Good Morning Biggerpockets! I thought to start a forum post on one of my favorite topics, "Landlord Tricks of the Trade" I've shared this with many colleagues and investors and felt it's time to post on Biggerpockets. If you have other gold nuggets to add to this thread or favorite lease clauses then please do so and help not only the new landlords out there but also some more seasoned landlords who are looking to improve. Sound good?

1.Always treat it as a business. You can be kind but always remember it's a business. I always tell my tenants it's important that they are always straight with me and I'll always be straight with them.

2.When doing the initial phone screen, after you have established why they are looking and what they are looking for and why your property, in particular, I'll say this with a stern, confident voice "I'm very very good with background checks and I do a very thorough criminal and reference check, is there anything you need to tell me now!" More than 1/2 the time you hear a "click" and they hang up and that is what you want. Weed them out before you waste time showing a property to someone who couldn't rent it anyway. Does that make sense? This gold nugget I learned from Marcia Maynard so give podcast #83 a listen will ya?

3.If you're a buy and holder investor pay close attention to what @Brandon Turner does because he is very successful real estate investor and I've personally learned so much I continue to be grateful to him and to Biggerpockets!

4.When you show a property and let's pretend the showing is on Saturday at 10:00 am. Ask the applicant how far they live from the property, If they say 15 minutes (just for example) then say "great, so at 9:45 text me you are coming and if I don't get a text from you I'll assume your schedule changed." This prevents you from spending your Saturday morning in a vacant apartment for a tenant that doesn't show up and that happens all the time. Since I've instituted this, I haven't had any no-shows while I was in an empty apartment on a Saturday.

5.Below are some of my favorite clauses

• This security deposit is not to be used to pay the final month’s rent. Initial _____.

• Landlord informs the Tenant that the sewer system of the Premises is not designed to accept many types of items, included but not limited to, paper diapers, sanitary napkins, tampons, and children’s toys, balls of hair, grease, oil, table scraps, clothing, rags, sand, dirt, rocks or newspaper. Initials: _______
• Tenant agrees to pay for clearing the sewer drains of the Premises of any and all stoppages, except for those stoppages which the Landlord will agree were caused by defective plumbing, tree roots, acts of nature, or which are declared in writing to have been so caused by the plumber or other person who is called to clear the stoppage. Initials: _______
• Modification – Landlord reserves the right to make reasonable modifications to this lease and to Landlord’s rental policy from time to time.

Hope this helps and I look forward to reading the additions to this thread!  Cheers!

Garth