Tips for starting off with our first tenants?

We’ll be posting our garden apartment rental listing this week, and I’d sure love to hear any suggestions other landlords have. I’ve had tenants in my condo before, and that went pretty smoothly, but whoever will be renting from us will be in our house, and I want to be sure to get things on the right track from the start. I plan on holding one open house this weekend, and list all the documentation required (like an application fee for credit check) in the listing. The one wrinkle is we will lose access to the backyard until we start our parlor renovation, which includes a deck and stairs down to the backyard. So we’re planning on giving them access to the back until then. Also, a minor thing, but curious what people think about apartment numbering… We’re living on the top 3 floors, tenants on garden level. Should we be Apartment 1, and the tenant Apartment 2? Any tips welcome…Thanks!

Sweet-Action

in Real Estate - Rentals 13 years and 10 months ago

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RustyBob | 13 years and 10 months ago

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I would want to verify from a prior landlord and i would also check the names in the L&T computer to see if theyve been evicted from prior apartments for non payment or for a holdover that was because they were problem tennants

adb | 13 years and 10 months ago

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We have rented a floor of our house for over 10 years and only had one bad experience. The reason was that we didn’t find someone whose lifestyle matched ours. Be totally upfront – you may think of them as a tenant but they are really a housemate in some sense. Do you get up early? Like to sleep late? Love to blast music? Smoke? This is not some big anonymous apartment building. Even though you won’t be sharing a space if you look at the tenant as if they were a potential roommate you’ll do a lot better. And yes – do all the background/credit/reference checks as well.

slopegirl | 13 years and 10 months ago

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also I’d say they are in apartment one and you are in two

slopegirl | 13 years and 10 months ago

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my tips are these: -think of it as a business -consider using a (good) real estate broker to rent for you–no cost to you, and provides a nice buffer zone for both parties…. We found we got a higher rent that way too, which is a great bonus (see #1). (our broker was Jesse Temple at Temple Morrow real estate in PS/Windsor Terrace.) -set pet policy up front… We are no-pets, which definitely decreases your pool of tenants (especially in dog-happy neighborhoods like PS) but I was more comfortable with that than worrying about whose cat might be peeing or whose dog might bark. You just can’t tell ahead of time.That said, I think vast majority of pets are non-nuisances. -do a criminal check as well as credit/evictions check -call at least 2 former landlords for references -accept that there will be some annoyances for you as LL -read about tenant rights ahead of time so you don’t inadvertently discriminate or break the law, you’ll need to deal with lead paint forms, fire extinguishers, carbon monoxide alarms, window bars, etc. -it’s your building but it will be your tenant’s HOME too, so as soon as they sign that lease, they will have rights (lot about that on this forum) -consider consulting your real estate attorney about riders and leases if you’re not using broker or research laws and rules online. -better to hold out for qualified and reliable tenant above all else because housing laws in NYC favor tenants and if you get a bad/manipulative one, worse than bedbugs.

RBCG | 13 years and 10 months ago

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Just went through the same thing, with the same layout (including post-tenant access to the garden for ourselves). Learned a couple of things. First, no pets is a lot easier than pets, but if you decide to allow pets, make sure you meet them before you accept a tenant. Ideally, try to be around them while their owners go around the corner or something: dogs in particular can behave a lot differently (read: more barking) when their owners aren’t around. Second, rather than giving them yard access and then rescinding it, you may want to put up a fence and give them permanent access to a small portion of the yard. You might be able to charge more that way, and they won’t have to get used to something they’ll eventually have to give up.Third, you might want to use an online credit check system such as SmartMove: we found that difficulties with simply using the online application system were a good indication that prospective tenants might not be too sharp. Good luck!

bkmatthew | 13 years and 10 months ago

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An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Make sure you do thorough background checks on prospective tenants. You want to make sure you’re not dealing with someone who is so impecunious that they won’t pay the rent, nor do you want someone whose pastime is suing people (especially landlords) or someone who has a track record for violent crime. Real estate brokers can help here, but there are also plenty of services online that do background checks of tenants.

ProspectWitch | 13 years and 10 months ago

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Regarding the apartment number, its probably just easier to do whatever your utility companies have it listed as because they will probably bill you as 2 or 2-3 and the garden as 1. That said, you can still do whatever you want. We were miss informed by the previous owners, so we call ourselves (parlor and up) #1 and the garden #2\. Sometimes the bills go in the wrong mailbox…big deal!