First time landlord

So we are finally renting the 2 unit in our house. We hired a real estate agent for 2 months and she showed the place only once! Now we want to try and list it ourselves. Anyone has words of wisdom? I put in on Zillow but it looks like the listing by the agent is still there and my new one doesn’t come up as “newly posted”. I also noticed that some listings are renewed daily so they are always on top of the page – how do you do that? Finally tips on how to screen people – what documents do you get to verify income and do you run a background check? If so which website do you use? Thanks in advance!

freespirit

in General Discussion 8 years and 9 months ago

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bedstuytownhouse | 8 years and 8 months ago

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Hi guys…sorry, was not watching this thread the last couple of days.

REBNY leases are worded much more in favor of the LL.

As others here say, the laws are overwhelmingly in favor of tenants. It cost us over $50k to get rid of our pros in a six/seven month period. I’m certain the process took a couple of years off my life as I had to look the other way while these monsters smirked in delight at what they were doing to us or we were afraid they would claim (yet again in court) of harrassment. It’s certainly not a solution to avoid a rogue tenant, thats what the other checks are for, but we’ve told all of our tenants we’ve had of our experience and subsequent zero-tolerance policy for late rent, excessive noise, trying to Airbnb their place, etc all result in an immediate 30-day notice from us and we’ll go to court immediately.

We price under market, fix things immediately, provide a very nice place to call home so all of our tenants have/do feel lucky to live here and they want to protect their living situation.

If anyone wants a blank REBNY lease to see the difference, post your email and I’ll happily send it.

cate | 8 years and 8 months ago

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That is a chilling story.

fiordiligi | 8 years and 8 months ago

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Be sure you do more than a credit check, which is all most brokers will do – that can miss a lot. Many years ago, I rented to a tenant who came through a broker and had perfect credit – but there was no criminal or L/T litigation check. I discovered later (through a private eye, when he’d stopped paying rent after a couple months and we were in L/T court) that he had a sealed criminal record for assault and battery on his prior landlord (did two weeks in jail and plea bargained down to a misdemeanor). That wouldn’t have come up on a criminal check, as the record was sealed. But had I run a Landlord/Tenant Litigation Check, I would have discovered that this person had been evicted by their past six landlords…and in each case made life so miserable for the landlords (of two family homes, who lived in the other apt) that they wound up in a settlement that paid then to leave ASAP, had the arrears forgiven, and negotiated a recommendation letter from each as the price of a speedy exit. Not that you’re likely to run across this (it was a very calculated strategy for liv ing free in Bstone Bklyn); but I’d advise opening an acct and using a screening service such as AmerUSA (there are others). You can run all three searches, the applicant pays, and you get the results in an hour or so. Would have saved me a lot of money (and risk – during the litigation, the tenant flooded the house with gas and walked out, in midwinter when the windows were closed…I passed out, and only the fact that my next door neighbor smelled the gas prevented an explosion and my early demise). Like I said, this was an outlier. But you can’t be too careful.

dmcsr71 | 8 years and 8 months ago

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We’ve been renting out our house for several years and have given up on agents. We now have great long term tenants we found ourselves. This is how we did it:

1. Clean the place until it is spotless and take a nice series of photos in the day light of all the rooms from multiple angles. If there is something special like a nice view or a large tub then make sure you get photos of that as well.

2. Place an ad on Street Easy with all the best photos and a great description that you’ve taken time to write. Post it Monday with an open house for the following Saturday. Give a very specific time window, preferably in the afternoon e.g. 2pm – 4pm. This keeps people on time and ensures a sense of urgency when they arrive because they’ll be lots of other people there. Street Easy worked well for us – Zillow is full of fake listings and Craigslist can be sketchy.

3. Have lots of rental application forms printed out for your applicants to fill in and lots of pens. There are many templates online, some more moderate, some go into deep detail that may deter some applicants. Pick o ne that suits your taste and apartment rental cost – we picked one in the middle.

4. Have all your rules/criteria planned out ahead of time and possibly written down as you will get asked everything. E.g. pets, smoking, hanging up pictures on the walls, sharing with a sublet, late night parties etc etc.

4. Get everyone who comes by to fill in a form if they are interested. If they are sharing the place get them all to fill out separate forms and keep them together. If they have guarantors get them to also fill out a form.

5. For those who want to email their form have a pdf ready your phone/laptop and send it to them right then and there. Give them a deadline e.g. Monday afternoon to send it back to you.

6. People will call over the weekend that they can’t make it so be prepared to do an additional mini open house later. We did ours Monday afternoon for all the people that called. We actually found our tenants that day so it was worth it.

6. Go through all the applications reject the ones that don’t fit the criteria for reasons such as income, employment etc. PLEASE BE AWARE OF LOCAL LAWS REGARDING DISCRIMINATION – research this ahead of time. Email everyone the same generic letter that states they did not reach the criteria (once again there are templates online) – do not give specifics and don’t let them draw you into any specifics if they reply.

7 Email the finalist(s) a that they are in the final running with a link to a credit/background check site. Here they pay about $20 and give approval and you get sent their details. There are a few online, be careful some seem a bit scammy so be careful, we used Experian I think.

