Good lease agreement template for Seattle?

[Jenna Lee]

Hi

I placed a renter using a property management company and now I need to renew their lease. Does anyone know where I can get a good template? :)

Thank u

[Nghi Le]

The best and strongest lease agreements I've seen are from the Rental Housing Association of Washington (RHAWA).  They are very involved in fighting battles (at the state and city level) on behalf of landlords in our very tenant-friendly state.  And they constantly update clauses to their forms as laws get updated.  There is an annual membership fee (I think it's $185/yr), but it's pretty cheap for what you actually get.

[Brian Hughes]

Yes,   Join RHA if you have not already.   You get access to lease templates with addendums for most any scenario,  you get education, news, advocacy, networking, services (through RHA and private afiliate contractors/vendors) and peer support.

[Michael Haas]

I second RHA- if you want something quick, dirty, and free you can message me for one that I use, with the disclaimer that it was not drafted for a lawyer and is about 5 years old. 

[Nathan Gesner]

You can get "free" documents from BP if you have a Pro account, which is much cheaper than an attorney.

Join a local organization, if available.

Or you can find an attorney that specializes in residential rentals and purchase an agreement from them.

[John Barrett]

@Jenna Lee Residential Housing Association of WA (RHAWA) as mentioned above is a really good organization that you can get leases from.  There are other organizations like WA Landlord Association (WLA) which are less expensive and provide good lease agreements and associated documents as well.

The real difference between these organizations is that the RHAWA is larger and provides a great deal of advocacy on landlord's behalf.  They have been pretty successful in pushing back on some of the harmful legislation that has been proposed lately. 

Best of luck,

John

[Rob B.]

Great question, @Jenna Lee. As you may see from many of the post responses above, there are definitely some great tools out there which can help bring a certain level of automation to your rental process. Keep in mind a platform that was built for smaller DIY landlords (1-15 units), that offers state-specific leases (based on the property address; uses that property address to import all necessary local clauses into that residential lease and allows you to add custom clauses and renter rules to it as well). The state-mandated disclosures and pamphlets are also key, and are included in those leases as well (pulled based on the property address). Additionally, online rent collection is key, as are the added benefits of things like being able to report a tenant's on-time rent payments to the credit bureaus to help them boost their credit score (added incentive for making sure they pay that rent on time).

[Jared Boundy]

@Jenna Lee you can get free leases if you have/get a BiggerPockets pro account ($39/mo).  And you get them for all states, not just Washington!