Landlord University

Collecting rent is one of the toughest parts of being a landlord, and many are seeking out new and better ways for electronic rent collection to make it easier for everyone. In this episode of Night School, we'll chat about how landlords might use electronic payment services, like PayPal and Dwolla, to aid in collecting the rent.

Being a property owner is a business and landlords need to focus on the quality of customer service they are delivering to their "customers." In this episode of Night School, we'll talk about customer service as a landlord and ways to avoid the reputation of a bad landlord.

Getting background information on an applicant is one of the most important things a landlord can do to predict what kind of tenant they will be. In this episode of Night School, we'll go over how to perform a proper verification phone call and share some tips on making the most of them.

Cigarette smoke has proven to be one of the more destructive things to affect a property and other tenants over time, and many landlords want to know what they can and cant require when it comes to smoking. In this episode of Night School, we'll review the legal requirements of a smoking ban and what landlords need to do to implement and then enforce it.

Renting to college students can be good and bad for landlords with rental property in a college town. In this episode of Night School, we'll examine the unique conditions landlords should prepare for when renting to college students, as well as other tips on background checks, lease agreements and more.

Bryan founded Property Stick in 2012 in Minneapolis, and along with his brother Jeff, have been involved in the real estate world since 2007. With experience in both commercial and residential properties, they started Property Stick as truly a better way of analyzing income properties. As a cloud based platform, Property Stick is designed for both small landlords and real estate professionals to easily understand property analysis and add value to the buying process.

Renter's insurance protects the tenant's property in the event of a problem, such as a water leak, act of nature or robbery. However, many landlords aren't sure if they can require renters to purchase insurance or not. In this episode of Night School, we'll review what requirements landlords can legally make regarding renter's insurance and why it's a good idea for tenants to carry a policy.

One of the most telling factors in whether or not an applicant will be a good tenant is their eviction record. However, eviction records can be particularly hard to find. On this episode of Night School, we'll look into the who, what, where, why and how's of digging up eviction records for rental applicants.

A co-signer for a tenant can really bring a landlord peace of mind because there's a financial backup in case the tenant can't or won't pay. But what kind of background check should landlords do for co-signers? On this episode of Night School, we'll review what information landlords need on co-signers and discuss exactly what kind of screening should be done.

An applicant's criminal history can tell a lot about what type of tenant that person will be. There are several different ways to look at an applicant's criminal history and how that might affect a landlord's rental property. In this episode of Night School, we'll go into detail about tenants and criminal records and why this part of tenant screening is so important.

Proper tenant screening is important step in making sure landlords know exactly who it is they are renting to, but what happens when an applicant lies on a rental application. In this episode of Night School, we'll take a look at the motivations for applicants to lie and some ways that tenant screeners deal with red flags on rental applications.

There are a number of reasons why a landlord may decide to deny an applicant, and there's more to it than simply notifying an applicant about the bad news. On this episode of RentPrep’s Night School, we’ll take a closer look at key steps and critical information that landlords must be aware of when denying an applicant.

From a broken window to holes in the wall to destruction that totals thousands of dollars, the damage tenants can do to a rental property is a landlord's worst nightmare. On this episode of RentPrep's Night School, we'll examine some of the strategies that landlords can use to deal with destructive tenants, plus review the importance of SODA forms.

Passive aggressive tenants can cause plenty of stress for landlords, from maintenance requests to creating problems with other tenants. On this episode of RentPrep's Night School, we'll provide helpful tips on spotting passive aggressive tenants and how to avoid them.

One of the downsides of being a landlord is the constant contact from tenants, from simple notification for maintenance to immediate emergencies. On this episode of RentPrep's Night School, we'll discuss some good strategies for setting up contact plans for tenants to communicate issues to landlords based on the need.