First time on the landlord side of the lease...

[Jamie M.]

Hi! So I decided not to sell! I'm a soon-to-be first time landlord in San Francisco. Any tips on things that I should know to include in the lease agreement, standard terms, etc? What do you wish you knew the first time around?

[Dan Redmond]

Here are several places that will get you started with leases; SFAA, San Francisco Apartment Association, believe they have sample leases for sale (fairly cheap), San Francisco Rent Board, tenant based but helpful to small landlords, they handle the actual laws, so a good place to be aware of, and Small Property Owners Institute. The one personal advice I could give, not sure if legal, but then strongly suggest, require tenants to have renters insurance. We recently had a tenant caused fire and the follow up would have been better if we had done this in advance. Good luck.