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Episode Summary
House hacking is the strategy where you buy a property, live in part of it, and rent out the rest so your tenants help cover your mortgage. Kevin and I have never done it. We have recommended it to our three kids for years, and two out of three have already passed. The third is not looking promising either. So when a 23 year old listener in Wisconsin asked us to cover it, we figured we would stop pitching our own kids and talk to all of you instead.
Here is what makes it work, and it is not the rent. It is the loan. Buying as an owner occupant puts you on completely different terms than buying as an investor, on the same building, on the same street. I explain what that actually buys you, along with the promise you make in writing when you take that loan, and why getting creative with it is a genuinely bad idea.
Kevin then ranks the property types by privacy rather than by cash flow, from a fourplex all the way down to renting bedrooms inside your own home. His rule of thumb is the opposite of what your spreadsheet will tell you, and it comes from watching people white knuckle a living situation to save a few hundred dollars a month. It is also, as it turns out, the exact reason our own kids said no.
Then I take financing, and I open by telling you what I am deliberately not going to give you. No percentages, no loan limits, no program rules, because those change and a wrong number in your head is worse than no number at all. What you get instead is the landscape, the one question that tells you whether a lender has ever closed a deal like yours, and the short list of questions to bring to every lender you interview. Kevin follows with the version of the numbers most new investors never run, why reserves are not optional, and what the rent on the first of the month is actually for.
From there we get into the unglamorous parts that decide whether this works. The inspection people skip and regret, plus one Kevin insists on. What separates a legal second unit from an expensive problem. Zoning, rental licensing, HOAs, insurance, and fair housing. Screening when you share a wall, including the story I have been collecting from an afternoon of court TV. Renting to friends. And how to live twenty feet from a tenant without being on call in your own driveway.
By the end you will know whether house hacking fits how you actually want to live, and what to line up before you ever make an offer.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
Your three exit paths in year two, and the tax conversation to have before you buy
What house hacking is, and the four versions of it people rarely think about
Why owner occupied financing, not rent, is the real engine of the strategy
The occupancy promise you make in writing to a lender
How to rank property types by privacy instead of cash flow
Our rule of thumb, and the reason our own kids turned it down
Why we will not quote you down payment percentages or loan limits
The three families of loans that finance owner occupants
The one question that qualifies a lender for this kind of deal
The exact questions to bring to every lender you interview
Why pre-approved and pre-qualified are not the same thing at offer time
How to run the numbers twice, and which version tells the truth
What reserves are really protecting, and why the rent is not your money
The inspection people skip and regret, plus the sewer and pest issues specific to multifamily
Why exterior stairs and walkways are a life safety item
Why permits are the only documentation that counts on a converted unit
What separate metering changes about your leases and expenses
The mold inspection question, and when it is worth paying for
How AI can find the rental clauses buried in a 30 page HOA document
Why a standard homeowners policy may not respond once you have a tenant
The narrow fair housing exemption, and why we tell you not to lean on it
Why screening matters more, not less, when you live on the property
Individual leases versus joint leases when you rent bedrooms
The house rules to put in writing while everybody is still friendly
The systems that keep maintenance out of your driveway and rent out of a cash app
Key Takeaways
1. House Hacking Works Because of the Loan, Not the Rent
An investor buying a straight rental faces a much larger down payment, a higher interest rate, and a bigger reserve requirement. An owner occupant buying that exact same building gets primary residence terms. Same building, same tenants, same street. The only difference is that you are sleeping there. That is why whatever you have saved goes further with this strategy, and why it can put more units under your name earlier than a traditional purchase ever would. The trade is that you actually have to live there. Owner occupied programs require you to move in within a set window and stay a minimum period, and that is a representation you make in writing to a lender. Mortgage occupancy fraud is not a slap on the wrist.
2. Pick the Highest Privacy Option You Can Afford, Not the Highest Income Option You Can Tolerate
A triplex or fourplex gives you the most separation and the most income streams, but those buildings are harder to find, harder to finance, and often older. A duplex is the sweet spot for most first timers. A single family home with an ADU or a converted basement is a good middle ground that is easier to sell later. Renting bedrooms inside your own home produces the most income relative to purchase price and the least peace. The strategy only works if you actually stay, and the person who bails at month seven did not house hack. They just moved twice.
