landlord 101

Rule #1- NEVER rent to friends, family or acquaintances.

#2- ALWAYS follow through if the lease is violated in any way. Late rent gets a 3 day eviction notice on our properties.

#3- Have a great, ironclad lease. Include a "survivability" clause to make sure a judge can only throw out portions of the lease and not the whole thing.

#4- Review your lease at least annually, and any time a "trigger" occurs. The last clause we added was "tenant must report any and all fires to landlord within 24 hours".

#5- Make sure your security deposit is appropriate but not outlandish.

#6- Thoroughly research what is and is not legal in your state, and word the lease accordingly.