Leasing a home advice

[Chrisada]

Any advice on leasing a home from someone? We are looking now. We've lived in married housing for the past four years where everything is immediately taken care of by the university. What should we look for in the lease and what should we expect? Was anyone able to negotiate rent?

[bokelley]

We negotiated rent. We always had a lawyer look over it first. One of the main things I wanted was a 24 hours notice to come over, unless of emergency. That was the big one for me. Other things to think about are when your lease is up, how will they handle new tenets coming over and looking at the home.

[SoonerTexan]

Was anyone able to negotiate rent?

Ooo...I have some questions here too, but I'll wait until Chrisada gets some answers before I hijack

[TulipsAndSunscreen]

You may be able to negotiate rent if you sign a multi-year lease. The issue with that is that you may not want to do that until you know the landlords are solid. I've had FANTASTIC landlords and horrible ones. One thing you might want to ask for is contact information for previous tenants. Not everyone will provide this but it's a good sign if they will. You want to ask how quickly they responded to issues, how much maintenance they did, etc. The best relationships are mutual - you're committed to taking care of their home properly and they're committed to provide a safe, legal place of residence for you.

You need to figure out who is responsible for lawn care, snow removal, etc.

Also, since you have kids, you might want to give some thought to the best situation for you (single family, 1st floor, not 1st floor, etc.). Dealing with other tenants when you have children may not be something you want to deal with but then again single family homes are more expensive.

[rainbabies]

I would go through a realtor. We've had great luck with that. Also, if they don't have anything...knowing the area, they can give you other connections.
(The first house we lived in here, we found through a realtor, who's friend went to a church, who owned a vacant house.
we still miss that house )

[DCJenn]

If you're talking about renting a house or someone else's home, as opposed to renting an apartment in a complex, then I'd go through a Realtor if at all possible. I haven't rented my place through a Realtor but I was an experienced landlord and I had access to Realtor resources through my buddies down.
here.

Since you're entering residency, you need to definitely be super clear on who is responsible for exterior maintenance, snow removal, plumbing problems, lawn care, etc. The reason is that you will be the one to deal with it. If YOU don't think you'll have time to mow the lawn, then the lawn won't get mowed. Your spouse may SAY that he'll do it and my sincerely intend to do it but it won't happen. Make a list of things that you're comfortable doing and the find a place that allows just that much.

Jenn

I've used a Realtor when moving to a new town. They can provide great guidance if you're not familiar with the area. When we've moved to places we know, we've just studied craigslist and had great success. In my experience renting from a landlord who rents out just one or two properties is very different from renting from an landlord in a big complex. The single-family unit landlord may be much more willing to work with you to negotiate maintenance, rent and term.

The Association of Realtors in most states publishes a standard lease form. You should be able to find it online. If you read through it, it may prompt you to think of other issues to consider.

[moonlight]

I'm sure you've thought of this, but incase you haven't ask who is resposible for all utilities. And see if you can find out what those utilities cost on average.

My elect. bill was Killing us this past winter!

[Chrisada]

Thanks for the replies. Now DH wants to buy, which I don't. I'm sure I'll have a whole new post on this soon.

[Ravenclaw]

If you rent a condo unit directly from the owner, make sure to find out what is the association's responsibility and what is the landlord's. We've had issues in 2 different places when we've needed repairs on who is responsible. E.g. our windows were really drafty so we asked the owner if they could insulate them; they said it was the association's responsibility since it was exterior. We went back and forth with them on that since the Assoc. said it wasn't their responsibility. Oh and also make sure your place comes with some type of window treatment, blinds or shades. A lot of brand new places we saw didn't and they cost a lot!

[DCJenn]

I'm sure he'd love to speak to Jenn Patel and I about the joys of owning two homes when the residency home doesn't sell. Most of the time it works out but when it doesn't it is excruciatingly financially painful. There's a lot of stuff we don't do because we have two homes to manage. (like vacations, etc.)

Jenn

[SoonerTexan]

DCJenn--just curious, did you do a credit check on your tenants before they signed the lease? Or before you would even consider them? Some "landlords" that contacted me (via Craigslist) wanted a credit check before anything else. I just ignored those responses as they seemed REALLY fishy, but I was wondering if it is standard or not.

