How importat is it to have an Attorney for a Newbie Landlord?

[Jehan Jaleel]

I am a total newbie landlord. I am renting out my home for around $2500 a month. I am using the docs on this site to guide me through this process. 

I am wondering if I also need an attorney? For example to help draft the lease or review it? 

I know those guys are pretty expensive so I would love to do this myself (after a lot of reading and research of course), but at the same time I also want to make sure I cover everything.

I also did find some sample leases for my state online.

[Thomas S.]

You can function without a lawyer for the most part starting out but you should have both a lawyer and accountant lined up to call on when necessary. They are not expensive when you really need one. It also depends on your state landlord tenant regulations, which you are responsible for knowing before dealing with tenants, to know if you can manage tenants without a lawyer. Some states require you to have a lawyer to do evictions. It depends on how tenant friendly the legislation is and your experience level. 

Being a landlord is not rocket science buy most seem to be afraid of the responsibility and defer to their lawyer for every little detail.