Top 10 Pitfalls That Landlords Should Avoid

Posted by Tristan R. Pettit, Esq. in AASEW, Notices, Screening Tenants, Rental Agreements, Rental Documents, CCAP, Seminars, Property Management, Rejecting Rental Applicants / Comments

Those of you that missed the last AASEW membership meeting on Monday, April 15, 2013, missed a great meeting and a great presentation.  The featured presenter was John "Dr. Rent" Fischer, a Wausau-area landlord and rental property manager, who spoke to a packed house that Monday.  John's presentation was dynamic, educational and at times pretty darn funny.

With John's permission, I am providing you with a link to John's handout from the meeting which was entitled "Top Ten Pitfalls That Landlords Should Avoid."

Like any good Top 10 list (a la David Letterman), John presented these pitfalls in reverse oreder based on importance.  The pitfalls to avoid included:

10.  Mailing the 5 Day Notice

9.  Digging The Hole Too Deep

8.  Incomplete Applications

7.  Not Asking The Right People (about your rental applicant)

6.  Auto-Renewing A Lease

5.  14 Day Notice (or NOT)

4.  "Do-It-Yourself" Leases or Rental Forms

3.  Misuse of CCAP

2.  Carpet Cleaning

1.  That Lease is HOW LONG?

As John stated during his presentation, there are a lot of things that are beyond our control that make life as a landlord very difficult at times.  As such, we certainly do not want to make life more difficult for ourselves based on a lack of knowledge of landlord-tenant laws . . . unless we are masochists, that is.

The AASEW has another great meeting scheduled for May 20, 2013 at 7 pm at the Best Western Midway in Brookfield about "How To Finance Real Estate Transactions In The Current Economy."