Educating Prospective Tenants

While doing research for an article I'm working on, I discovered this submission on Articlesbase.  While it's all straight-forward, common sense stuff to anyone in the business or for experienced renters, it does a pretty good job spelling out the process and expectations to someone who's renting on their own for the first time or someone who might be overwhelmed with the process for whatever reason.  

Sometimes, we assume prospective tenants know everything involved, but sometimes they don't.  I thought this was a good reminder that making sure our customers understand the process is an important part of customer service.

- Luke

Lease Rental Forms Are A Complete Rental Agreement

If you are looking to rent an apartment, be prepared to complete a rental agreement form.  While these forms are lengthy, they leave no question concerning the responsibilities of both the renter and the landlord.  Both the landlord and renter will know what to expect when entering the lease. 

You’ll likely complete the lease rental forms at a property management leasing office. A lease rental form will always ask for your personal information.  This information will most likely include your name, current address, phone numbers, and emergency contacts.  Make sure you take your driver’s license and social security card with you. Expect the landlord to make copies of both of these documents.  These copies will be kept in your file along with the lease rental forms.   

You will also want to have a copy of at least two recent pay stubs.  The landlord will probably conduct a credit check as well. A landlord wants to know that you have the means to make rent every month. If a landlord sees you have bad credit, you may have to have a co-signer sign the lease indicating they will ultimately be responsible for the monthly rent.  

Speaking of rent, a renter will know how much rent is due each month as indicated on the agreement.  The lease rental form will also let the renter know what day the rent is due and the charge for a late payment.  The agreement will stipulate the early termination, renewal and vacating policies of the property owner, too, that the tenant must abide by. 

Many renters love pets and want their pets to live with them.   This may or may not be allowed according to the lease rental form.  Specific weight requirements and pet deposits should be included to inform the renter of these policies. 

Renters are often asked to make a list of damages they see in the space during the first few days of possession.  It is important to be thorough while making this list as upon moving out the apartment the renter will be assessed by the landlord for any damages that aren’t reported during the initial days of ownership.  The renter will be responsible for any discrepancies in the lease rental forms.   

Renters are sometimes asked to pay utilities and other ancillary charges.  These charges could be internet, cable, or telephone.  Any charges the renter is expected to pay will be spelled out in the lease rental forms.   

The renter should keep the lease rental form in a safe place close at hand so it can be referenced if a question arises.  If a renter is unclear of the answer they should contact the management office.

Now here's a bad idea.

While continuing to look around Google, I came across this article from GotTrouble.com about Oral Rental Agreements. Then the article goes on to say you can just freestyle written agreements. While they are legal, the whole concept is such a bad idea it's unbelievable, so I thought I'd share. Have fun with this one....

Oral rental agreements

Oral rental agreements are usually binding. The "statute of frauds" requires rental agreements for more than a certain length of time (normally one year) to be in writing. But the common month-to-month rental agreement may be either oral or written.

How can I prove an oral rental agreement?

By testimony of the people who made the agreement or heard it made. If there is a dispute as to what was said, then the judge or jury will decide who is telling the truth. People sometimes say, "It's your word against mine, so you can't prove it." Not true. If her word is believed and your word isn't, then she proved it!

That is why it is better for everyone if the agreement is in writing, even if the law does not require it to be in writing. When you write everything down, sign it, and keep a copy, you can prove later what was agreed to without worrying about who is believed.

How do I write up a rental agreement?

There is no formality required in writing a rental agreement. Just write on a piece of paper the names of the landlord and tenant, the address of the place to be rented, the monthly rent and when it is due, and whether the term is month-to-month or some set period (like six months) - and then have both parties sign it and keep copies. Those are the basics, but you should also write down anything else that is important to you, such as the amount of any security deposit and how clean the tenant must leave the place to get the deposit back, any repairs either party promised to do, and whether pets are allowed.

You may obtain a form agreement from a book store or stationary store, or from your local apartment owners' association. But these forms are not adapted for your particular situation. It is better for you to see a lawyer who specializes in real property matters. He or she can draft a lease or rental agreement that suits your needs. Also, it's a good idea to form a relationship with such a specialist now, before trouble arises, so you have someone to call when trouble (an eviction, a lawsuit, etc.) arises - as it probably will.GotTrouble.com

-LM

Great article on state specific forms on-line.

Like a lot of companies, we're working with an SEO company to improve our rankings on the various search engines for a group of select keywords.  While doing some various searches to check our progress, I stumbled upon this article.  Although, we did not write this, it actually does a pretty good job explaining what we do and why we do it.  I thought I'd share....

