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• Collecting deposits and rent: Take your renter’s security deposit and open a separate bank account for it, Mincher says. “Note on the account that it is a ‘trust’ account, which signifies that it’s someone else’s money you’re holding,” he says, explaining that since it’s a deposit and the renter should get all or most of it back if they uphold their agreement, it’s really their money, not yours. Mincher says setting up another account for rent is also a good idea. “I used to have 20 tenants at my door the first of every month waiting to pay their rent,” he says. “But I came up with a system where I send them an invoice and a deposit slip now, and they can just deposit their rent at any branch of my bank each month instead of trying to come to my house to do it.” He also suggests setting up automatic draft so tenants can elect to just have their rent drafted out of their account each month “Almost any bank can set that up,” he says.
• Returning deposits: You can’t just collect a $2,000 deposit and then only decide to return $1,500 of it when the renter moves out, Mincher says. “You have to send them a detailed itemization,” he says. Once your tenant moves out, make sure to call all the utility companies your tenant had service with to see if there are any outstanding bills. If so, deduct that from the deposit, says Mincher, along with a detailed, itemized list of any repairs you’ll have to make.
Legal Matters: Protecting Your Interests
No matter how much you may trust your renter, never do business based on a handshake and a spoken agreement.
| | | |  | |  | | | | | Should I Hire a Property Management Company?
Hiring a property management company can take a lot of the headaches out of renting your home if you choose the right one. Management companies will usually take a portion of each month’s rent in exchange for handling the screening, rent collection, repairs and other day-to-day landlord management aspects.
Property managers will likely either take a percentage of the monthly rent—anywhere from 10 to 15 percent is common—or they’ll take charges upfront, sometimes as much as the first month’s rent. “As your novice owners go, is just that 10 percent of their monthly rent is probably a big part of that nut,” Mincher says. “Say their payment [PITI] is $950.00 a month and they’re renting [the home] for $1,000.00. If they manage it themselves they can probably make those numbers work, but if they put a property manager in the mix, they are now only getting $900 in rent.”
Management companies will handle tenant screening, credit reports and other checks before the tenant moves in. But you have to choose the right company or person. “Pick someone who is more geared toward management than sales,” Holmes says. “Especially if you’re just looking to recoup as much money as you can until the market comes back around. If you don’t have someone who has experience getting a house rented, it could sit on the rental market longer than it should.”
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“Getting a good lease is very, very important for both a novice and experienced landlords,” Mincher says. Mincher recommends making an appointment with a real estate lawyer to go over your documents before you have anyone sign. It may cost a little more, but it’s a price worth paying when you consider the consequences of a lease gone bad. A local real estate lawyer should know the rental laws, which can vary from municipality to municipality. You can also check with property management companies, your area housing department or your local board of Realtors for less formal advice.
“This way you can find out if there are any forms or attachements that need to be part of a lease, because if you don’t know about these, there can be some pretty dire consequences,” Mincher says, adding that the college town of Fort Collins where he lives and rents property, landlords also have to have an occupancy disclosure form. “This came from people cramming multiple college kids into one house,” he says. “Now tenants have to sign a form that acknowledges the city has a rule that no more than three unrelated people can live in one house.” If this form is missing, says Mincher, the landlord can be fined $1,000 a day.
Besides hefty fines, Mincher says there are some forms that are required to actually make a lease valid. “For example, if a house has a building permit from before 1979, you have to have one of the EPA lead-based paint disclosures as part of the lease, or it’s totally void,” he explains.
And while you hope for the best with your tenants, Holmes says it’s wise to prepare for the worst. “Make sure all state laws are addressed so that if you do have to evict somebody, you have the law on your side,” he says, adding a consultation with a real estate lawyer is the best way to handle this. “If you don’t and you go to an eviction proceeding and there’s a loophole you missed in the lease, someone could end up living in your house rent-free.”
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Text by Alyson McNutt English
© 2009 BobVila.com
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