All Forum Posts by: Robert Brown

@Aaron Smith - I perhaps should have investigated who BP suggests. But it's a good check for me to know that I wasn't crazy for thinking they were good. 

Depending on where you are in the city and how high demand is for your place, you can structure your fee for the credit check in a variety of ways. My approach has been that I ask for the applicant to pay the fee upfront, and then I'll reimburse the full or half the amount (or take it out of the first month's rent) if we move forward with the application and they move in. It puts a little bit of a burden on them up front to make sure they're serious about the place, doesn't cost you any money if they  back out last minute or just never show up to sign the lease and never let you know why (it happens...), and if they move in you've made the first move in creating some goodwill between you two.

Hey @Aaron Smith, M Marie and Russel are spot on with their advice. A lease can't overrule the city laws when it comes to tenant-landlord agreements, so writing an ironclad lease won't really impact things if you go to court. That being said, I think a very clear lease written in layman's terms that lays out your expectations to the renter, as well as how you intend to handle situations (just don't promise more than you can/want to do) will go a long way into setting expectations. Which I think is key. People tend to get upset when they feel like conditions or an agreement has been changed on them - it just feels like you're not being treated fairly. But if it's clear up front what both sides are responsible for, that can reduce that feeling of being wronged or treated unfairly (whether baseless or not) by the tenant. No one really wants to go to court, and if both sides know what they're signing up for that may go a long ways to keeping you out of there. 

Also, if you treat people fairly and actually treat them like a person and show that you're invested in your property being taken care of and well maintained, most people will respond to that and in turn treat you and the property well. If you treat them like a cash-flowing machine, they'll treat you like a cash-taking one, which isn't good for either side.

I've had a townhouse here for 8 years now and have had roommates/tenants the entire time, and the only time I had a problem tenant was when I did a lazy job of screening them. A costly lesson. I've used www.mysmartmove.com for screening, but haven't yet used BP's.

The best thing you can do is familiarize yourself with tenant laws, know the situation from their side and what they are able to do, and then act in accordance with any and all landlord obligations your have to meet. 

I've found this helpful:

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/overview-landlord-tenant-laws-dc.html 

Hey Ron,

You have a great plan here and definitely a good setup. I own and rent out rooms in my place here in Washington, DC as well (Petworth) and it's gone really well for me. For the most part. 

One thing I would stay is do a ton of research before you start bringing people in. DC is a city that is HUGELY in favor of tenants over landlords and if you get a bad apple you can be in a really, really tough spot with little reasonable recourse on your part. I've had one bad roommate here and it was a nightmare to get him out. 

Check these out:

https://www.lawhelp.org/dc/resource/frequently-ask...

https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/overview-l...

You 1,000% percent want a lease. My understanding is that you still need a lease with a tenant, and the roommate agreement can spell out in more detail the day to day behavior and living conditions within the house - diving of chores, noise, etc. A lease wouldn't include those things, but a roommate agreement isn't the same as a lease either. 

Absolutely do credit and background checks. I've used MySmartMove before and it's super easy to do, you can set it up so they pay or you pay, or you split it. What I've done in the past is I have someone pay upfront, and then if I select them to move in I would either pay all or half of the cost of the credit check to them. Depending on where your spot is, and the number and quality of the folks, you don't have to refund that money to them by any means. It'll add up if you're paying $30 bucks for credit reports multiple times a year. Get pay stubs as well, and you can even ask for someone to provide a proof of employment letter. Their HR department can draw one up in 5 minutes for them. 

I'd be cautious of getting super wrapped up in picking the right people based on their schedules. You can only predict how well other people will interact. I get the idea of trying to plan out schedules for the bathrooms, but if you have people coming home at 3 am from their bar tending shift to people who are getting up at 6am to shower, that could actually be more frustrating for the roommates. A thought here, and I'd love to see if others think this is a good/bad idea is - pick a couple of quality tenants (good jobs, seem stable/normal/nice, etc.) and then involve them on picking the other roommates? People know who they connect with and who they will like to live with better than you can judge for them. Ultimately it's 100% your call, but if you're building a small community within that group home getting their buy in on new roommates can make the whole house function much smoother for you. Think of it this way, if you have 5 great people and one terrible person moves in, your ability to kick that terrible person out is virtually none as long as they pay their rent on time. But all 5 of those other people can move out pretty easily. 

As for damage to common areas - clearly state that it will be spread out evenly among the tenants unless one person is responsible and admits it. 

With regards to 'females only' I would shy away from that. Most people who are getting roommates on craigslist are just doing it for him/herself, and those kind of postings about females only usually aren't legally ok. It makes sense and it's not really an issue that anyone would find worth pursuing, but as a business owner (this is definitely a business) you have many more legal obligations and oversight from the city, and you have to be completely on point with your paperwork, filing, advertising, and how you handle things or you could wind up losing out in court. Not trying to scare you, but if you're here at BP then you're trying to do this in a professional manner, which means more work to do things the right way. I'm not a lawyer by any stretch, so take this as just friendly advice. 

There are a ton of great landlord resources out there for you, and also take some time to look over tenants rights info for DC, once you know their side and their rights you'll know better what obligations you need to meet to be a fair and upstanding landlord. 

Best of luck with this, and keep us updated on how this goes for you! Every time I pass by a huge row house I think about venturing down this path!

Rob