3. Interview Lenders, and Ask One Very Specific Question
Talk to at least three. Include a local credit union or community bank, a mortgage broker who can shop multiple lenders, and one lender your agent has actually closed a multifamily deal with. Then ask each of them how many owner occupied two to four unit purchases they have personally closed in the last year. Not how many mortgages. How many of these. This is a specialty, and a loan officer who writes single family loans all day can miss a requirement that kills your deal after you are already in contract. Referrals matter more here than rate shopping does. And get fully pre-approved, not pre-qualified, before you make an offer.
4. Run the Numbers Twice, Because You Will Not Live There Forever
The house hack version always looks great, because you are comparing the payment to rent and almost anything beats rent. The version that matters is the day you move out and every unit is rented at market. Subtract vacancy, maintenance, capital expenditures, and property management, even if you plan to self manage, because that line tells you whether the deal survives if you ever have to hand it off. Use real quotes for taxes and insurance, since both typically reset when a property changes hands. If that second version still works, you have an investment. If it only survives because you are living there for free, you have a discount on your own housing, and you need to call it what it is.
5. Proximity Is What Breaks a House Hack, Not Money
When you live twenty feet away, the natural friction that protects an off site landlord disappears. Now it is a knock on the door at nine on a Sunday about a dripping faucet. The fix is systems, not attitude. Put maintenance requests through a portal or a dedicated email, define out loud what counts as a true emergency, collect rent electronically so the system charges the late fee instead of you, and spend a little on separate mailboxes, solid locks, labeled storage, and assigned parking. Be friendly, responsive, fair, and a good neighbor. You are still their landlord, not their buddy.
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 11: Inheriting Tenants with Your New Rental Property? Here’s What You Need to Know — named on air, because you inherit those leases exactly as they are written
Episode 20: The Nuts and Bolts of Residential Rental Property Insurance — the start of our two part series on property insurance
Episode 28: The Cash Reserves Blueprint: Protecting & Expanding Your Portfolio — the reserves conversation in full
Episode 32: Our Lease and Addendum Breakdown — the start of our three part lease masterclass
Episode 51: The Hidden Dangers of Using Cash Apps to Collect Rent — why rent does not go through a payment app
Episode 61: Emotional Support Animals — how verification is supposed to work
Episode 63: Owning a Rental in an HOA — what to read before you buy in an association
Episode 75: The Due Diligence and Inspections We Complete Before Buying a Rental Property — the inspections we pay for every time
Episode 83: Fair Housing for Criminal Background Checks — objective screening, applied the same way every time
Episode 128: AI Is Your New Business Partner — including the HOA document trick Kevin mentions here
DoorLoop: The landlord management software we recommend for larger portfolios
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
Avail: Free Landlord Software
Innago: Free landlord software with online rent collection and screening
EZ Landlord Forms: State-specific lease documents, notices, and addendums
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Affiliate Disclosure: This episode may contain affiliate links. Your Landlord Resource may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products and services we believe in.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.
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Episode Summary
Garbage disposals in rentals cost about a hundred dollars, and I have watched that hundred dollar appliance turn into a cabinet replacement. Nobody requires you to install one. So why do we have them in every single unit we own?
Kevin opens with the distinction that decides your response time. A disposal is an amenity. It is not part of the warranty of habitability, and nothing about a working kitchen requires one. But it is wired into your drain line, and there is one specific moment when it stops being an amenity and becomes something else entirely. That moment changes whether this is a Monday problem or a tonight problem, and it ties right back to a conversation we had a few episodes ago.
Then Kevin argues the other side. He gives five reasons landlords skip disposals, and they are not cheap for doing it. One is the service call math. One is a slow, quiet failure that almost nobody catches in time. Two are about the building itself, and if you own an older multifamily or anything on a septic system, you need to hear those before you install another unit. The fifth reason is the honest one, and it is about knowing your own tenant profile. Because garbage disposals in rentals are not a one size decision, and the right answer for our units is not automatically the right answer for yours.
