Help a first time landlord!

October 19, 2011 5:44 AM

I own a rowhome and will be renting it out for the first time ever. I need advice so I am neither a slumlord nor a pushover setting herself up for lawsuits or squatters. I have not been a renter in about a decade so I'm a little stale on the whole process, plus I've never been a landlord before. More inside!

I found tenants (through friends) who like the place and want to take it for the price I asked. I plan on doing the property management myself (rent collection, managing handyman & repairs etc). I've already changed my homeowners insurance so it identifies the house as a rental property, but that's about all I have done other than cosmetic repairs.
What do I need to know as a first time landlord? Where should I get a boilerplate lease, is there an industry standard? What should I make sure to do/not to do? The house is in Philadelphia, PA. Thanks!

posted by 8dot3 to Home & Garden (18 answers total)

Speaking from the tenant side of things...
1) Maintain a good relationship with your tenants.
2) Promptly handle any needed repairs (example: My roommate's ceiling leaks, and has been doing so for months. The landlord (who also lives here) knows. Leaking ceiling roomie spends most of his time in the common area, thus limiting my ability to use them. Very annoying, and it falls back on the landlord for not getting the repair done.)

As far as the lease, no idea where to get it, but I do suggest going through it and making sure it says everything you want and not more than what you want.
posted by DoubleLune at 5:53 AM on October 19, 2011

Best answer: Get a copy of the Nolo Press Landlord book. It's great. It's got boilerplate leases, info on a per-state basis, etc.
posted by rmd1023 at 5:58 AM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Please, just fix things in a timely fashion.

Thanks,

A Renter Without A Doorknob For Six Months Now
posted by sideofwry at 5:59 AM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Even though you found your prospective tenants through friends, you should probably still have a credit check run on them.
posted by easily confused at 6:03 AM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Oh, and even if they're friends of friends - perhaps particularly because they're friends of friends - make sure you put everything in writing. Just to have a paper trail of who said what and when you promised you'd have whatever done. More documentation like that means less confusion.
posted by rmd1023 at 6:34 AM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Philly rowhouses: I love them, but life in one sometimes can feel like the dream sequence in The Nutcracker -- a constant battle with mice. Check for signs of infestation whether or not anyone's seen a mouse yet, and be generous with reinforcements for the human troops who pay you rent.
Once when reading my kid "Twas the Night Before Xmas..." just when we got to "not a creature was stirring," a mouse walked up to us in the living room and seemed to listen to the poem. Still, the landlord kept insisting "there are no mice in my house!"
posted by Tylwyth Teg at 6:36 AM on October 19, 2011

If you're north of Spring Garden, south of Washington, or west of 40th*, install an alarm. Then -- and this is key -- either get it monitored and add the cost to rent, or make sure your tenants know they're responsible for monitoring. Seems like common sense, but... yeah.

* Or even if you're inside this perimeter.

Have I been burned by this, you ask? How on earth did you know?

Also: bars on all out-of-sight, ground-accessible windows.
posted by supercres at 6:41 AM on October 19, 2011

Also, make sure you have an awesome SO who can help you with the repairs and, if needed, the rent collection.
posted by johnn at 6:53 AM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

I rented out my rowhouse years ago and the only advice I have is this: don't default to always being the incredibly nice guy. I liked my tenant and I wanted to help him out, so when he called panicking and said could he use the deposit as this months rent I said ok. That was the beginning of the end and slowly his rent payments dwindled and then ended and then he disappeared into thin air, while I was left unable to pay the mortgage. So. Be nice, be flexible, be kind - but don't be too nice.
posted by mygothlaundry at 7:11 AM on October 19, 2011

Communication! As long as you communicate with your tenants, as in don't ignore their calls for a month when the plumbing is broken, you should be fine. Seriously, if they had just picked up the phone we wouldn't have been even 1/1000 as angry with them.
posted by fromageball at 7:20 AM on October 19, 2011

Tell your tenants when you go out of town, and leave them with a contact number of someone else to call in case of urgent maintenance during that time. Also, I have no idea how much it costs, and I doubt it would even be worth it if you only have one property, but my current landlord has some software package that runs credit checks, lets us autopay our rent, and tracks maintenance requests. As a tenant, I love it, and I can imagine it makes documenting everything super-easy for the landlord.
posted by juliapangolin at 7:24 AM on October 19, 2011

Best answer: Look into best practices (and local requirements) concerning smoke detectors, carbon monoxide detectors, fire extinguishers, emergency egress, and other safety matters. My current landlords are very diligent about this stuff and I really appreciate it.
posted by messica at 7:39 AM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Our landlord is actually too helpful. He will proactively come and mow the lawn or change the lightbulbs - both things that he specified he would be responsible for, however we have had to remind him a couple of times that our tennancy agreement says that the landlord must give at least 24 hours notice before visiting (this is in the UK, your standard rental contract may differ). Twice he has been in (while we were out) to fix something without giving us notice ahead of time - nothing nefarious but it still feels like an invasion of privacy, and we (legally) have a right to know in advance (and ask for him to reschedule if inconvenient).

Another annoyance about our landlord (who is actually a nice guy really) - he used to live in the property and refurbished it to an actually really nice standard. However, this means he is super-protective about the decoration and made some kind of stupid decisions (IMO) about the fixtures, e.g. an untreated wooden kitchen worksurface that is super-super-vulnerable to stains and damage. He told us about this when we moved in but it's a pain in the arse when the surface you have to cook and prepare food on is easily damaged by cooking and preparing food. It you have anything like this - stuff that cost you a lot of money and that is kind of delicate/easily damaged, consider removing it as it's more hassle than it's worth, and chances are your tennants would rather live somewhere with more durable, more easily fixed fixtures than expensive, fragile ones (since they will be less scared of damaging them and having to shell out $$$).
posted by EndsOfInvention at 8:04 AM on October 19, 2011 [1 favorite]

Best answer: Make sure you've got all your licenses, certifications, and taxes acquired and paid for. It's also not a terrible idea to consult with/retain an attorney with experience in tenant law, and you'll want to make sure that you're socking away enough money to account for federal/state/local income taxes each year.
posted by evoque at 8:43 AM on October 19, 2011

My parents were landlords for years, and I remember them saying that they budgeted as if they would receive only ten months' rent per year. If they got all twelve, great, but if there was a deadbeat tenant or a gap between tenancies, they didn't panic.
posted by Ollie at 9:03 AM on October 19, 2011

I knew someone who was always late on rent until he moved in to a half double that had a $5 late fee per day. This was someone who would be 2 months late on his rent but would now sweat being 2 days late. I don't think the landlord really cared if someone was a couple days late but it kept people from taking advantage of him. I would do this if I was a landlord and it was legal in my area.
posted by stray thoughts at 12:26 AM on October 20, 2011 [1 favorite]

In my neighbourhood, we have a very active community association. Some of the landlords come to the meetings. This is smart, as the Board has unofficially mediated a few misunderstandings and have been known to talk to a landlord about small problems before they become big. Nothing official, but it is a lot easier to be a good landlord when you know what the local expectations are and if the people three doors down are dealing.
posted by QIbHom at 8:31 AM on October 20, 2011

Don't forgo the signatures and paperwork and deposits just because they're friends. Keeping it business-as-business is better for everyone.

Work something out with your handyman so that they can call him/her first, directly, if needed in case of emergency. And define emergency. (Imminent damage to the property, pretty much.) Any other incidental repairs, the handyman should tell them that they've gotta call 8dot3 first. Couch this as "the arrangement you've worked out with the handyman."
posted by desuetude at 10:44 PM on October 20, 2011