Creating a State Specific Rental Contract Online

The rental population makes up a significant portion of the national housing market. Moreover, despite the current state of the real estate market, more people are beginning to see the value of investing in rental properties. However, being a property owner is no easy task and writing a rental contract is only one of the many tasks you will have to deal with on a regular basis.

Luckily, property owners now have the option to create a rental contract online with easy-to-use tools that walks visitors through the process step-by-step. The benefit of utilizing an online method to create a rental contract is that it is easy, convenient, and affordable and guarantees a certain degree of legal accuracy that is hard to match when trying to originate a lease without assistance.

Finding state specific rental contracts online that protect landlords are critical to a landlords success. When shopping online look for a lease with a lot of detail spelling-out important items which will really help landlords avoid any differences with their tenants. Laws vary from one state to another so your lease agreement needs to contain clauses for your state and should inform you of your states law. 

Look for a site that provides a state-assist feature that breaks down specific laws on a state-by-state basis, enabling property owners around the country to utilize the site to generate a legally sound rental contract that will offer both parties a fair amount of legal protection. 

The best site's use a lease wizard walks visitors through the process of creating a lease, ensuring that they understand each step as they enter necessary information in each of the fields. There is also a live help feature that allows visitors to chat with a knowledgeable site operator about any questions or inquiries they may have as they use the site to create a rental contract.

Some sites also have the ability to save any leases created, allowing them to return to the site and manipulate any existing rental contracts as needed. It is also important to find sites that are available at a fair price, particularly when one considers the amount of information and assistance given to customers creating and maintaining rental contracts.

While there is no way to avoid some of the other issues that come along with managing investment property, such as home improvement and maintenance and broken rental agreements, putting together an online rental contract that is in full compliance with each state's laws can provide a landlord with legal protection and peace of mind.

- LM

Rentegration To Launch Rental and Lease Forms for Colorado and Service Vendor Integration

For Immediate Release:

Rentegration To Launch Rental and Lease Forms for Colorado and Service Vendor Integration

October 26, 2009, Portland, Or --  Rentegration.com, a web based rental and lease forms and property management software, is proud to announce the launch of Colorado specific property management forms on November 3rd, 2009. 

In addition to adding Colorado forms,  Rentegration is now offering push button ordering  of tenant screening, eviction and maintenance services from vendors selected by Rentegration customers.  

To celebrate our launch in Colorado, we are temporarily offering $20 off of sign-ups!

Just use code WANFL09 at signup!

Go to Rentegration.com, email our sales team, or call 503.933.6437 to learn more about how Rentegration is the fastest growing forms and Property Management resource for property managers in Colorado, Washington, Arizona, and Oregon! 

Luke Miller

Public Relations Manager

Rentegration.com

Rentegration is a cost-effective property management software application featuring state specific rental forms and lease forms. Our integrated rental form and lease management software solution allows the organization of properties and tenants in an easy to use on-line database. Unlimited generation and storage of rental forms and lease forms is included in our base price.

Rentegration Now Offers Rental and Lease Forms for Arizona

September 24, 2009, Portland, Or --  Rentegration.com, a web based rental and lease forms and property management software, is proud to announce the immediate availability of property management forms for Arizona (in addition to Washington and Oregon), with Colorado and Utah forms arriving soon!

In addition to adding Arizona forms , we have recently added several convenient and powerful features for property managers, including multiple-unit form generation, form duplication, and more!

To celebrate our launch in Arizona, we are temporarily offering $20 off of sign-ups!

Just use code WANFL09 at signup!

Go to Rentegration.com, email our sales team, or call 503.933.6437 to learn more about how Rentegration is the fastest growing forms and Property Management resource for property managers in Washington, Arizona, and Oregon! 

Luke Miller

Public Relations Manager

Rentegration.com

Rentegration is a cost-effective property management software application featuring state specific rental forms and lease forms. Our integrated rental form and lease management software solution allows the organization of properties and tenants in an easy to use on-line database. Unlimited generation and storage of rental forms and lease forms is included in our base price.

Rentegration Now Offers Rental and Lease Forms for Washington

September 1, 2009, Portland, Or --  Rentegration.com, a web based rental and lease forms and property management software,  is proud to announce the immediate availability of property management forms for Washington, with Colorado and Arizona forms arriving soon!

In addition to adding Washington, we have recently added several convenient and powerful features for property managers, including multiple-unit form generation, form duplication, and more!

To celebrate our launch in Washington, we are temporarily offering $20 off of sign-ups!

Just use code WANFL09 at signup! 

