Resources for helping landlords

Published 9:00 pm Saturday, March 10, 2007

Question: A while back you mentioned in one of your columns a new edition of a book that was good for landlords to read. I’m assuming it is out by now, but I can’t remember the title.

You mentioned that it had lease agreements for 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.

H., Everett

Answer: 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 bookstore.

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 of Puget Sound: www.rha-ps.com.

The association provides lots of good information on its Web site, and you might 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 and in 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 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 p.m. 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 it works very well.

Another important key to being a successful landlord is to make sure that you use a good tenant screening service to run a credit report and criminal-record check on all applicants. You want to be sure that you are renting to somebody who has proved they pay their bills on time and does not have a criminal background.

Mail questions to Steve Tytler, The Herald, P.O. Box, Everett, WA 98206. Fax questions to Tytler at 425-339-3435 or e-mail him at economy@heraldnet.com.