Rental Houses

[Walding1989]

Wife and I have closed on one rent house and in contract on another. I’m needing to get a screening service for renters and a good rental contract. Those of you with rentals what have you found that’s easy and works best?

[mzurovec]

We close in a few weeks on our first. Realtor has been very helpful so far, but curious what the greenscreen says.

[Treeshark]

I use lawdepot.com for my leases. Works well for me. I screen my own tenants.

[Archereject]

We use turbo tenant to vet all potential candidates.
Its worked great for 5 years.
Never rent to friends and family.
Include all possibilities in the contact and we supply NO appliances
Also, we change the AC filter monthly.
That way we can Walt through and see how they are treating the property .
It pays to do the background checks and rental history.

[Bill]

I love the AC filter change idea. Is it in the lease?

[Double C]

I second, third, and fourth to screen tenants yourself and CALL the last couple places they rented from. I’ve had a really bad tenant and i shoulda known better. Chump cost me a lot of money.

some language to consider: no aggressive breed dogs, trampolines, above ground pools etc. I carried a good landlord liability policy and pushed for tenants to have renters insurance (didn’t always work out).

good luck.

[andre3k]

What kind of interest rate were you able to get on the rental property (assuming you financed it)?

[friscopaint]

One of the guys in our town is selling his rentals, taxes and insurance here have made it where he has to price rent so high it's pretty much out of the market range of affordability for our town.....local city tax hike and ridiculous school bond that passed and the renters can't understand pass through cost's and blame it on "greedy landlords" not understanding that their places aren't homestead exempt......happy to say most are being fixed up and sold to homeowners since price doesn't warrant a rental.

[McBar]

I have been using Texas Renters as my management company. They handled the vetting/lease agreement (with my input and parameters), they do inspections, and handle contracting for any repairs (again, at my discretion and approval). Yes, I lose out on some profits, but I also do not have to do anything accept answer a few emails every now and then. Renters required to have insurance, keep the lawn, late fees automatically charged if late on rent, etc. has been pretty good so far. YMMV

[JhuntsAlot]

I have been using Texas Renters as my management company. They handled the vetting/lease agreement (with my input and parameters), they do inspections, and handle contracting for any repairs (again, at my discretion and approval). Yes, I lose out on some profits, but I also do not have to do anything accept answer a few emails every now and then. Renters required to have insurance, keep the lawn, late fees automatically charged if late on rent, etc. has been pretty good so far. YMMV

We have been thinking about renting our current home and moving into something else. This sounds like an ideal way to go about it.

Does this take up all the profits, or do you still make some monthly? Or should breaking even be enough?



J

[bowhntrmatt]

I use TurboTenant and have been happy with their useability and services.

I include in the contract that the tenant must carry renters insurance, and also that repairs under $150 are the responsibility of the renter. Outside of that, just the normal stuff like no aggressive breeds and no sub-letting. So far I have had great luck, but I am about to have a 3-year tenant move out so will be rolling the dice again. Also, CALL THE REFERENCES!

[Colton]

Tagged.

[andre3k]

We have been thinking about renting our current home and moving into something else. This sounds like an ideal way to go about it.

Does this take up all the profits, or do you still make some monthly? Or should breaking even be enough?



J

All of my profits go into the maintenence fund account.

[JhuntsAlot]

All of my profits go into the maintenence fund account.

Well, that makes sense. I should have been in that mindset.

Thanks.



J

[McBar]

I profit a little. TX Renters is $110 per month for their services and they also charge a one time (or split over 10 month) fee to do the initial listing - same as any realtor would charge for this.Also have a separate bank account for this rental property where all funds are deposited and stored for rainy day maintenance/repairs. TX Renters also provides monthly statements and year end reports for tax purposes which is nice also. im sure most management companies do this as well but I can only speak on TXR since they are the only one I have used.