Rental

Tips for Writing a Lease Agreement

Tips for Writing a Lease Agreement

Writing a quality lease agreement is critical for protecting both landlords and tenants because it clearly states the terms and conditions. As you begin drafting your lease agreement ask yourself what key points you'll want to include and how to communicate them effectively? In this post, we’ll provide you with three tips you can use to write a quality lease agreement to ensure a smooth agreement between both yourself and your tenant.

1) Clearly express important dates and deadlines

One of the first things you’ll need to do in your lease agreement is clearly express important dates and deadlines. For example, if the rent is due on the first of every month it needs to be written and clearly stated in the document. This helps you to avoid any disputes that could potentially arise over missed payments. Another item you’ll want to include is your timeline to respond to repair requests if you would like 24 hours’ notice before completing a repair request that needs to be made clear in the lease agreement. Finally and most importantly you will need to explicitly state the date the lease begins and when the lease ends and is eligible for renewal along with a timeline for completing the renewal of the lease.

2) Provide tenant expectations

You’ll also want to include any expectations you have for the tenant in regards to maintenance and management of the property. If you require that they keep the home in a certain condition that will need to be laid out in the agreement. If these expectations are not meet by the tenant you will also need to include any clauses that covers your right to legally terminate the lease. This protects you and your rental property in the case of renting out the property to a bad tenant.

3) Have a real estate attorney review the agreement

Finally, once you have a draft of your agreement it would be beneficial to have a real estate attorney review the agreement. A real estate attorney will be able to review the document for any clauses or language that may be in violation of tenant-landlord laws on both the state and federal level and how you can correct it. A real estate attorney can also help you format the document professionally and have it written in a way that is easy to understand for you and your tenant.

A sound lease agreement is critical for you as a landlord. You want to be able to protect yourself and provide a clear understanding of the expectations between you and your tenants. These three tips offer you the ability to do that and create a successful business relationship with your tenants.

Lima One Capital is the nation’s premier lender for real estate investors. We make it easy to finance all of your fix-and-flip projects, rental properties, and multifamily investments. We are a nationwide lender, lending in 42 states across the country and Washington, D.C. We offer our Rental30 and Rental 2+1 across our entire lending area, if you would like to learn more about our rental products and how they can help you continue to grow your rental portfolio click here.