Buying A Home
Cuardraro
member
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Our tech team has launched updates to The Nest today. As a result of these updates, members of the Nest Community will need to change their password in order to continue participating in the community. In addition, The Nest community member's avatars will be replaced with generic default avatars. If you wish to revert to your original avatar, you will need to re-upload it via The Nest.
If you have questions about this, please email help@theknot.com.
Thank you.
Note: This only affects The Nest's community members and will not affect members on The Bump or The Knot.
If you're a landlord
And don't use a property management company....
Where did you get your lease form?
How did you conduct a credit and/or criminal background check?
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Re: If you're a landlord
We used to have a property manager so I've just been reusing that one. But I heard you can get them at Staples, Office Depot etc.
I'm interested to hear where others have too.
We got a lease from the HOA at the condo we rent. Our HOA requires us to use a lease they provide.
You can usually get a basic standard lease from the Attorney General in your state, check their website.
We do credit & background checks through e-renter.com. It's $29.99 for both. They don't tell you the specific credit score, you just enter the minimum that's acceptable to you and they tell you if the person meets that minimum or not. They also tell you if the person has any evictions on record. The criminal background check is national. You'll need the person's SSN to do this check. Please be careful about documentation that includes SSN's so you're not causing someone's identity to be stolen. Do not email any documents with SSNs on them unless they're password protected. You can encrypt a Word or PDF file.
You can also usually do a state background check for free if you want. In Minnesota, it's on the Bureau of Criminal Apprenhension website. You can usually find by googling. Here's the Minnesota BCA site as an example.
Keep in mind, to do a credit or background check, you need consent. You'll want to have potential renters fill out an application form and include a statement on there that says they give consent for you to do a credit and background check and that you have permission to verify all information on their application form. You'll want to verify their income/employment, call their previous landlord, etc.
Mr. Sammy Dog
DH doesn't use a property manager.
The lease he uses is one he's put together over the last 15 years or so. In the current form, it's based mostly off the lease for the townhouse he and I lived in when we were between homes about 8 years ago. It's *extremely* detailed (about 22 pages, actually). His original leases were based off samples he got from the REAs he lists his properties with when they're available for rent.
We conduct checks via the listing agent. DH always uses one, and the listing specifically states that the tenant pays any related fees. That's never been a problem in all these years, The bonuses are that the agent handles all of the showings, gathers all of the feedback, runs the checks, and the fact that s/he has a fee involved really rules out people who aren't serious. The showings we've had are usually professionals who can afford/are willing to pay a month to a month and half worth of rent in fees for help finding a place to live (and, related to that, they tend to stay longer because if you're going to move every year you don't usually sink that kind of money into the process).
We got our lease from our realtor.
There are services online which will conduct background checks for a small fee. Just google something like "Tenant background checks" and there will be options come up.
Our landlord asked us to submit a credit report and two pay stubs for proof of income.