Real Estate Tips Blog

Whenever you are looking to switch up your renters, you want to make sure that you understand exactly what screening your tenants mean.  Landlords are generally the ones that are taking a huge risk whenever they allow someone to live in their home without really and truly knowing the person.  Well – I can tell you for sure that there are a few things that you want to make sure that you are doing before you sign a lease.

Firstly, you always want to make sure that you keep it legal.  If you do not have a lawyer, make sure that you get one, that way you can make sure that everything that goes into the lease or even what a qualified tenant looks like.  Also, it is a great way to prove that you are not discriminating against anyone.

Next, make sure that you check with the previous landlords – if they treated those landlords badly, odds are they are going to do the same to you.  Do not over read the credit report.  While we know there might be some mistakes, do not read too much into it.  Finally, do not settle for just anyone, find the right tenant for you.

In this day and age it seems that everyone is renting simply because it is so expensive to buy anything.  Did you know that when you rent something, when something goes wrong in the apartment, you – as a tenant is not responsible to fix it or pay for it to be fixed?

Over the weekend, our hot water went out and our landlord was out of town.  What do you do in a situation like that?  Well, that is what we are going to talk about in this blog.  One of the first things that we did was attempt to contact the real estate agent, as they are the ones that I thought to go to first.

Next – I e-mailed the landlord, just so that there was a paper trail.  Finally, I called them – you always want to make sure that you have a witness around whenever you are discussing repair problems, that way there is someone on your side.

Some may say that if you are paying rent, you have the right to do whatever you want to do to the property, in regards to painting and things of that nature — as long as you leave it in a condition that pleases your landlords.  Personally, I agree with that, but it is not the way things go all the time.  Still, if you move into an apartment where the paint and wallpwper on the walls does not suit your personality or your design aesthetic (as I just experienced: beautiful place, but walls decorated in oranges, yellows … and the most heinous floral wallpaper imaginable) and your landlord is wary of letting you do anything (even though former tenants were allowed to paint the walls orange and yellow, and put up the most heinous floral wallpaper imaginable), there are ways to get around that dictate.

Sheets.  That’s right — flat bed sheets, not the fitted ones.  You can choose them in a color you like, or pick white sheets and paint them.  You can tack them up in a way that will not harm the underlying wall, or use special adhesives that will not harm the paint or paper beneath.  Stretched tightly, this idea is safe, economical, stylish, and beautiful.

Want wallpaper?  Stencil your sheets.  In any design you like.  Nor do you have to pay an arm and a leg for the stencils.  Print out the ones you like and use an Xacto knife to cut out the patterns on the appropriate material.