Lease - where to start

[Tim S.]

I'm soon going to be having to prepare a lease for a SFH. Trying to figure the best route to have the most comprehensive lease and avoid missing important things. How did you begin writing the lease for your rental property? Did you have one written by an attorney? Did you use a lease from someone else and modify it to fit your needs? I do a lot of reading on BP and see so many times where someone says they are going to be adding to their lease because of a problem with a tenant.

[Marcus Auerbach]

@Tim S. as you can see from the response WI Legal Blanks is very popular. And for a good reason. You may actually be surprised when you find out how many different forms you need: the lease agreement is the main piece, but the you have rules and regulations, smoke detector notice, carbon monoxide detector notice, pet agreement, move in / out inspection check list, pet agreement, lead based paint addendum and lead besaed paint pamphlet. Also good to have some lease renewal froms handy as well as 5 day notices, tenant file folders etc 

You can order them all individually or as part of a starter kit. I like them in standard letter size (not in legal size) and the carbon copy makes it really easy to fill them out quickly and have identical copies with signatures for you and the tenants.

The main advanatage is in their popularity. It put's tenants at ease when they see boiler plate agreements. I alwys make it a point to mention that I assume they have seen and sigend these forms before. Even if they don't they still like the fact that it's nothing home cooked. The other advantage is that if you would ever have to go to court my guess is you are much better off with a contract the judge is already very familar with vs something he has to take home and study the night before ;-)