[Note to my blog readers: This is another column that references local laws and a local rental organization. If you are located outside the state of Washington, check for your local rental assocation and laws. -- Steve]
Q: A while back you had mentioned in one of your columns that a new edition of a book that was real good for landlords to have to read. I’m assuming it is out by now, but I can’t remember the name. You had mentioned that it had lease agreements for our state Washington. I am about to have our rental empty, so would like to use an updated lease when I get it rented again. I don’t know where else I can get one. Thanks for doing a FINE JOB, Steve. – H. Everett
A: The book I mentioned in my previous column is called “Landlording” by Leigh Robinson. It is a good beginner’s guide to the subject. You can find it at Amazon.com and it may be available at your local book store. The book is updated every couple of years, so be sure you get the latest version, which is the 10th edition published December 2006.
Now keep in mind that this is a general landlord information book, it is NOT specific to the state of Washington.
A good source of local landlord information is the
Rental Housing Association (RHA) of Puget Sound: http://www.rha-ps.com/
The RHA provides lots of good information on their website, and you may want to become a member. For example, they provide links to the Washington State Landlord-Tenant Law, as well as links to rental housing ordinances in King County, Seattle and other cities. Many new landlords are not aware that some cities have rental rules that are stricter than the state Landlord-Tenant Law. The city of Seattle is by far the toughest place in the state to own rental property because of all the additional rules and restrictions that you must follow inside the city limits.
As for rental forms, I suggest reading the landlording book and collecting sample lease forms from other sources such as the RHA. I have developed my own lease agreement over the years by picking and choosing clauses I like from other people’s rental agreements.
I use a “hard-nosed” approach in my lease agreements. For example, there is no “grace period” — the rent is due on the first day of the month, period. If the tenant pays after 5:00 PM on the first of the month, they are subject to eviction. Now, that may sound harsh to some people, but the idea is to scare away the bad tenants who might try to string you along for the rent payments. If you are renting to responsible people who intend to pay their rent on time, they should have no objection to that clause in a lease agreement. I have been doing this for many years and it has worked well for me. Somebody once said, “The easiest eviction is the one you do before they move in.” There is a lot of truth to that.
I also use positive incentives in my lease agreement. For example, the stated monthly rent in the lease agreement is $50 more than I actually intend to charge — but the tenants get a $50 discount by paying early (on or before the first of the month). In other words, I reward them for paying their rent early rather than imposing a penalty for paying late. It’s a subtle difference, but I find that it works very well.
Another very important key to successful landlording is to make sure that you use a good tenant screening service to run a credit report and criminal record check on all rental applicants. You want to be sure that you are renting to somebody who has proven that they will pay their bills on time and does not have a criminal background.
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