The Landlord Lens - How To Be a Landlord

Episode Date: April 24, 2025

If you’re new to real estate investing, it’s natural to wonder how to be a landlord. A lot goes into it, and making sure you comply with the law while creating a positive landlord-tenant relationship can feel overwhelming. With the right tools, the process isn’t as challenging as you may imagine. In this video, we’ll cover the steps you need to take to not only be a landlord but be a good one.  

Hi everybody and welcome to another episode of Be a Better Landlord. Are you wondering how to be a landlord? Well, today you're in the right place, especially if you want to avoid a $25,000 fine. It doesn't have to be a complicated process to be a landlord. You just need to get the systems in place and they'll do most of the work for you. And please, please, don't waste your time hiring a property manager

and paying them 10% of the rent to do exactly what software can do easily for yourself. But there still are lots of things. to learn. And there's legal situations and there's overall best practices. So stick around because today we're going to talk about those things and show you how to avoid ending up in court. But really more importantly, we'll talk about how to run a successful business as a landlord. All right, so let's first talk about some of the legal topics. The Fair Housing Act is the most important federal law that all landlords must fall and it prohibits discrimination in the sale, rental, and financing of housing. It prohibits discrimination based on race, color, national origin, religion, sex, family status, disability,

and there's also quite a other few things. You can't say you can't rent to certain people. So if you fail to comply with it, you could face massive fines. That first violation, $25,000. The second one, nearly $64,000. And the third, up to $150,000. And that doesn't include attorney's fees or damages. Plus, depending on the circumstances, you could even face.

criminal charges. Do these fines scare you? Well, they shouldn't. You already have access to some of the best free tools in the industry that will help you avoid those steep fines while streamlining your property management process. Our lease builder will help protect you from making mistakes when signing a lease with your tenant and also make it much more professional and protect your property and in your investment. All right, so let's talk about the most important part about being a landlord, which is finding a tenant. One of the key parts about being a landlord is getting your property seen by potential tenants.

And when you create that description and market your property, you want to avoid any language that could be considered discriminatory. No kids. We only rent to Christians. I prefer bald men with beards because they're the best types of tenants.

These types of language could be discriminatory and you can't say those things in your listing. So use property management software to syndicate your listings to dozens of sites with a single click and manage our own. all your leads, no matter how many there are and where they come from in one single place, TurboTenant provides trained AI to help you write compelling property titles and descriptions

free of discrimination so you can capture the eyes of many tenants and generate lots of leads without getting yourself into legal trouble. Our landlords average 28 leads per listing and can find qualified tenants in less than 30 days for you. Once you find those tenants, it's time for rental applications. Landowners must have a process of fielding applications and doing it digitally can save you a ton of time. Plus, it's an expectation of most tenants to apply online. Avoid discrimination off the bat with a standardized turbo tenant rental application. These are already protecting you from discrimination. It asks industry standard questions, gain an understanding of their rental history, and they're easy to send to leads just using an email or a text. The renter fills out all their

personal information so you don't have to collect any of it yourself and it gets rid of paper once and for all, making your life and the tenant's life even easier. So once you find some tenants that are really interesting and those leads come in and you get some applications, it's time to screen them. A TurboTenet screening report includes a background check, financial review, any eviction histories, income insights. These are all things that the tenant will pay for so it's not a cost to you and it can help protect your property. It's easy to invite them for a tenant screening because you can do it by text or by email and the renter provides sensitive information like a social security number to the platform so you're not collecting

that and storing that in a way that might be putting you at risk. Turbo tenant verifies their identity and then once everything is provided you'll receive a report about their background check and other aspects of the screening process. Another critical part about your landlord journey with your tenant is getting a great lease agreement. One of the most important things to learn when researching how to be a landlord is to make sure you have a legally compliant and thorough lease agreement. Turbotenant provides legally reviewed and compliant agreements for all 50 states and often many cities and counties in those states that have unique laws. They include all the mandatory state required disclosures, landlords must give to tenants when the lease is signed.

Tenants and landlords can e-sign them for increased time savings and convenience. Then they're stored in your dashboard for easy access tied to each of your properties. Don't trust your lease to a random website, those free templates that are given out because they're not updated very often. So use a turbo tenant lease to protect yourself and your property and set the relationship up with your tenant for success from the start. So something I recommend to a lot of landlords, especially new ones with new tenants, is to provide them with a home guide. The rental property business is a partnership between you and your tenant. Treat them like a customer. Give your tenants all the information they need, right away when they move in. Provide them with advice on how to take care of the property.

Provide them with local recommendations, things to enjoy when they live there. If they're enjoying the property, they have a higher chance of taking care of it and protecting your investment. So save yourself time by giving tenants one place to access all that information so that way they have it and they're not emailing you or calling you at odd hours and they can help take care of the property with all the information provided up front. The part that's most enjoyable if done right is rent as a landlord. That's the whole point of doing this is to build a business. So one of the most important parts is collecting rent. And don't use cash because there's so many opportunities for miscommunication, partial payments, things are a little odd. It's an odd paper trail. So I recommend

collecting rent online and saving yourself time and a headache. TurboTenant allows you to set up automatic rent payments with your tenant and also automatic late fees. So that way you don't have to be the bad guy if they're late and it's just part of the process. If you're late, there's a fee. And the best part about it is it's free for landlords to collect rent on TurboTenet. So now you've automated that rent collection process and money is just coming in. Now you need to start handling your books. You know, there's a time when the IRS is going to say, how did you do? And you're going to need clean books when you file in April each year. TurboTenant accounting makes it really simple for you. It's designed explicitly for rental properties and is better than spread

sheets. It automatically tracks rental income for rent payments and you can easily track expenses. It can generate profit and loss reports, balance sheets, cash flow statements, and create all the documents you need for your accountant when it's time to file taxes. So after all this, are you still wondering about how to be a better landlord? Well, subscribe to our channel and you'll get free tips every week on being a better landlord, but even better, go to turbotentad.com and sign up for free because we'll help you every step of the way in your landlord journey with our software and automation and make you a more successful landlord. TurboTenant is the all-in-one platform for landlords to manage their rental properties.

From vacancy to tenancy, we have you covered with industry-leading tools and expert advice. Landlord better from anywhere for free at turbotenant.com.