Rental agreement

[Jim Mcmillen]

Do you know of any good websites that offer a rental agreement or is it best to go to a local real estate attorney for this?

[Mitch Messer]

@Jim Mcmillen, most any rental agreement you can get off the Internet will be worth almost as much as you paid for it. In other words, I don't recommend it.

Also, real estate attorneys can tell you whether your lease is legal, but you want more than just that.

You don't just want a valid lease: You want a great lease!

A great lease document is your #1 (and #2 and #3) best tool for making buy-and-hold work for you! It's how you establish the rules for getting paid on time, for minimizing conflicts and disputes, for making your life as a landlord easy and manageable.

Talk to the experienced landlords in your area and ask them whose lease theirs is based on. Every experienced landlord I know started with a good lease document from some real estate course and built from there based on their experiences. They won't give you their current lease, but they might share the course theirs is based on.