Go to Rentegration.com, email our sales team, or call 503.933.6437 to learn more about how Rentegration is the fastest growing forms and Property Management resource for property managers in Washington and Oregon! 

Luke Miller

Public Relations Manager

Rentegration.com

Rentegration is a cost-effective property management software application featuring state specific rental forms and lease forms. Our integrated rental form and lease management software solution allows the organization of properties and tenants in an easy to use on-line database. Unlimited generation and storage of rental forms and lease forms is included in our base price.

Rentegration 2.0 Launches

May 27, 2009, Portland, Or -- Rentegration, a web based rental and lease forms and property management software, is proud to announce the immanent release of Rentegration 2.0!

Rentegration, in partnership with the Oregon Rental Housing Association, provides ORHA property management forms online, as well as property and tenant management.

Release 2.0 of Rentegration is simply a very user friendly and powerful tool for generating forms and managing your tenants in no time!

We have worked with our customers to create a very smooth and fast experience for property managers of all types.

With Rentegration 2.0, it is now easier than ever to get your property management and forms production on-line. We will even show you how to get started for FREE! You are invited to join us for a workshop session on online tenant management, property management, and rental form generation. If you have been curious about computerized forms production or property management, this is a great opportunity for you to get started!

Are you ready to stop handwriting forms? Are you ready for an integrated solution?

To learn more about Rentegration, or to sign up, go to Rentegration.com or call 503-933-6437

Luke Miller

Public Relations Manager

Rentegration.com

Rentegration is a cost-effective property management software application featuring state specific rental forms and lease forms. Our integrated rental form and lease management software solution allows the organization of properties and tenants in an easy to use on-line database. Unlimited generation and storage of rental forms and lease forms is included in our base price.

Rentegration Means You’ll Never Handwrite Another Rental Form Again.

Nov. 28, 2008, Portland, Or -- The concept of moving to a paperless office has been with us for quite a while now. Still, the affection for keeping physical records has remained with many of us. One area where many property managers quickly lose this affection though, is with forms generation. 

Hand writing forms can be one of the most tedious tasks faced by property management professionals. Between cross-checking information, correcting mistakes, and simply trying to fit everything on the page, hand writing property management forms can be not only frustrating, but potentially injurious!

Relying solely on a physical copy of a form can also have unintended consequences. Losing records becomes far too common as offices are moved around through the years. Looming over any business is also the possibility of all physical records being destroyed by natural disaster.

One common solution to storing forms in electronic form is to scan them. This is a little tedious, but works acceptably. One downside to this method, is that the electronic files have to be named and organized in such a way that they can be easily associated with your properties and tenants. 

This still begs the question, would it not be more sensible to solve both problems at one time? If a form is generated electronically with the same system that stores your property and tenant data, it can pre fill much of your form information for you. The remaining data can be typed into the form, and then the form can be printed. Another helpful feature would be if the system that does all of this could also store the generated forms along with your data. That way, you could use a few clicks of a mouse to pull up forms associated with a particular tenant or property, instead of minutes or hours of searching through physical files.

For solving these problems and many more, we would like to introduce you to the Oregon Rental Housing Association’s exclusive source of electronic  forms, Rentegration.com.

Rentegration, a web based rental and lease forms and property management software, is evolving to better serve online forms production and tenant and property management needs for property managers across Oregon. We have recently upgraded several components of the site to make using Rentegration even easier for landlords across the state. 

Rentegration.com is a value-packed way to approach form creation. If you are currently having to hand fill your forms from tenant data that is stored on paper, in excel spreadsheets, or another method that is not suited to property management, chances are that you are wasting valuable time!

Rentegration provides company, property, unit, and tenant tracking, along with forms production and form history (so that with a few clicks, you always know when that tenant in #12 was given a 72 Notice, you can even print it out again at any time).

Rentegration provides all of RHA's forms, and with your subscription, you can fill out and produce an unlimited number of them for one low price!

If you don't wish to enter all of your information and simply want to fill out and produce forms, Rentegration facilitates this method as well.

Since Rentegration is a web-based program, there is no installation necessary. Your data can be accessed from anywhere that you can access a computer that is online.

If you work with a team, (even if that team happens to be your spouse) you will love the fact that Rentegration allows you to have as many users as you want logged in at the same time.

You can share data with remote property managers and owners. Since Rentegration is charged per unit, you do not have to pay for any additional properties or users.

If you have ever shopped for an integrated property and tenant management system that produces forms, you will be pleasantly surprised at Rentegration's pricing structure.

Additionally, members of the RHA can enjoy a sizable discount from this price, simply by asking your local chapter for a discount code that can be entered when signing up!

