can do in the renting-out process. Screen your tenant prospects! It can’t be said enough. Do everything you can to keep those “bad apples” out of your precious home. If you don’t, and you end up with “that” tenant, you have no one to blame but yourself. It’s your responsibility to find a decent tenant for your home. Far too many people avoid this step and end up in awful situations that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
NOT HAVING A GOOD LEASE
Another area where people often make mistakes is not having a good lease in place. Just any lease isn’t enough; you need a rock- solid lease! The lease needs to work for the specific intricacies of your area, and for the laws of where you live. Lease laws change depending on where you live. And this doesn’t just mean state to state or even city to city; the legalities of some landlord-tenant relationships can vary within a city or neighborhood. So please ensure you have in place a great lease that is specifically tailored to your location—the local area, the exact city or town, the precise neighborhood, etc., so that all your bases are covered. Later on, we'll talk more about the all-important lease.
NOT CHECKING ON THE PROPERTY REGULARLY
Many homeowners who rent out their property run into trouble when they don’t bother, or forget, to check in on the house on a regular basis. They assume that by screening and choosing a great tenant, that the tenant is just automatically going to take care of the home. Big mistake! Maybe the tenant could be trashing the place, either through neglect or damage (or both), and the owner
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