I just bought my first home and i want to rent it?

Question

where do i get a free rental agreement. I have no idea what they say or anything. It's my first home.

Answer 1

Did you sign an occupancy affidavit at the closing?

Do not use a "free" rental agreement or one of those standard forms from Staples or whatever. I could tell you hundreds of horror stories from people who used those agreements and screwed themself royally. Same thing with deciding to be a landlord when you know absolutely nothing about it.

Do yourself a great big favor. Make an appointment with the top landlord/tenant lawyer in your area. Make sure that is their specialty. Pay them to do a lease that is specific for your area and your needs. Have them give you a crash course on local landlord/tenant law and how it applies to you and your proposed situation. The $100 to $200 it costs you now could save you thousands and thousands in the end.

A true horror story from my office:

Woman rents out her condo when she is transferred. She buys a "legal" lease from one of those landlord sites and uses it. A year later, she decides to sell the condo and make some serious money while the market is hot. This way she can buy a new place where she now lives, pay cash and have a huge chunk of change left over.

She gives the tenants 30 days notice a month before their lease is up. The tenants say they aren't going anywhere. So, she comes to our office to evict them. We tell her "Sorry, but your tenant doesn't ever have to leave if they don't want to as long as they pay their rent because 1) in this county, if you rent a condo to someone, it must state in big bold letters at the top that it is a condo and subject to sale or else you are required to give them a 2 YEAR notice if you are ending their tenancy if you want to sell the place, 2) leases in this state automatically renew themselves on a month to month basis and you don't have a right to evict simply because a lease is ending under the anti-eviction act of this state and 3) this $9.99 bargain of a lease does not contain the all-important "right of re-entry" clause needed in order to evict for cause in this state, so the fact that you didn't tell them in the lease that it is a condo doesn't even really matter at this point. They don't ever have to leave even if they did give you cause to evict."

She's hysterical because prices more than doubled in the past year. Her 150K condo is under contract for 320K, and now she can't sell it because of this. She wants to sue the online landlord site because they told her the lease is "perfectly legal". We have to tell her she doesn't have a case because ... the lease is perfectly legal, it's just not in her best interests.

Don't be a schmuck over $100 to $200. Pay a professional for their expertise and advice.

Answer 2

2

Answer 3

Instead of looking for someone to buy your house, why don't you be the landlady and rent out the rooms to individual renters. That way you can still keep a room and look after the house. It's easier to break the rent to a couple of room renters than someone to rent or buy the whole house and sub-let to you. Or you can put out a lease like for 2 - 5 years lease out your whole house then you go rent a room somewhere. Or you can refinance the house at a cheaper interest rate and use the money to pay off your existing mortgage. The new mortgage you can extend the repayment of the loan to a longer term period and bring down your monthly mortgage payment. I think you find these options doable than have someone buy over your property then rent it out to you which in the end you may lose your property if the new owner decide to kick you out, and dont forget you still have your dad who wants and will fight for his share of the selling price of the house

Answer 4

A Local real estate agent or broker should be able to supply you with a standard rental agreement. Read it and make sure you understand the terms. If there is a question contact a real estate attorney.