Any landlords here?

[glhs837]

Buddy of mine is considering renting out his fiances house after they get married. Anyone have advice from the landlord perspective? Better to have a company manage it? Lawyer on retainer? Any other things to think about? I found this article, how accurate is it?

Eviction Laws in St. Mary's County, Maryland | eHow.com

 

[nachomama]

Buddy of mine is considering renting out his fiances house after they get married. Anyone have advice from the landlord perspective? Better to have a company manage it? Lawyer on retainer? Any other things to think about? I found this article, how accurate is it?

Eviction Laws in St. Mary's County, Maryland | eHow.com

So when are you getting married?

 

[Chasey_Lane]

Buddy of mine is considering renting out his fiances house after they get married. Anyone have advice from the landlord perspective? Better to have a company manage it? Lawyer on retainer? Any other things to think about? I found this article, how accurate is it?

Eviction Laws in St. Mary's County, Maryland | eHow.com

My hubby and I have a rental house and we manage it ourselves. My neighbor's house (in the same neighborhood) is managed by a real estate company, and the tenants were lazy, didn't maintain the house, and would drive through MY yard.

We are fortunate to have GREAT tenants. We have an open line of communication.

I can't stress enough how important it is to run a background check, credit report, speak to personal references, etc. Granted, this won't automatically guarantee a good renter, but the chances of a good tenant are better vice not doing any checks.

 

[Boxdyn]

Buddy of mine is considering renting out his fiances house after they get married. Anyone have advice from the landlord perspective? Better to have a company manage it? Lawyer on retainer? Any other things to think about? I found this article, how accurate is it?

Eviction Laws in St. Mary's County, Maryland | eHow.com

I have certain advice I give to all landlords.

1. Always ask potential tenants to let you visit the place they are currently at. This way you can see how they are maintaining the unit they are in now. Either they'll let you or they won't. If not, there is a reason. If they say okay and then keep cancelling, there is a reason.

2. Try to contact the previous landlord to they one they have now. A bad tenant may get a good recommendation if this landlord is just trying to get them out of their place. The previous landlord may be more truthful with you.

3. Ensure your lease states that you will do regular walk-through inspections of the unit. You may decide after the first couple that you won't have to do them as often, but if there are damages being caused, you may be able to take care of it before it turns into something major.

Some management companies are really good, however, none of them are going to care about your property like you do.

Hope this helps.

 

[StadEMS3]

My house is managed by a property manager. They do all the paperwork, background/credit checks, check on the property and send me pictures. I don't get called and 2AM if there is a problem. Plus all my old neighbors let me know if something is out of the ordinary and I drive by at least weekly to check on it. I just sit back and get the rent automatically deposited in my bank account.

Get a home warranty. If something goes wrong, pay a $100 deductable and it gets fixed or replaced. This has already saved me money on a 15yo build it fast/cheap sub-division Wadorf home.

 

[ProfMoneyWise]

I have certain advice I give to all landlords.

1. Always ask potential tenants to let you visit the place they are currently at. This way you can see how they are maintaining the unit they are in now. Either they'll let you or they won't. If not, there is a reason. If they say okay and then keep cancelling, there is a reason.

2. Try to contact the previous landlord to they one they have now. A bad tenant may get a good recommendation if this landlord is just trying to get them out of their place. The previous landlord may be more truthful with you.

3. Ensure your lease states that you will do regular walk-through inspections of the unit. You may decide after the first couple that you won't have to do them as often, but if there are damages being caused, you may be able to take care of it before it turns into something major.

Some management companies are really good, however, none of them are going to care about your property like you do.

Hope this helps.

Very good advice.

 

[ginwoman]

that is very good advice. my advice is to manage the property yourself but DEFINITELY have an agent find you a tenant. At least that has been my experience. I believe that it happened to me when we called the "prior landlord" he probably wanted to get rid of them so he gave a good referral. Live and learn.

 

[glhs837]

So when are you getting married?

Not me, been married for over 16 years. Thanks for the advice, folks.

 

[BadGirl]

If you knew of someone who was a lousy tenant (didn't reliably pay the rent - going on six months with no rent check), was unclean (not just untidy, but truly dirty), and had 6 stinky cats, would you inform their new landlord of this information?

 

[lovinmaryland]

If you knew of someone who was a lousy tenant (didn't reliably pay the rent - going on six months with no rent check), was unclean (not just untidy, but truly dirty), and had 6 stinky cats, would you inform their new landlord of this information?

You mean they called you as a reference? Or just calling them to give them a heads up?

 

[BadGirl]

You mean they called you as a reference? Or just calling them to give them a heads up?

Contacting them as a Heads-Up, as in "this is my experience, you might want to know about it to protect yourself" kind of thing.

 

[lovinmaryland]

Contacting them as a Heads-Up, as in "this is my experience, you might want to know about it to protect yourself" kind of thing.

Oh hell yeah then if you were the previous tenant. With out a doubt I would!

 

[Chasey_Lane]

Contacting them as a Heads-Up, as in "this is my experience, you might want to know about it to protect yourself" kind of thing.

I had to do a reference check on a new tenant about 2 weeks ago. The old landlord was super nice and said "If I tell you she was a horrible tenant can I have her back?"

 

[acommondisaster]

Lots of good advice. I'd just add a couple of off the wall things. Don't rush to rent it out; it can cost you more in the long run. Divorce yourself emotionally from the house, get used to seeing other people's dings and scratches and clutter.

My husband finds an excuse every month or so to get inside our rental. Dropping off batteries for the smoke detector, bringing a couple of filters over for the hvac, all sorts of excuses to make sure it's being kept up and that only the people on the lease are living there. We learned the hard way what can happen to a house in a few months time. Now we stay on top of it. While they might be good at collecting rents, I don't know that a rental management company would do much more than that (back when we were renters they sure didn't).

 

[glhs837]

Lots of good advice. I'd just add a couple of off the wall things. Don't rush to rent it out; it can cost you more in the long run. Divorce yourself emotionally from the house, get used to seeing other people's dings and scratches and clutter.

My husband finds an excuse every month or so to get inside our rental. Dropping off batteries for the smoke detector, bringing a couple of filters over for the hvac, all sorts of excuses to make sure it's being kept up and that only the people on the lease are living there. We learned the hard way what can happen to a house in a few months time. Now we stay on top of it. While they might be good at collecting rents, I don't know that a rental management company would do much more than that (back when we were renters they sure didn't).

What do you mean by that? Take the time to do more repairs up front, increasing the rent that can be charged? He wondered about that, in fact replaced the broken concrete front walk with pavers not long ago. And he's torn over replacing the roof shingles.

 

[preselector]

3. Ensure your lease states that you will do regular walk-through inspections of the unit. You may decide after the first couple that you won't have to do them as often, but if there are damages being caused, you may be able to take care of it before it turns into something major.

And look closely. We had a tenant with a large potted plant in the living room and missed that the pot had a drain hole in the bottom with no tray to catch the water. The damage exceeded the deposit.