ok... now I'm a landlord... any tips out there?
 

I own a pair of extra houses and I've got friends staying in one now paying rent.
I will be setting an official lease soon once all cleanup and construction is complete.
All landlord tips good and bad welcome!

Your prospects for being a successful landlord are only as good as the quality of your tenants. Screen, screen, screen.

and have a VERY detailed lease agreement.

Definitely a generous damage deposit.

My first rule of landlording....it is better to have your property empty than to rent to the wrong tenant.

Second rule: Have quality properties and keep them up so you can charge the top rent and get the best tenants.

Third rule: He who controls the thermostat shall pay the bill.

Rule one: Don't rent to friends. :):):)

MrLandlord.com is a good site. You can sign up there to run your own credit checks on potential tenants. Run criminal checks also. Learn how to do an eviction in your jurisdiction so you wont hesitate or be intimidated if you need to do it. It's cheaper and quicker to do your own rather than hiring an attorney.

I've had good luck checking references without credit or criminal checks. If the stories don't match, something smells. Credit is (IMHO) useless, since most small landlords wouldn't know how to report bad tenants to a credit agency anyway. Criminal can generally be found by searching through Google news archives if it's major enough (and then searching court records for disposition of the case). Also, sex-offender registries are free to access. If it's not major enough to make the papers and the sex-crime registry, I'm probably not going to worry since everyone is entitled to a few mistakes.

You're not looking for landlord reports on the credit report. You're looking for their credit rating.
If you're going to rely on previous landlord references, don't depend on the tenant for the source of that landlord's name and phone number. They can give the name of a friend as a landlord. Look up the owner's name in public records and contact them.

You can check local court records on line using name and birthdate for criminal records. I wouldn't rely on newspaper reports myself.

It's only $10 to run a credit report and it takes 2 minutes.

Google News is national. Searching every court in the US is a bit more difficult. This, Google News for general info, local courts if something actually shows up.

I care less if they pay their credit cards than if they pay their landlords. I generally ask for two landlord references, check their names (property ownership) online, and call the one before the current one. The current LL might give a good reference just to get a bad tenant out. The previous one has nothing to lose.

I think a national criminal search with the credit check company is about $5. I also check prior landlords.

If you decide to sell one of the buildings, make sure it is unoccupied first.
I just learned a very painful, messy lesson to that effect

Leases stay with the building. If you buy the building you buy the lease along with it.

Good luck !

I did it twice, about 10 years apart from the first to the second time.

Did not learn my lesson the first time. Horrible Tenants the first time. Second time, family. If I had to do it over again, I would not be a landlord; however, I know a few folks who love it and make a great living out of it. So, I am guessing luck, pre-planning, the "right" tennants will make for a success story.

The new Donald Trump of the greater Charlotte area in the making?

Good luck John !

Im saying do not renew a lease before selling. At least for a single family where the tenant can drop the property value through deliberate action to prevent positive showings. In a multifamily with some apartments open, what the occupied apartment looks like empty can be assumed from the others if the tenant is a problem.

If you don't have them paid off, do so quickly. There's a lot of landlords that are broke out there, and unpaid for rental property sucks. For me, there's not enough of a financial return to ever have the desire to own any. I grew up in a family where my folks made their fortune in real estate building and rentals. So, I had a good perspective on rentals.