Adverse Action Notices: When Landlords Must Send One
What an FCRA adverse action notice is, when a landlord must send one, what it must say, and how to handle the common mistakes small landlords make.
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Landlord guides
Evergreen, sourced guides covering everything about renting out property, from your first tenant to your tax return.
Screening & Leasing
Find good tenants and write leases that protect you.
How to Screen Tenants the Right Way (and Stay Legal)
A step-by-step tenant screening process for small landlords: criteria, credit and background checks, references, and the fair housing rules to follow.
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How to Show a Rental Property: A Safe, Efficient Walkthrough
Practical steps for showing a rental unit: scheduling, safety, open houses vs private tours, what to say, and what to avoid under fair housing law.
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How to Write a Rental Listing That Fills Fast and Stays Fair
Write a rental listing that attracts qualified applicants, includes the right details and photos, and avoids wording that can create fair housing problems.
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Lease Essentials: 15 Clauses Every Landlord Should Include
The key clauses for a residential lease: rent terms, deposits, maintenance, entry, pets, subletting, and more, plus tips for using a state-specific form.
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Lease Renewal vs. Month-to-Month: Which to Offer Your Tenant
How lease renewals and month-to-month tenancies work, the pros and cons of each, when to send renewal offers, and what to check under your state's rules.
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Pet Policies and Pet Deposits for Landlords
Set a clear pet policy, choose between pet deposits, fees, and pet rent, and handle assistance animals correctly under fair housing rules.
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Roommates and Co-Signers: How to Handle Them as a Landlord
How joint leases, roommate changes, and co-signers or guarantors work for landlords, including screening, liability, and the paperwork to use.
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Tenant Background and Credit Checks: What to Run and How
Learn what tenant background and credit checks cover, how to read the results, and how to follow FCRA, fair housing, and adverse action rules.
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The Rental Application Process: From Inquiry to Signed Lease
Walk through every stage of the rental application process, from first inquiry to lease signing, with a timeline, fees, and a consistent paper trail.
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Rent & Finances
Set rent, collect it, and keep your numbers healthy.
Handling Partial and Late Rent Payments Without Losing Rights
What to do when a tenant sends part of the rent or pays late: when to accept, how partial payments can affect eviction, and how to use written agreements.
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How to Raise Rent Without Losing a Good Tenant
A practical guide for landlords on deciding the right rent increase, giving proper notice, and communicating it so good tenants stay.
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How to Set the Right Rental Price for Your Property
Learn how to price a rental using comparable listings, your own costs, and vacancy math so you fill the unit quickly without leaving money behind.
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Late Fees for Rent: How to Set Them Fairly and Legally
How landlords can set reasonable late rent fees, write them into the lease, apply them consistently, and avoid common legal mistakes.
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Managing Vacancies and Turnover Time to Protect Cash Flow
What an empty rental really costs, how to shorten turnover with pre-marketing and scheduling, when to cut rent versus wait, and how to budget for vacancy.
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Rent Control Explained: What Landlords Need to Know
A plain-English look at how rent control and rent stabilization work, how to check your local rules, and how to plan your numbers around limits.
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Rental Cash Flow and Cap Rate: A Simple Guide for Landlords
Learn how to calculate net operating income, cap rate, cash flow, and cash-on-cash return for a rental, with a worked example in round numbers.
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Rental Property Budget: How Much to Reserve for Repairs and Vacancy
Build a realistic rental property budget: income, fixed costs, maintenance and vacancy reserves, capital expenses, and simple rules of thumb to sanity-check.
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Security Deposit vs. Last Month's Rent: What's the Difference?
A security deposit and prepaid last month's rent look similar but are treated differently for law and taxes. Learn how to collect and track each.
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Maintenance
Keep properties in shape without overspending.
Emergency Repairs Playbook: What to Do When Something Breaks
A step-by-step plan for rental emergencies like burst pipes, gas smells, and no heat: safety first, shutoffs, vendors, tenant communication, and records.
