First rental baby!!!!

[Ernie V.]

Hello everyone,

I just purchased my first rental, which is duplex. I'm going to live in one unit and rent another one.

I have a bunch of questions.

1) Duplex is near college and I believe alot of interest to rent unit will come from college. There is alot of international students as well. I know base rule of thumb rent is 3x times income. What if students don't make that much? Can I ask for parent to cosign? Is there any additional paperwork regarding that?

2) Since we are going to live on another side of the property, should I tell them I'm the "manager" or their landlord? 

3) How to prevent parties?

4) Where would be best areas to advertise besides campus and craigslist?

5) I would like to run Criminal and other backgrounds on potential tenants. Best place/site to do that?

6) Should I have lawyer to draw rent agreement or just use one from file section?

7) What else do I need to have drawn by lawyer?

8) Any other advises that I didn't mentioned here, but should to know.

Thank you so much. 

[Zach Scheer]

Congrats on the first rental!!

1) Duplex is near college and I believe alot of interest to rent unit will come from college. There is alot of international students as well. I know base rule of thumb rent is 3x times income. What if students don't make that much? Can I ask for parent to cosign? Is there any additional paperwork regarding that?
You can certainly ask for a co-signer, there is a podcast episode where Brandon and Josh were surprised that the investor didn't have co-signers for his student rentals. Make them fill out an application as well and put their name on the lease.

2) Since we are going to live on another side of the property, should I tell them I'm the "manager" or their landlord? 

I would just tell them I'm the landlord. They will figure out that you live next door pretty quick.

3) How to prevent parties?

You can implement quiet hours, 10pm to 8am. If they throw a party send them a letter telling them they are breaking their lease and that after 3 warnings they will be served a kappa notice(letter telling them to stop from your attorney).

4) Where would be best areas to advertise besides campus and craigslist?

I use Zillow, Zillow will post to zillow(obviously), Trulia and hot pads. I get most of my leads thru these sites. If you download the Zillow rental manager app then you can have all your leads in one place.

5) I would like to run Criminal and other backgrounds on potential tenants. Best place/site to do that?

I use mysmartmove.com, It gets mixed reviews on BP but I think it works well. You can also look them up by last name and dob on your states judicial website.

6) Should I have lawyer to draw rent agreement or just use one from file section?

You can take one from the file section, read some of the threads about leases and you will most likely add to the stock lease. Example - buyout agreement- if the resident has to break lease you can ask for 60 days notice and 2 months rent. You can only charge them if it's in your lease.

7) What else do I need to have drawn by lawyer?

We only had our lawyer draw up our commercial lease. You can have your lawyer read over your lease and make changes. Ask them what they would charge, for a couple hundred it may be worth it for them to make up the lease.

8) Any other advises that I didn't mentioned here, but should to know.

Your best bet is to read lots of forums and look up the podcast episodes that pertain to student rentals. There is a ton of information in those areas. You are going to make mistakes but we all do and that's okay. You made the biggest step and that's actually buying your first rental. Keep up the good work.