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I use TrustFax (http://www.trustfax.com/ ) and have found that it's a great deal for someone who needs a constant fax number, but doesn't send a huge volume of faxes. It's only $19.95 per year, for 70 incoming or outgoing pages, and a toll-free number. Additional faxes are $.10 per page.

Gmail is fantastic in it's spam handling capabilities. Unlike other services like hotmail, who I think actually spams its own users.

I'm glad that you like the blog -- I've been doing this for a while now, but just started writing the blog recently, so I may inadvertently leave out some issues that I ran into early on. If you have any questions, feel free to drop me an email - who knows, maybe i can make a post out of them!

I haven't had my property go vacant yet (fingers crossed). I've worked very hard to find renters while the property is still occupied. Aside from the income that I miss out on if the property goes vacant, I've also found that rentlal units show better when furnished -- rooms look much smaller without a couch or bed in them for scale.

I also have a clause in my lease that prevents tenants from moving out during the winter months, a time when it would be much more difficult to find new tenants quickly.

I advertise on Craig's list, the housing website for my local university, my local newspaper (print and online), and also have a sign out front with flyers. I've pasted flyers up around the neighborhood as well.

When I've been showing the property, if people aren't biting, I simply lower the price until it goes. If the unit rents for $1000 a month, missing a month's rent is the same as lowering the rent by $85, over the span of a year.

I've written an article about advertising and finding tenants on my website: http://www.iboughtaduplex.com/?p=13

I am personally very careful with my credit, and I do credit-checks for all of my tenants. However, most of my tenants have had less-than-perfect credit. The rental market is soft right now, and with the recent home-buying craze, most people over the age of 25 with good credit now have a mortgage, and aren't looking to rent apartments. I still perform credit checks, but I just look for major red flags, like bills that they are currently behind on, bankruptcies within the past four years, etc.

I also heavily weigh references from previous landlords, and verify that they are currently employed.

I've written a couple of articles about tenant screening and references on my website:

Tenant Screening - http://www.iboughtaduplex.com/?p=15
Checking References - http://www.iboughtaduplex.com/?p=16

For credit checks, I use Landlord2Landlord - http://www.landlord2landlord.com/

I've owned a duplex for three years now, and live in the lower half of it. I was only twenty-seven when I bought it, and as a female (albeit a very handy female) I've had some hurdles to overcome. I've been very successful thus far, though; I've had great tenants and no vacancies. I'm writing about my experiences on my blog: http://www.iboughtaduplex.com

I've had good luck with posting an ad on craig's list, and then linking that to my own page -- an online flyer where I display photos of all of the rooms, a floor plan, and list all of the features and amenities. I also put a free traffic meter from sitemeter (www.sitemeter.com) on the page so I could see who was looking. When traffic started to die down, I relisted the craig's list ad, so that it would go back to the top of the list.

I also make printed copies of the flyer and put them outside, attached to the "for rent" sign.

On the first phone call with the tenant, I keep it fairly simple; I verify that they don't have more than the maximum number of residents that the apartment is zoned for, and that they don't have any pets.

Here's my list of questions that I ask their former and current landlord references:

1. Does he/she habitually pay rent on time?
2.Do they abide by the house rules and non-monetary agreements made by the landlord?
3.Do they get along with neighbors?
4.When did he/she move in, and when will she be moving out (if known)
5.Did they give advance notice when moving out? (if applicable)
6.When he/she moved, did she leave the unit in good condition? Was full security deposit refunded? (if applicable)
7.If they applied today, would you accept her?
8.Any issues with pets?
9.What type of unit (studio, 1-bdrm, 2-bdrm, etc.) and amount of monthly rent?
10.Does tenant pay by personal check, money order, or cash?

For employer references, I generally just verify that they are employed, that the monthly income listed on the tenant's application is correct, and ask them if they have any other comments about the prospective tenant.

I always give my tenants a small gift around the holidays, and if something breaks in their apartment, I always try to replace it with something nicer than what was there. These things won't make a tenant necessarily stay longer; moving is generally due to other factors. However, maintaining a good relationship with my tenants is very important to me; not only are they my neighbors ( I live in the lower unit of my duplex,) but I am also counting on them to take good care of their apartment.