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How to Handle Tenant Maintenance Requests Like a Pro
Set up a simple system for tenant repair requests: intake, urgency levels, response times, vendor handling, and documentation that protects you legally.
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How to Hire a Contractor for Your Rental Property
How to find, vet, and bid out rental contractors: licenses, insurance, references, written scopes, staged payments, permits, and avoiding unlicensed work.
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HVAC, Water Heater, and Roof Lifespans: Repair or Replace?
Typical lifespans for HVAC, water heaters, roofs, and appliances in a rental, warning signs of failure, repair-versus-replace rules of thumb, and how to budget.
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Move-Out Inspection and Unit Turnover: A Landlord's Guide
How to run a move-out inspection, document damage versus normal wear, and turn a unit fast so vacancy stays short and deposit disputes stay rare.
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Pest Control in Rentals: Who Is Responsible, Landlord or Tenant?
Who pays for pest control in a rental? Learn how responsibility is usually decided, what to put in your lease, and how to respond to infestations.
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Preventive Maintenance Checklist for Rental Properties
A seasonal preventive maintenance checklist for landlords: HVAC, plumbing, roof, smoke alarms, and inspections that prevent expensive emergency repairs.
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Who Pays for Repairs: Landlord or Tenant?
Sort out who pays for rental repairs, from normal wear and tear to tenant damage, and how to put responsibilities in writing in your lease.
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Legal & Evictions
Notices, deposits, fair housing, and eviction basics.
Abandoned Property: What to Do With a Tenant's Belongings
How landlords should handle belongings left behind after a tenant moves out or is evicted: confirming abandonment, notice, storage, and disposal.
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Eviction Notice Types Explained: Pay or Quit, Cure, and More
Learn the main eviction notice types landlords use, when each applies, and the mistakes that get notices thrown out before a case even starts.
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Eviction Process Basics: The Steps Every Landlord Should Know
A general overview of how evictions work in the U.S.: notice, filing, hearing, judgment, and enforcement, plus the self-help mistakes that backfire.
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Fair Housing for Landlords: Rules, Examples, and Common Mistakes
What the Fair Housing Act means for small landlords: protected classes, advertising, assistance animals, reasonable accommodations, and mistakes to avoid.
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Habitability and Repair Duties: What Landlords Must Fix
Understand the implied warranty of habitability, which repairs are your job, what tenants can do if you delay, and how to document every fix.
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Landlord Entry Rules: When and How to Enter a Rental Unit
What landlords need to know about entering a tenant's home: notice, allowed reasons, emergencies, and how to document entry without risking a dispute.
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Lead Paint and Required Landlord Disclosures
Federal lead-based paint disclosure rules for pre-1978 rentals, plus other disclosures landlords commonly owe, and how to keep proof you made them.
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Lease Termination and Early Breaks: How a Tenancy Can End
The main ways a tenancy ends, how lease break fees and the duty to re-rent work, SCRA military terminations, domestic violence exits, and lease buyouts.
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Retaliation and Harassment: Rules Landlords Must Not Cross
How tenant retaliation and landlord harassment claims arise, which actions look risky, and how to document legitimate decisions so you can defend them.
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Security Deposits: Limits, Deadlines, and Deductions
How security deposits work for landlords: typical caps, return deadlines, allowed deductions, and a state comparison table. Always verify your local rules.
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Small Claims Court for Landlords: When and How to Use It
How landlords can use small claims court to recover unpaid rent and damages after a tenant leaves, plus how to prepare evidence and collect a judgment.
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What to Do When a Tenant Breaks the Lease: A Step-by-Step Plan
A practical landlord plan for lease violations: document the problem, communicate, send the right notice, and know when to involve an attorney or court.
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Taxes
Deductions, depreciation, and record-keeping.
1031 Exchange Basics for Rental Property Owners
How a Section 1031 like-kind exchange can defer tax when you sell a rental and buy another: the main rules, timelines, and costly mistakes to avoid.
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1099 Requirements for Landlords: Who to Report and When
When landlords may need to issue Form 1099-NEC or 1099-MISC to contractors and others they pay, how to collect W-9s, and how to avoid penalties.