8. To screen we checked out all the details from the report(s) and called their work to check their work references out. You can go deeper if you wish but for us that was enough.

9. Email your first choice. If they accept send them a lease (we used a standard NYC lease we found online) plus the additional list of house rules that you have written (e.g. no pets, no hanging pictures in stairway etc) with a space for them to sign that also.

10. Have a lease signing day and get the deposit and rent. Hand over the keys. Congratulations you have your first tenants!

Tip – you may want to set up a new email just for this entire process.

Final Tip – Be a nice landlord – fix stuff when it breaks. Don’t jack up the rent too much. A good tenant who stays, pays on time and renews their lease is a lot better than going through this process every year.

anotherpsarchitect | 8 years and 9 months ago

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I had a similar experience with brokers, who were not interested in showing an apartment for rent, even a nice one, when they could sell apartments for much more $$$. I thought it would be safer and easier as they would do the checking, etc. They sent the most junior staff, and they were very
unprepared. I am talking about several different agencies, in Park Slope! They couldn’t answer any questions for the respective renters. I ended up reducing the price and printing my own information sheet for prospective tenants. After a few months of this, I advertised on Craigslist (that seems to be the primary tool) and got a lot of interest. I had one set of what I later realized were professional squatters, and had to go to court. It took almost two years. Speaking to the previous previous landlord is excellent advice, as well as 12 months proof of rent paid, etc. For several years now, the new tenants have been referred by the departing ones. I keep the rent a bit below market as I would rather have good tenants who want to stay.

mozeeatupu | 8 years and 9 months ago

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To add to the mix, I use the RSA leases. They have the necessary language for NYC

Boerumresident | 8 years and 9 months ago

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Sorry — I see slopegirl had the same question. Still we’d like to know

Boerumresident | 8 years and 9 months ago

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> @bedstuytownhouse
> And, use a REBNY lease, not a Blumberg lease.

Why REBNY over Blumberg?

ftgreenepark | 8 years and 9 months ago

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Tough to say since you haven’t told us the neighborhood or price. There are various ways you can limit your forecasted liability, however using your gut is often the best way. If your apt is a Shangri-La, then you can command lots of steps to verifying the worthiness of a tenant — if not you may scare away good potential tenants (yes tenants have options too). Evictions are not quite as painful as people say — I’ve done one.

Don’t overthink it. Put an ad on Craigslist — drop your price if need be. Size up tenants and go for it. There’s really not that much to it.

slopegirl | 8 years and 9 months ago

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also: to OP, the previous landlord interview is CRUCIAL. We have rented on our own and with a realtor, and from those experiences I much preferred the tenants we found on our own. They tended to be less wealthy and nicer. That said our very favorite tenants came through a realtor and they are just relaxed older couple who presumably used a realtor to make life easier. Others that came to us via realtor I would describe (kindly) as entitled jerks which is tough in a small building. You should realize before anyone moves in that all the laws in New York are written in the tenants favor. All of them. So choose very carefully since this is your home and will be theirs too by rights once they start paying rent. I know of a broker who was sued for ad copy (by someone who said the ad caused them emotional suffering–but the ad was improperly worded, so they settled), so important to understand housing discrimination laws thoroughly before you begin the process.

freespirit | 8 years and 9 months ago

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Thanks so much, bedstuytownhouse! May I ask another question? If you are doing a 30-day lease do you do a rental agreement or lease anyways?

slopegirl | 8 years and 9 months ago

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another Q for bedstuytownhouse: why REBNY lease and not blumberg?

bedstuytownhouse | 8 years and 9 months ago

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https://www.houserie.com/how-it-works

freespirit | 8 years and 9 months ago

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Question for bedstuytownhouse : how do you do a L&T check? Did a quick Google search and didn’t find anything for landlords. Thanks!

freespirit | 8 years and 9 months ago

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Thank you so much, everyone! Very helpful and I have some research to do!

lgwlcvqt | 8 years and 9 months ago

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I also require proof of rent payments for the previous year and talk to the previous landlord

lgwlcvqt | 8 years and 9 months ago

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I also require proof of rent payments for the previous year and talk to the previous landlord

bedstuytownhouse | 8 years and 9 months ago

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I’m late to chime in here but, having been on the receiving end of living through trying to evict some of the most heinous, evil professional tenants that ever lived…who then went on and did the same thing to another couple in the neighborhood…I wouldn’t wish that experience on my worst enemy.

Anyways, this is how we proceed now. We require proof of rental payment for the last 12 months, a credit and L&T court check and we require access to their PREVIOUS landlord, not their current landlord. If they are a headache in their current apartment, their current landlord will tell you any and everything to make their problem, your problem. Lastly, we only offer month-to-month leases now so if you are a problem, you will be given 30 days notice to vacate and that can be actioned in court on the 31st day. And, use a REBNY lease, not a Blumberg lease.

Good luck.

Guest User | 8 years and 9 months ago

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Yes, realtors often price apartments too high and then there’s no action. You should also email info to your network of local friends, neighbors, etc. You don’t necessarily want to rent to a friend, but a friend of a friend is fine. No matter who you rent to, do a credit check, get references, etc.