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August 21, 2009
Advice for New Landlords
My husband and I are on the verge of renting out the top-floor of our two family row house. We've been renters before, but never landlords. Where do homeowners go to learn about being landlords in NYC? We know a lot of the rules just from here, and common sense, and from being tenants, but is there a book, website, other advice out there on our obligations? And where do you get those standard lease forms & applications, anyway.
Comments
Dont ask East New York!
Posted by: brickoven at August 21, 2009 3:03 PM
Renogirl,
The city's Department of Housing Preservation & Development (HPD) offers inexpensive classes on home ownership and landlording. Here's the URL:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/hpd/html/courses/courses.shtml
Hubby & I are doing almost the exact same thing you're planning do, and we took these courses before we advertised for tenants. We found the classes very helpful, and the contacts they give you even more so.
FYI, standard lease forms can be found at many stationery stores; we use Blumberg A-55 (the long form) for our rental apartment.
Good luck!
Posted by: Gale Fartan at August 21, 2009 3:16 PM
We were in the same position a few months ago. So far we are very happy with the landlordship.
Basically make good pictures and good description of the apartment. Post on craigs list. Do not overprice it - you might get extra 5% in rent. But then you spend extra month looking for tenant (7% of the anual income) and tenant will move sooner to a new place (another 7%).
Create and use separate email account to communicate with candidate from the craigs list. Also proven to be helpful if to take email addresses of the candidate and google them - 70% of the cases show some info about the candidate.
Look at the history of this forum for links about the forms of contract, etc.
Posted by: bobjohn at August 21, 2009 4:11 PM
Good luck! Have been doing it for 3 years and has been a rewarding experience, fiscally and otherwise.
A few bumps. But far more upside than down for me. I've always used realtors to find me tenants. I go with a large non-Corcoran-type place with good local presence.
Suggest keep good relationship, and a little distance with tenants. Be prepared for nitpicks. Manage expectations. Comes with territory. Remember the taxman is your friend now. A good accountant will put money in your pocket. Not overpricing is good idea, but I'd suggest fair market price for new tenants, and very, very gentle increases if things are working out.
Might be a little stressful at times, but the compound effect of affording more house over the long term is staggering.
Posted by: Johnny at August 21, 2009 4:25 PM
Hey sickoven. Overheated again, huh? I hear it's going around. Guess what? I just signed up four additional tenants. If they DARE to bring in roommates for more than 21.6 days without informing me, I'm going to JACK THEIR RENTS UP 4X.
TRY AND STOP ME!!!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!
Posted by: East New York at August 21, 2009 4:43 PM
We are also new landlords. We found that real estate agents were pretty much useless to us. We found GREAT tenants on Craigslist. I agree that a little distance is a good thing, but it's often harder to do that in a brownstone.
I advise being clear with your tenants that you want to know as soon as they see something that needs a repair, and responding quickly when they bring something to your attention. That lets them know you care about the building, and gives you a better chance of them treating the building well. Also, if you know sooner rather than later about a potential problem, it will likely be easier and cheaper to fix.
Posted by: UnprotectedWrecks at August 22, 2009 9:30 AM
Our tip would also be to keep the common areas (staris, foyer, hall) as nice and decorated and neat as your own space, because it signals your standards and sets a tone like you care about the building - and the tenants will tend to follow suit.
Posted by: josereyes at August 22, 2009 10:31 AM
I think the best advice is to be really straightforward and an excellent communicator as a landlord.
*Be very clear about your expectations, both verbally and nonverbally as josereyes points out.
*Make it easy for tenants to do the right thing and difficult to do the wrong thing. For example, invoice for rent instead of just expecting it. Your needs should always be crystal clear, never unspoken.
*And remain emotionally neutral and businesslike when dustups occur. If you get shocked or upset, you'll just start contributing your own bad behavior, and that can give your tenant a reason to keep doing what you don't want.
If you do these things, you'll be fine.
Posted by: vanburenproud at August 24, 2009 11:57 AM
Run credit checks and ask for references. Best way might be through word of mouth.
Posted by: Madeleine at August 25, 2009 9:36 PM
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