I would appreciate some feedback on our situation, too (wee little hijack).

About a month ago, I put out a housing wanted ad on Craigslist. I got loads of skeevy replies (see above), but we did find one gem. It's a duplex located 1/4 mile from White Rock Lake (which is awesome since it is a great location for both of us to go to school/work and it is a safe cycling haven for DF, who is doing 40-70 miles a day lately). We took a look at it and really liked the place. It's a little bigger than we need (though if kids are thrown in the picture in the next 4 years, the extra space would be nice), clean, the neighborhood seems safe (especially compared with surrounding areas), and we REALLY clicked with the landlords. They are a couple about my parents age who bought it as an investment--their daughter is currently living in it until May, but they are looking for a tenant when she moves out. They were doing a lot to upgrade the place and get it into shape and genuinely seemed like very nice people. (and they were happy we weren't another Craigslist creeper--they had some stories to tell too)

Anyway, of course the problem is it is about $150 more/month than we really wanted to pay. We still have more to look at, but we are tentatively thinking of trying to negotiate the rent. There are 3 other duplexes on the same street for rent right now (I called, and based on those prices, ours is probably priced fairly), and the duplex isn't even on the market right now. If we signed a lease, they wouldn't have to list and wouldn't lose a month of rent. She also mentioned they pay for lawn service and were planning on painting the interior--what do you think of offering to mow/keep up the landscaping (its minimal and I actually enjoy that sort of thing) and maybe painting (I'll have 3 weeks to kill after the wedding before I start work) for a reduction in rent?

[scarlett09]

SoonerTexan, I don't know anything from the landlord side, but it is common practice for them to ask about your credit history and credit score. They use your credit history as a barometer on whether or not you will pay the rent in full and on time. They will also ask about employment and need to verify it, as they want to make sure you will have the income to pay the rent. DF had to get a letter from the residency office when we moved into our place here. I think you have a pretty good deal on your hands right now, I would see if negotiating is possible.

Chrisada, I would definitely think about the cost of utilities. In our old place, which was our first apartment outside of university housing, we only paid for electric and gas. In our new place, it's electric and gas, as well as water, sewer and garbage/recycling removal. We consider what we are paying for in this place as a step towards home ownership - the only things the management company takes care of is maintenance, snow removal and landscaping/lawn care. Ask about pet policies, maintanence staff entering the unit, and flooring requests (some places we looked at had hardwood and wanted us to cover 80% of it with carpeting). Oh, and security is a big thing for me - types of locks on the door, security bar on sliding glass doors, anything that will help to keep your little guys out of harm's way. Good luck with your search!

[bokelley]

Regarding the credit check (we used Craigslist to find our home) we ordered the credit check, since you have to have ss#, then sent on the information to them, that way you can mark out all your important info that they do not need. Just have it notarized or something like that. We felt that is was the best way to keep safe, and our landlord had no problems with it. With rent they started out about 400 more than we could afford, and the lawn mowing was included. So I at first offered we do the lawn, this dropped it 150 more. Still to high. Then about a week later, I was just very honest, and said we live on a very fixed income, due to husbands situation. I thanked him trying to help us but I didn't feel comfortable going outside our price range. So a few days later, he wrote me back and said he would lower it, to what we could afford. His reasoning, he wanted someone who was honest, and since I was so forthcoming with the price, he knew I knew what we could afford, so I would be less likely to not pay. One of the major things I was worried about on Craigslist, was making sure the owner was good with the bank who has the loan for the home. I asked for a letter from the bank where the home loan was from saying that they were in good standing. I was really nervous, that they were going to rent it to us, take the money and not make the payment to the bank. Thus leaving us fighting with the bank. I saw in on ABC or something, so it scared the crap out of me.

[Chrisada]

Brandi, we had friends here in MI whose landlord was not paying the mortgage and they had to move very quickly when it was foreclosed.

Jenn, I am weary of being a homeowner now for several reasons. I'll start a thread in the Call Room so that I can give the specifics.