help in advance. 

[Tim Baldwin]

Find a lawyer who specializes in landlord-tenant law in your state, and not only that, but who know the rental and property management business well. I can tell you from experience, I've yet to see a "comprehensive lease agreement" that was not drafted by an attorney who knows this business well. While you may be able to find a satisfactory lease that you can simply download from a website, you will be "leaving money on the table" by not having your lease well crafted. Best wishes. 

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Ana Vhan:

Biggerpockets sells a Lease Agreement Package under "TOOLS" at the top of your screen. It costs $100 for a lease and several other documents written by investors and an attorney-approved for your state. It's better than what you'll get from most attorneys and what you'll find on the internet.

[Drew Sygit]

@Ana Vhan even if you do what @Nathan Gesner recommends (which we also recommend), you'll want to add to the lease as you get experience.

Our lease started with 6 pages 24 years ago and it's now 26 pages!

Why?

Because dealing with tenants is like an "Arms Race". Tenants try to outsmart and outmanuveur landlords, so the landlord learns and improves their lease.

Since we all have different experiences and tolerence levels, the lease that works for one landlord may not work for another.

Best of luck!

[Josh Young]

@Ana Vhan

You want to use the Arizona Association of Realtors Residential Lease and supporting documents. These are the best forms written by the AAR attorneys. In order to use these forms you will need to hire a Realtor for a Lease up or as a property manager, but should cost less than hiring an attorney to write your own forms. Full disclosure, I help clients with lease ups and property management.

[Dick Rosen]

Quote from @Josh Young:

@Ana Vhan

You want to use the Arizona Association of Realtors Residential Lease and supporting documents. These are the best forms written by the AAR attorneys. In order to use these forms you will need to hire a Realtor for a Lease up or as a property manager, but should cost less than hiring an attorney to write your own forms. Full disclosure, I help clients with lease ups and property management.

 I disagree, we have developed our own lease and supporting docs. AAR lease is intended to be fair to all but tends to favor the tenant. There is no reason why your lease should not favor the landlord and still be fair to the tenant. This is after all, a landlord freindly state. We update our lease constantly and our attorney reviews it annually, I feel this is the best route and so do most of the instructors at CE classes that I attend.

[Ana Vhan]

Quote from @Nathan Gesner:

Quote from @Ana Vhan:

Biggerpockets sells a Lease Agreement Package under "TOOLS" at the top of your screen. It costs $100 for a lease and several other documents written by investors and an attorney-approved for your state. It's better than what you'll get from most attorneys and what you'll find on the internet.

Nathan, thank you. Do you know if this is for one time use only or can I purchase it once and use it as needed? 

Thanks!

[Tom Thomson]

I use eforms.com   State specific forms and updated when there are law changes.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Ana Vhan:

You can use it forever. The forms are completely editable so you can change them as you see fit. If you lose them, you can download new copies.