All Forum Posts by: N/A N/A

Although I can see it being awkward telling a friend or family member "no, I don't want to rent to you" if they have their heart set on being your tenant, I wouldn't recommend it. I have know people who rented out half of their duplex to friends the first year they bought it -- only one of the roommates paid them their portion of the security deposit (several months late), rent was late on an ongoing basis, and the apartment was a mess during showings (and after they moved out). The "friends" simply thought that they could have a very (very) informal arrangement, in which they didn't have to keep up what would normally be their end of the bargain.

If you do decide to rent to friends or family, I'd recommend dealing with everything related to the rental in the same manner you would with strangers -- enforce rules, deadlines, and don't "let things slide" more than you would with anyone else.

Thanks for the info, I'm going to give NTN a call tomorrow, looks like they'll be a good solution,and for a reasonable price!

And I agree that credit reports are still a very good idea, even though I can't expect everyone to have great credit when they're renting. You just want to make sure that they're not in a downward spiral... I've actually rented to someone who declared bankruptcy in the past (they told me about it before I saw it on their credit report), and they'd been working on improving their credit since then -- turned out to be a fine tenant.

Can anyone recommend a good screening agency that I can go through to pull credit reports on potential tenants? I only have one rental unit (in the other floor of the duplex that I own and reside in) so I don't have a lot of volume.

I've previously been using landlord2landlord.com, but they've recently changed their policy -- such that anyone who operates out of their home, and doesn't have a separate/secure office area dedicated to property management duties (and they charge you $100 to verify this) can no longer have access to credit information. They say that this is due to changes in TransUnion's policies (caused by changes in the FCRA - Federal Credit Reporting Act) so I'm afraid that my options may be somewhat limited.

Any suggestions?

I own and manage a rental unit in the duplex that I also reside in, and have always been very careful in screening my potential tenants. However, I just received notice today from my current screening agency (landlord2landlord.com) that I will no longer be able to pull credit reports with out having someone from their office come out to do an "on-site inspection" of my "property management office" to ensure that if it is in a residential location, it is secure and separate from my living area.

As you can imagine, I do not have an entire (locked) room of my house devoted solely to managing my (one) rental unit (although I am of course careful with storing confidential information, as any responsible landlord would be). So I doubt that if I paid the $100 to have an inspection done(nonrefundable), that I would even be able to pass.

Apparently this policy change is due to a change in the FCRA (Federal Credit Reporting Act), which then impacted TransUnion's policy -- previously, they were the only one out of the three major agencies that would allow landlords to pull credit reports without doing an inspection of their facilities. Because of this, I'm imaging that this issue isn't specific to my screening agency -- and that I'll have a hard time finding another agency that allows me to pull credit reports.

So... I'm wondering if anyone has any suggestions for me? Even if it's a screening agency that can pull and evaluate credit reports and just provide me with a pass/fail analysis?

Call me a traditionalist, but I'm more comfortable with a good old fashioned security deposit. I like to think that forking over a month or two's worth of rent in actual money (as opposed to an insurance premium) strikes a little more fear in the eyes of a tenant when it comes to keeping the place in good condition when they move out. Even if the insurance were to pay out more, I'd rather have the place not damaged (or dirty) to begin with.

Go multifamily. They're a more typical style of rental, so you'll have a larger pool of prospective renters; also, each tenant will be tying up a smaller percentage of your holdings (2 tenants in a duplex, vs. 1 tenant in a single family).

My first property was a duplex, which I was able to purchase as my primary residence and live in half of, while renting out the other half. While not for everyone, this allowed me to get much better financing, as well as breaks on insurance and taxes.

This is definitely a very charged subject, and large generalizations obviously don't represent every individual. However, I would have to say that while the women I've rented to do tend to call for smaller maintenance issues (and silly things like pilot lights being out on their stoves), they tend to keep the apartment looking nicer than I expect men to, which is good for showings when they're moving out. I've heard that many landlords prefer to rent to women (especially in a college area) because they believe they're quieter and put less wear and tear on the property. I certainly wouldn't turn down a potential renter, however, based on gender, be they male or female. First of all, doing so would be _illegal_. But also, you can't really reliably judge a person's character or how good of a tenant they'll be based on gender. Better to judge by their rental history, credit check and employment references.

I use http://www.landlord2landlord.com/ They're reasably priced; I can get a credit report for about $12.00, a little more to search eviction records and courthouse records. The turnaround time is just about instantaneous for online reports, and they do offer telephone verification of landlord and employment references if you're willing to pay a little more for it.

I prefer to make my own calls . . .

I recently had a similar dilemma. The washer broke down in my duplex, and I opted for a coin-op replacemnt, even though it cost twice as much ($600) as a non coin-op. Even with the added up-front cost, this one will have the opportunity to pay for itself, where the non coin-op wouldn't.

Yes, Craig's list is a great resource. And soooooo much cheaper (free) vs. the cost of classified ads in the newspaper.

I direct traffic from my Craig's list ads to a website that i host myself -- there I post multiple photos of the outside of the property, a detailed description of the property and neighborhood (including shops, restaurants, etc. within walking distance), photos of the interior and a floorplan. With all of this information available to people online, the phone calls that I get are from people who are already pretty interested in the apartment -- which wastese less of my time on fruitless showings.

I've also found that it's best to re-post my Craig's list ad every few days or so -- I have a traffic counter on my webpage that lets me see when traffic is starting to die down and it's time to move my ad to the top of the list