First Time Landlord Checklist

[Laura P.]

Hello,

First time landlord here. My husband and I are currently under contract for our first rental property (multi-family home). It comes with tenants on both sides (one until March, one until September). We plan to move in as soon as the earliest lease ends. We had our inspection yesterday and we definitely need to fix a few things, the most pressing being two tall decks that act as a front and back entrance to one of our units. Does anyone have a comprehensive checklist of things to do, for first time landlords? We have never owned a home before, but have a pretty good idea of what it takes to maintain one. Are there any things you wish you did when you first got started? Having tenants with current leases gives us a bit more time to figure out what we want to add in ours. It feels like crunch time and we are trying to do things right, but it sometimes feels like we are missing things. 

Thank you in advance for taking the time to answer this! 

- Laura

[Jill F.]

• Buy the Bigger Pockets lease and forms for your state.
  
• Pick out your property management software (and accounting software if it's not included). 
• Have a WRITTEN Late rent policy and process. 
• People talk a lot about selecting a tenant and that's important but it's also important when you offer your unit to have a process for negotiating a move in date and collecting the pre-move-in funds. We will hold a unit for up to 14 days with a non-refundable reservation fee to give tenants time to schedule their move and come up the full payment required to move in. We struggled along at first and had people not come up with the money on time or  think if they move in on the 20th they are only paying a partial month of 10 days rent. NO.  Now we don't play those games. We require a fulll month's rent in addition to the security deposit prior to move in. We then apply the overage to the next month and the remainder is due on the 1st of the next month (new tenant's first full month).
  
• Also have a WRITTEN pet addendum and
  a WRITTEN parking addendum.