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Landlord Tax Deductions: What You Can Write Off
A plain-English guide to common rental property tax deductions in the U.S., including depreciation, repairs vs improvements, and record-keeping tips.
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Passive Activity Loss Rules for Landlords, Explained
Why a rental loss may not offset your wages, how the active participation allowance works, and what happens to suspended losses. Plain English.
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Rental Property Depreciation Explained for Landlords
How depreciation works for U.S. rental property: what you can depreciate, the 27.5-year schedule, when it starts, and what happens when you sell.
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Rental Property Record-Keeping: What to Keep and for How Long
A practical guide to landlord record-keeping: tenant files, financial records, tax documents, retention periods, and a simple system that works for taxes.
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Repairs vs. Improvements: How the IRS Treats Each
Learn how to tell a deductible repair from a depreciable improvement on rental property, with examples, a checklist, and record-keeping tips.
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Schedule E for Landlords: Reporting Rental Income and Expenses
A plain-English walkthrough of IRS Schedule E for rental property: what goes on it, how income and expenses flow to your return, and what to track.
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Selling a Rental Property: Capital Gains and Depreciation Recapture
How selling a rental is taxed: holding periods, adjusted basis, depreciation recapture, and ways to plan ahead, with a simple worked example.
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Property Management
Systems for self-managing or hiring help.
How to Collect Rent: Methods, Late Fees, and Policies
Set up reliable rent collection: payment methods, due dates, grace periods, late fees, and what to do when a tenant pays late or stops paying.
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Property Manager Fees and Contracts: What to Check
Typical property manager fee structures, hidden costs to ask about, and the contract terms that matter most before you sign a management agreement.
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Rental Property Software: What to Look For and How to Compare
What landlord software does, the main tool categories, how to compare options, fees to watch for, and how to protect your data and records.
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Self-Manage or Hire a Property Manager? How to Decide
Compare self-managing a rental with hiring a property manager: typical fees, what managers do, time costs, and questions to ask before you sign.
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Tenant Communication Templates for Landlords
Short, plain-English templates for welcome notes, rent reminders, late notices, maintenance, entry, renewals, rent increases, and move-out instructions.
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Vendor Management for Landlords: Build a Bench You Can Rely On
How to build a trusted bench of vendors, set response-time expectations, handle invoices and W-9s, and track quality so repairs get easier over time.
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Starting Out
First-time landlord guides and checklists.
First-Time Landlord Checklist: 12 Things to Do Before Move-In
New to renting out a property? This checklist covers the legal setup, insurance, lease, inspection, and money systems to put in place before tenant move-in.
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How to Become a Landlord: A Step-by-Step Starter Guide
Thinking about renting out a property? Here are the steps to become a landlord: finances, legal setup, insurance, screening, and your first lease.
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Landlord Insurance Explained: What It Covers and What It Doesn't
Understand landlord insurance: dwelling, liability, and loss-of-rent coverage, common exclusions like floods, and how to shop and what to require of tenants.
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Landlord LLCs and Legal Structure: What Small Landlords Should Know
Should you hold your rental in an LLC? Understand the benefits, limits, costs, and mortgage and insurance issues before choosing a legal structure.
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Renting Out a Room or ADU: Rules, Taxes, and Lease Basics
Thinking about renting a spare room or an in-law unit? Learn about zoning, roommate vs tenant status, fair housing exceptions, taxes, and insurance.
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Short-Term vs Long-Term Rental: Which Is Right for Your Property?
Compare short-term and long-term rentals on income, workload, regulation, lodging taxes, insurance gaps, and mortgage or HOA limits, with illustrative math.
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Startup Costs for a Rental Property: What You Need Upfront
A plain-English list of the upfront costs of becoming a landlord: down payment, closing, repairs, reserves, insurance, licensing, and an illustrative budget.
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The Accidental Landlord: Inherited or Kept a House to Rent
Inherited a house or kept your old home? Learn the first steps, how to decide between renting and selling, and the loan, insurance, and tax issues.
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