Main Menu, Landlord Protection Agency homepage

Membership With The Landlord Protection Agency

Landlord Newsletter September 14, 2010

The LPA Newsletter
September 14, 2010

Dear Fellow Landlord,

Enjoy the newsletter ... and thanks again for supporting The LPA!

In this issue:

How to Screen Before Spending $ Credit Reports
Ask the Attorney,Real Estate Attorney, John Reno
Landlord Tips by RE Author and Property Manager Lambert Munz
FREE FORM DOWNLOAD: The Rental Deposit Receipt
The Latest Rent Excuses

Please e-mail us if you have any questions or would like to add or share any material / information.
John Nuzzolese
John@theLPA.com

***********************************************
Quick Check Credit Reports, Inc

How to Screen Before Spending Money
on Credit Reports

The Landlord Protection Agency® suggests the following steps to take before spending the money on a consumer credit report:

Pre-screen your prospects before showing the rental. It eliminates unnecessary appointments and saves you time. Use a free LPA Pre-screening Prospect card.
After showing the rental, have your interested prospects fill out and sign an LPA Rental Application. Be sure to collect a non-refundable screening fee and deposit as provided for in the application.
Verify the employment and tenant references contained in the application. Use LPA Landlord Reference Qualifier form to evaluate the legitimacy of the landlord reference.

Lastly, if you feel confident the tenant passed all your screening inquiries so far, then run a credit report with a major credit bureau to review the prospect's credit history on the payment of bills, delinquencies, address history, employment history and judgments.

***********************************************

Ask the Attorney

The Landlord Protection Agency® is proud to introduce John Reno, Esq., a highly experienced Landlord - Tenant attorney based on Long Island, NY.

John Reno also does Mortgage Loan Modifications (Nationwide).
(Mention The LPA for a 10% discount!)

If you have a landlord tenant problem you'd like to ask a question about, please feel free to e-mail me your question.
Submit a landlord / tenant question for Mr. Reno
Please try to keep your questions as short and to the point as possible.

Dear Mr. Reno:
My tenant wants to baby sit four children five days a week. I am worried about insurance liability not to mention damage to my house. My lease does not address this so whwer do I stand?
Carla, Alabama

A: Well as a general rule, if your lease doesn't prohibit it, then that means your tenant can do it, so now it's an insurance question which I'm not qualified to answer. You could send a certified letter to your carrier and advise them. They'll ignore it, but you'll have proof you notified them which may come in handy if an incident arises.

***********************************************

Free Download!

Rental Binder & Deposit Receipt Form

This is one of the popular Rental Binders used by many Realtors. Similar versions of this form are used by landlords and real estate agents across the US. Many people actually use it as a basic rental agreement! It's not really meant to be a rental agreement or rental application, but is a pre-contract form used as a binder receipt to show an offer has been made with an earnest money deposit. Upon written acceptance of the offer by the owner/agent of the rental, it becomes a binder, whereby it is agreed that the rental will not be rented to anyone else before the agreed lease signing date. When not using the LPA Rental Application, this form is especially helpful to rental agents who collect their real estate commission from the tenant because it provides for a written agreement of the rental commission.

***********************************************

Landlord Tips

By Lambert Munz MPM, RPM, Arbour Real Estate Mgmt, Inc.

Author of House Investor's Manual Lambert Munz, MPM, RPM, Arbour Real Estate Mgmt, Inc.

QUALIFYING PROSPECTS
When qualifying tenant prospects here are some tips to consider.
1. After you ask a question. BE SILENT. If they don’t answer, don't help them to say something. They may hate the silence and tell you something they had not intended to tell you.
2. Ask open ended questions. The key words are "Who, What, When, Where, Why, and How." No question with these words included in it can be answered yes or no.

INSURANCE
1. New landlords should increase their rentals to $500,000 of liability. Perhaps should consider an umbrella policy.
2. When converting to a rental-personal property loss may no longer be needed.
3. Perhaps consider loss of rents. When unit is vacant over 30 days, coverage is limited. A 90-day vacancy clause should be considered- costs a little more. Owners with pools will have additional costs.

Interested in a relaxing Hawaiian getaway?
Please check out HawaiianVA.com My wife, Judy Munz, Hawaiian, is director of this site. Everyone needs a vacation including landlords. - Lambert Munz

***********************************************

Tenant Excuses

"I know I promised to start paying on time, but it is not as easy as it sounds. It's like quitting smoking or biting my nails. It is hard to change my habits." OK, just keep paying those late fees. You're the one teetering on eviction every month. - Nikki M., NY

"I will not pay rent until you replace that noisy refrigerator. It keeps me up all night." I've heard the fridge and it is not loud. The tenant's unapproved dog makes more noise. I have sent the LPA Lease Violation Notice. - Carman S., NV

***********************************************

Quick Check Credit Reports, Inc. is proud to announce its affiliation and partnership with The LPA in helping landlords protect their interests by better screening tenants at lower costs!!

NO sign-up or set-up fees,
NO membership fees,
NO compliance fees
Just lower prices!

Special Tenant Screening Discounts for LPA members. See our price list!

***********************************************

FREE LPA Gift with Book Purchase!

Click here to order Dani Babb's Book,The Accidental Landlord

Fellow LPA Member, Dr. Danielle Babb is a national real estate expert and author of the new Landlording Book, "The Accidental Landlord".

Get your copy now... with a FREE BONUS! from theLPA.com

Not only is Danielle Babb one of our county's most knowledgable real estate anylists, she also shares excellent landlord information and advice in her book, "The Accidental Landlord". Plus she's a super nice person! - John Nuzzolese

***********************************************

FREE BONUS - FORMS DISK
comes with all 2 - 5+ year LPA Memberships
Be a more powerful landlord - able to handle just about any landlord / tenant situation in a professional way, saving you time and money.
ALL FREE with LPA Membership!

Yes, this offer also applies to LPA membership renewals!
Having all the forms all on disk is a handy time saving convenience.

***********************************************
NEW SITE FEATURE: PICTURES!
Worth A Thousand Words!
The LPA's Rental Advertising division,"Landlord's Corner" allows you to include up to 6 pictures (thumbnails and full size pictures) in each rental ad.

(UNLIMITED FREE ADS come with LPA membership!)

LPA members: FREE!

***********************************************

LPA Membership Expiring?
Take Advantage of the Renewal Prices!

How to Check your LPA Membership Expiration Date:

Be logged in with your LPA username & password
On the "Main Menu" (top right), click on "Your Orders" (right below your name)
The beginning date of your membership will be listed to the left of your membership order # in this format: YYYYMMDD

NEW! Save Money with our Promotional Membership Renewal Prices! *Your Membership Expired? No Problem!

***********************************************

Electronic Rent Collection

LPA members have been asking me for a while now about how to set up automated rent payments with their tenants. I'd like to bring your attention to ClearNow, the leader in electronic rent collection. ClearNow enables you to have your rent automatically withdrawn from your tenant's bank accounts and directly deposited into your bank account.

If you haven't done so already, please check out