Investing, Rentals

How to Find Good Tenants

Finding the right tenants in the Maryland location, Virginia location, or Washington DC location is essential to having a good renting experience.  Your property is an asset and you need to be able to trust your tenants to take good care of it.  Approaching the search for tenants in a businesslike way is the key to finding the right people. Here are some tips to help you fill your rental with good tenants.

Know the Law

Every state, town, and county has its own rental laws.  Make sure you understand the laws for the location your property is in.  This will help you create a lease document that is lawful and fair for both you as the landlord, and your tenants.

Select Advertising

Advertising your open property is a must to finding the right tenants, but be selective where you post your listing.  There are sites such as rentals.com or zillow.com that may charge you a fee for your post, but will bring you better results than free sites such as Craigslist.  Put up a sign in the window or lawn of the property, and advertise locally in stores or newspapers. Provide details and the rent to get responses from people who are actually interested.

Application

Always have a rental application asking for names, social security numbers, income, and previous landlord references.  Run a background check on potential tenants. Many renters expect to pay for this, so you can charge a one time fee to do so.

Strong Lease Agreement

Spend the time before you look for tenants drawing up a strong lease agreement that clearly details the responsibilities of both the landlord and the tenants, late rent fees, occupants, and terms for evictions.  Even if something seems obvious, spell it out in the lease.

Set the Bar High

Just because ten people have applied doesn’t mean you have to choose one of them.  Don’t lower your standards for a tenant just to get your property rented. Keep looking until you find a tenant you feel good about.

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Buy and Hold, Investing

How to Find Good Tenants for a Rental Property in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington DC

As a landlord with a rental property in Maryland, Virginia, or Washington DC, you want tenants that will not make your life and property a living hell. At 8 Day Home Sale, we have years of experience managing rental properties. If you are looking for a good tenant to rent your house in Maryland or Washington DC, here are a few things you should do:

1. Perform background and credit checks
Figure out your prospective tenants credit score, past evictions, past rental records, potential criminal records, bankruptcy, etc. This might cost you $30 but will be worth it in the long run. Do not rent to people that you do not know the history of.

2. Ask for their references.
References include previous landlords, employer, etc. You tend to get first-hand information about the person coming to rent your property if you are able to have actual discussions with the people involved with them. Bad tenants will have a very hard time providing references.

3. Meet them physically.
It’s impossible to get a real feel for a person without meeting them. It’s tempting to just let them sign a lease without seeing them. However, it will benefit your rental property in Maryland or Washington DC in the long run if you actually meet them.

4. Take a large security deposit.
This is usually done to cover damages should your tenant turnout to be the troublesome. Protect yourself in case the tenant causes problems or breaks the lease.

5. Know who will be living in the house and add it to your lease.
It’s very common for tenants to bring in family members to live in the house. This can be fine unless the family members are high risk individuals. Have your tenant commit to who will actually be living in the house.

6. Verify employment.
Check your prospective tenants employment history and ensure they have a stable job. Good tenants almost always have stable jobs.

7. Use a good lease agreement.
Make sure to use a legally sound lease agreement. 8 Day Home Sale has a lease agreement ready-to-use for Maryland.

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Rentals

Free Lease Agreement Template

So you’ve bought your first rental property. You spent months of researching homes, crunching numbers for positive cash flow, visiting homes on the market, calling realtors, negotiating with loan officers, considering property management companies, reading countless rental property tips blogs, etc. The process was tough, but you’ve made it to the next phase: landing your first tenants.

After positing rental listings on Craigslist and Zillow, you’ve found some potential rental property tenants. You then realize: I don’t have a lease agreement! Real estate laws are complicated and vary from state to state and county to county. You don’t have the money to hire an expensive contract lawyer.

Don’t fret! 8 Day Home Sale has put together a Lease Agreement template. While this lease agreement template is tailored for Maryland, it is generic enough to apply to most states/counties. In addition to establishing a standard rental contract based on monthly payments between the landlord and seller, the lease agreement:

  • Enables the landlord to require a security deposit
  • Protects the landlord from liabilities i.e. breaking of local laws
  • Prohibits unsafe activities i.e. smoking
  • Absolves the landlord of appliance maintenance responsibilities

The lease agreement can be easily modified and clearly marks where details need to be filled in. The rental agreement template is available for download as a docx and pdf.

Download: .docx or .pdf

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