If you are unsure of how to get into online forms production and tenant and property management, you will find our free online tutorial videos very helpful. If you prefer a more personal touch, check with the RHA of Greater Portland to see when we will be conducting our next demo/workshop at their office. After you have joined Rentegration, you will also have access to free technical support from our staff.

We hope that you visit Rentegration.com and sign up so that you can see what a difference a truly tailored solution can make for your business. Whether you manage one house, or 2,000 units, we know that Rentegration is going to be just right for you!

Luke Miller

Public Relations Manager

Rentegration.com

Rentegration is a cost-effective property management software application featuring state specific rental forms and lease forms. Our integrated rental form and lease management software solution allows the organization of properties and tenants in an easy to use on-line database. Unlimited generation and storage of rental forms and lease forms is included in our base price.

Rentegration and Oregon Rental Housing Association Team Up to Launch On-Line Solution

Portland, Or., June 20, 2008 -- Rentegration, LLC and Oregon Rental Housing Association, Inc announce the launch of Rentegration.com, a web based rental and lease forms and property management software. The site will allow rental owners and property managers to organize and manage data related to properties and tenants via the internet and will grant unlimited use of ORHA forms.

“We’re extremely excited about this application,” says Rentegration LLC Public Relations Manager, Luke Miller. “Rentegration.com is a cost effective, simple to use software that allows the independent rental owner and smaller management companies access to the sort of tools that were previously considered too expensive by many.”

Rentegration, LLC began development in 2007 and partnered with ORHA in Spring 2008. “We knew we were developing a great product, but we needed to provide quality forms. Most of the competition in the national marketplace use generic forms that aren’t created to conform to the nuances of specific state laws. Those forms are often challenged and found to be lacking in state courts, which costs landlords time and money,” says Miller.

“Rentegration wants to provide a better product, so we contacted ORHA to discuss a joint venture. They offer up-to-date, court tested forms for Oregon that were not previously offered on-line. The fit is natural and obvious.” he continued.

“OHRA brings a lot to the table. Not only do they have the best rental housing forms available in Oregon, they are a major lobbying force in Salem and represent a large portion of the rental housing market in the state. The Rental Housing Association of Greater Portland represents nearly 20,000 units and ORHA represents over 62,000 units overall statewide. They are a major player with a huge membership base, which makes them a powerful marketing partner as well.”

While Rentegration.com is designed for a smaller organization, larger management companies will benefit from use of the software as well. “For the independent owners and smaller management companies the attraction is the whole package. Many are still using manual filing systems and printed forms to organize their business. These are the folks we originally targeted with our design. Now they can log in from anywhere in the world and access all of their records quickly and easily. They are our primary target market,” says Miller.

“Our market research also revealed strong interest from larger organizations, as well. Bigger management companies also see the value in automated forms that are court tested and state specific and they are interested in the forms OHRA offers,” he adds.

What does Rentegration.com have in store for the future?

“More features and expansion,” states Miller. “This initial application provides simple organization, archiving of data, and quality forms for those with rental units in Oregon, but this is really just the start. We’re developing additional features that will cover a number of other aspects of property management.”

“Beyond those features, we’ve got a plan for regional expansion in place. We’re an Oregon company and serving Oregon owners and managers is our primary objective. Being full service includes offering the application for other states where our clients own and manage property.”

SOURCE: Rentegration, LLC

Luke Miller

Public Relations Manager

Rentegration.com

Rentegration is a cost-effective property management software application featuring state specific rental forms and lease forms. Our integrated rental form and lease management software solution allows the organization of properties and tenants in an easy to use on-line database. Unlimited generation and storage of rental forms and lease forms is included in our base price.

Hello Blogosphere!

Rentegration.com is an easy to use web-based property management software, currently featuring state specific rental forms and lease forms for Oregon, Washington and Arizona.   But, Rentegration is so much more than a simple form generation software.  Our full service application allows property managers, investors and landlords to organize and manage their units and tenants efficiently and conveniently, tracking maintenance and integrating with vendors and service providers. 

The next time you need a rental agreement, lease agreement or another rental form or lease form, please visit Rentegration.com.

• Unlimited use of 50+ Oregon Rental Housing Association Approved Forms
• Unlimited use of 25+ Washington state specific forms.
• Unlimited use of 25+ Arizona state specific forms.
• Colorado and Utah rental forms coming soon.
• Less than 60¢/Unit Per Month
• Discounts for Oregon Rental Housing Association members
• Discounts for large apartment complexes and high-volume users
• Industry vendor integration