Thoughts on National Apartment Association Lease Agreement Forms?

[Bryce Wong]

Hello everyone! I'm new to the Biggerpockets community but I just want to say that I'm impressed at how much I've learned from the experts here. When I first moved to Michigan, I started off by renting at an apartment over at Clinton Twp. The lease documents that they gave me were obtained from the National Apartment Association, and I recalled signing multiple lease addendums that pretty much covered all the bases you could think of. Now that I'm a proud owner of my first single family home, I was thinking of paying them to download copies of their lease agreements for use on my own homes that I was planning on renting out. I have a good feeling about their forms after going through them, and I like that their forms eliminate the headache of me having to enlist the services of an attorney since they've already vetted them through one. They have forms specific to most states. I've tried doing a search on this forum on their forms but I couldn't find any so I thought I might ask all of you what your thoughts are on their lease forms. I attached a link to one of the sample forms that you could obtain on their website. I'll appreciate any advice or feedback on their forms before I use them.

http://www.naahq.org/about

https://www.bluemoonforms.com/products/forms_online/print/index.php?state=MI&form=ALL&sample=1

[Penny Clark]

@Bryce Wong, I would check with your state to see if there is an state based apartment association that has a membership available to private rental owners. For example, the California Apartment Association has an education arm called Sacramento Valley Rental Housing Association.  Upon paying their membership fee, you have access to all the professional forms used by the CAA. The Association also offers classes for private rental owners in property management as well as seminars to keep up on current issues for rental housing. In my view, going local is always better because these associations know what is happening statewide and locally with rental housing (pending legislation, new housing laws, etc.), the courts recognize their forms as professional communication and these associations have already had their legal team go over them to make sure they are compliant with Fair Housing laws. However, if your state doesn't have a professional housing association such as the CAA, then try your local real estate association. If the NAA is all you got, that's at least better than downloading something from the internet that may prove to be outdated or non-compliant with the laws in your state.

Good luck!