All Forum Posts by: Jason Krawitz

thank you all for your suggestions and help!

I'm trying to decide if I need a customized lease written by a local TN real estate attorney or if the free lease from this or similar websites is sufficient. How much should I expect to pay an attorney for a customTN lease? What scenarios would paying an attorney for a custom lease pay dividends? If I don't use a custom written lease, what would make me wish I had?

Thanks for the input!

Extrememly excited to be listing my first property for rent. This is my personal residence, recently paid off, and is being turned into my first investment/rental property. I just joined BP 2 days ago and appreciate the helpful folks on here already. I'm 33 and want to transition out of the corporate world and into managing my real estate portfolio by the time I'm 50. I want my first venture as a landlord to be smooth and successful. My goal is to buy 1 unit every 1.7 years until I own 10 and I firmly believe the success of this first go at landlordism will play a huge part in reaching my goal.  Here is my rough draft for my property ad. Feedback requested! What do you like? What sucks? What is missing? What should be deleted? How did you all temper your enthusiasm when you were getting started. This is all I can think about! Thank You!

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Crisp, fresh, and clean 1550 square ft. 3 bed 2 full bath home. Never smoked in. Master suite with double sinks in master bathroom. Large secondary bedrooms. Den could be 4th walk-through bedroom.Home was completely renovated recently.Excellent curb appeal.Awesome neighborhood and location in Donelson that is convenient to downtown, airport, opry-mills, briley parkway, I-40.

Refrigerator, stove, microwave , dishwasher, AND washer and dryer included. (large utility/laundry room). Nice big deck, back yard, and large drive-way with large parking area. Large shed and play-set are negotiable.

Available early to mid December. Home is currently occupied.

Tenant will have option of keeping paint (fresh) as-is and painting themselves as desired or selecting 1 color for all walls to be painted before lease begins.

Rent $1395

Deposit $1395

12 or 18 month lease

No Pets

No Smoking- EVER

Application fee is $35 per occupant.

Criteria

- Gross monthly income must equal approximately three times or more the monthly rent

- Applicants must have a favorable credit history.

- No prior evictions. EVER

- Applicants must be employed and be able to furnish acceptable proof of the required income.

- Applicants must have good references concerning rental payment, housekeeping, and property maintenance from allprevious Landlords.

- No more than 4 occupants.

Shown by appointment only - Contact Jason at 615 - 555 - 5555

Follow up question(s). We close on the house we're moving into on November 14th. Half of me wants to wait until our personal move is complete before juggling the tennant screening and selection duties. The other half of me want to dive in head first.

I'm considering listing the home for rent on Craigslist today with photos of the home with our furniture in it. If I do that, my ad will indicate the property is currently occupied and will be available between Dec 1 and Dec 15th (I know... the worst time ever to fill a vacancy). I'm hoping that by having 30-45 days between now and the time I'd hand over the keys I will allow myself a larger candidate pool to screen and select a tenant from. Is that realistic? Logical? Stupid?

Assuming I gain interest in the property, I would "show" it for hour long blocks of time so my wife and kids can be out and I can knock out several showings at once. Am I being too optimistic to thing I will have more than 1 willing prospect/applicant?

As far as pricing goes, my home is in the 1200 - 1500/month rent market range. Since the home is paid off, I dont' have a "minimum" rent to obtain positive cash-flow. I want to obtain maximum rent but don't want to overprice the unit and miss potentially excellent candidates. Any thoughts on pricing strategies from a very broad overview standpoint?

I am off work today and have dedicated today as my "get my act together and get this house listed" day. I appreciate in advance all of your inputs.

-- Jason

thanks for the quick reply Aaron!

First time landlord here. Would it be ok to list my home for rent before moving out with an occupancy date of after we have moved out? Is it realistic to show my home while we still live here and get a lease in place before we move out? 

I could ask a mmillionquestiins right now but ill start with just these two. 

Thank you in advance!

  Jason

Hello everybody! I'm Jason from Nashville, TN. My wife and I recently paid off our home and close on a new home in a couple weeks. Once we vacate the paid for property it will be my first long awaited rental property! It's been years in the making to get to this point. We're "Dave Ramsey" followers so while many of my college buddies have been in the game for a while, we've been on the sidelines waiting to get our home paid for before jumping in. Looking forward to learning all I can in a short amount of time!