All Forum Posts by: Paul Ronto

@Leon Lee I agree with the post from above, get it posted ASAP! The sooner the better. I show my properties in April that turnover on August 1 every year. The more lead time you have the better tenant pool you'll have to pick from. Plus responsible tenants are looking 6 months out for their next move. 

What I do, is about 5-6 months before any of my tenants leases are up, I reach out to see if they plan on staying another cycle, and if they say no, then I start showing it then, I don't wait for them to give me notice that they are moving out, by then it's too late. 

I show the property open house style too, as to inconvenience the current renters as little as possible. I market my property on every online listing site possible, about 50+ (seriously), plus Facebook and Craigslist, I get a bunch of interest and tell everyone that there will be an open house on a Saturday afternoon coming up, and I let the current tenants know to clean and that I only need the house vacated for 2-3 hours one time, and usually I get enough interest in that one open house to have a good tenant pool to select from. It saves me from having to do 20 individual showings, and bug my tenants 20 different evenings. 

I also have in my lease all of this, that I need to know 5 months out if they plan to re-sign the lease, that they have to allow for showings, and that the house has to be cleaned and presentable. 

You still have plenty of time, but I would list your property today if they are moving out in about 4 weeks. Good luck and let us know if you have any questions, always happy to help. 

@Jehan Jaleel , first, congrats on becoming a landlord! You're on the right path for sure, but a few things to remember. Be sure to request credit, criminal and eviction reports to get the full picture. TransUnion has the best reports since they pull all three themselves and cross reference them to make sure they are accurate, which is why we partnered with them. The accuracy of these reports is just as important if not more so, then pulling them in the first place. 

Second, be sure to call past landlords and current employers as a reference. Your due diligence will pay off in the long run if you are picky in who you choose to rent your property. Also, set your minimum acceptance criteria and post it with your rental listing so you have it in writing where people can see it. This helps in a few ways, one it weeds out inquiries from people who don't qualify, and second sets a standard so you have clear reason as to why you didn't accept someone. This second part is mainly to cover you in terms of HUD and FHA laws, remember that renting out a house is governed by the federal and some state and local policy, there are protected classes you need to know about and can't unjustly screen against.

Lastly, as for your question about paper applications, you should consider ditching those for an online application, this will make your life much easier. With paper apps, you have to print them, hand them out, collect them, and re-input the info, where online apps, you just share the link and tenant applies, and you can get you screening reports directly through that process with no extra work. 

Hope this helps! Let me know if you have any other questions, feel free to direct message me if you'd like. 

The best way you can promote your property with the least amount of effort is to use a service that syndicates your listings. Basically you create your listing once, hit market and it auto posts onto dozens of different sites. Signs can still work if you are in a high traffic/demand area, but online really is king these days. I get about 20 inquiries a day on some properties when I go this route. 

Gotcha. Ya, well maybe your PM is eager to get them into your unit to collect his fee. Double check their reports against your criteria. Pulling at straws there, I think you better bet is to look into HUD occupancy limits.

Good luck, let us know if there are any updates!

@Sunny Hande both adults should have separate screening reports. At $40 I'm guessing you only pulled one individual? Run the second person and see if they still meet your acceptance criteria.  

I agree with @Linda Weygant , if they've met all your acceptance requirements and been approved you may have an issue with rejecting them. Double check their application to see if there are any of your posted acceptance criteria that they don't meet, like 3x income, minimum credit scores and so forth. 

Linda does make a good point, check your occupancy limits in your state/city. In my city in Colorado there cannot be more than 3 unrelated adults in a house, that would not technically help in your situation but there are different occupancy laws all over the US. 

Double check with HUD as well, I thought the occupancy with HUD was 2 people per room, so in your case, it would be 8 if the 4th room was legally conforming if it's not a conforming room it would only be 6. Also, check with any laws dealing with the Fair Housing Act. I know familial status is protected but there may be another out if you're really concerned.

Be careful though an FHA of HUD complaint would not be fun to deal with.

@Christopher Blanco let us know if you have any questions, always willing to help! 

@Theresa Ross , this situation happens all the time, and the verbiage in the lease is really there to protect you should you want to enforce it. I think this type of situation is a good opportunity to have a conversation with your potential tenant and see what the story it. If your tenant is a good communicator and match for your rental, she won't hide anything and she should tell you the full story. This would be a good sign of how they'll communicate with you in future as well probably. If you feel like there's more going on than they are telling you, that's a red flag for sure. Good luck!

Online pay is a great service that makes collecting rent simple. The "lost check" or "it's in the mail" excuse gets really old. Online payments solves that instantly. Plus it keeps you from having to go to the bank. Most online systems also keep a record of who has paid and what amount, so if your rental has roommates you can differentiate between who's late or who hasn't paid easily. 

There are many ways to take payment, cash, check, money order, ACH, credit card, wire transfer so you just need to understand the pros and cons or each so you can make the best choice for you. 

Cash: Cash may seem great, it's real and doesn't bounce, however, it usually means you have to meet your renter in person to collect which can be a pain and it's hard to keep track of. You need a system that you manually enter amounts and dates and it's easily lost without any way to recover those funds. I would warn against cash.

Personal Check: This is the number one way tenants pay rent. It's easy for renters and landlords. They can be mailed and deposited from afar. The downside is bounced checks which cost you, the landlord, extra money and time to deal with. They can be canceled by the tenant at any point as well.

Money Orders/Cashiers Check: These are considered safer than personal checks because you need to use verified funds to purchase them, however, although it's harder they can still be canceled before you deposit them and they are a burden for the tenant to get and for you to electronically deposit through most bank apps, which means you have to take a trip to the bank.

ACH: This is a direct deposit from tenant to a landlords banking account, is usually free to both parties but can take 4-7 days to process. It's easy but not quick.

Credit Card: Easy for everyone usually involved but there tend to be steep charges to the person collecting, typically 2-4% of the total amount, so on a 2K rent, you could be paying out 80$ just to accept payment. Also, Credit cards are easy to reverse the charges on up to 120-180 down the road. So although you get payment today, if your tenant decides to charge back 6 months down the road because they are unhappy with you about something they can, and most large CC companies like Visa protect the end user over the person collecting the payment.

Wire Transfer: These are bank to bank transfers and are usually the safest way to transfer money, they are fast, almost immediately in most cases and cannot be easily reversed. However, they tend to cost 20-30$ per transfer.

Anyway, there's the quick rundown on a few of the most common payment methods. Our suggestion is to find an online payment system that helps you navigate these and track them in one place. I would urge you not to share your personal bank information with a tenant like an account and routing number as mentioned above, some online payment systems out there let you sign up and submit all your bank info, and then invite tenants to pay. They are connected to your account but never actually see or have access to your sensitive banking info.

Hope this helps! Feel free to reach out directly if you have any other questions about collecting rent payments. 

I agree with @Dan Perrott , it's not cut and dry. There are exceptions and reasons to explain poor credit, but you should have that information on your report. I would suggest that you pull a criminal and eviction report as well to get a fuller picture of their whole situation. I would also call references like past landlords and current employer. There's a lot of due diligence that goes into tenant screening so be sure to check all your boxes. 

With that said, your acceptance criteria are there for a reason, as you start to bend and flex, the possibility for risk and issues creeps in. Sticking to hardened criteria has its purposes and unless you're desperate to get someone into the property you'll probably find a tenant that meets your criteria with some patience. That's not to say this applicant would be a bad tenant, or that someone with slightly better credit would be better, but it's a rabbit hole once you start chipping away at parts of your criteria. 

This is the hard part of being a landlord. Let us know how else we can help and good luck!