Then I take the part I actually care about, which is the system. We have disposals everywhere and almost no calls about them, and it has nothing to do with what we buy. It is lease language, a unit binder, a short video Kevin recorded, a walkthrough at move in, and one small item taped inside a cabinet door that costs almost nothing and stops more phone calls than everything else combined. Since we put this in place, our replacement rate dropped seventy five percent! I walk you through that math, what a replacement actually costs us, and the buying trick that saves fifty dollars every time.
Kevin closes with what your tenants need to know, because none of this works if the information you hand over is wrong. The “do not put down the disposal” list, and why the first item on it is the worst. Why cold water and not hot. The habit I push on tenants that keeps grease out of the drain entirely. And the one product to tell them never to pour down there.
By the end you will know whether garbage disposals in rentals make sense for your property, and if they do, exactly how to hand one over so it stops generating phone calls.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
– Why a garbage disposal is an amenity and not a habitability item
– The exact moment a dead disposal becomes an urgent problem
– Why built-in appliances are treated differently than the ones you can carry out
– Where wear and tear ends and tenant damage begins
– Five reasons some landlords will not install a disposal at all
– The slow failure that turns a hundred dollar part into a cabinet replacement
– Why shared drain stacks in older multifamily change the answer
– What a disposal does to a septic system over time
– How tenant profile should factor into the decision
– The compromise for landlords who skip the disposal entirely
– What to check in your lease before removing one mid-tenancy, and the clause to delete after
– The four part system we use, and what it costs to copy
– Why the use and care language belongs in an addendum, not buried in the lease
– The small item we tape inside the sink cabinet door, and where it goes on your inspection checklist
– The shop towel trick our contractor uses to catch a leak before it does damage
– The sticker and QR code idea we are adding to every unit
– How we cut replacements by seventy five percent, with the math
– What a replacement costs us and the fifty dollar buying trick
– The horsepower rule for rental grade units
– The complete do not put this down here list
– Why cold water matters more than people think
– The paper towel habit that keeps grease out of your drain lines
– The one product to tell every tenant never to use
– Why a disposal will not raise your rent but still helps you
Key Takeaways
1. Garbage Disposals in Rentals Are an Amenity Until the Sink Stops Draining
This is the framing that matters. A disposal is not part of the warranty of habitability, and nothing about a functioning kitchen requires one. But it is bolted under the sink and wired into the drain line. So, if the disposal dies and the sink still drains fine, that is a routine repair on your normal schedule. If the disposal dies and now there is standing water in that sink, you are not dealing with an amenity anymore. You are dealing with plumbing, and plumbing is very much a habitability item. Same appliance, two completely different response clocks.
2. The Real Cost Is Water Damage, Not the Appliance
These units rust through at the seams as they age, and when they go they do not explode. They weep. They drip into the sink base cabinet for weeks while your tenant stacks cleaning supplies on top and never looks down. By the time you hear about it you have a swollen cabinet floor, maybe mold, sometimes the subfloor underneath. That is why we open the cabinet and look at every inspection and every turnover. Jim does one better. He lays a blue shop towel under the drainpipe and the disposal, and on the next inspection the water marks and wrinkles tell him there is an intrusion problem long before anyone would notice it otherwise. We are hunting the slow drip before it becomes the expensive one.
3. Your Building and Your Tenant Profile Change the Answer
Older multifamily where units share a drain stack means one tenant’s habits back up into a neighbor’s kitchen. Septic systems take on more solids than they were designed for, which means more frequent pumping and a shorter life on the whole system. And if you run Class C or D rentals, the level of hand holding is different. Not worse, just different. If your honest read is that a disposal gets abused no matter what you do, skipping it is a business decision, not a failure. A heavy duty sink strainer is the compromise, and there is no motor to burn out.
4. The System Matters More Than the Brand
We have specific use and care language in the lease, instructions in the unit binder, and a short video Kevin recorded showing exactly how to hit the reset button and clear a jam. When a tenant texts that the disposal is broken, our first move is not to call our handyman. It is to send that video. Nine times out of ten they fix it themselves, because most of the time it is not broken at all. It tripped the overload, or something is wedged against the impeller. Both are a two-minute fix if somebody shows you where to press and where to crank.
5. Seventy Five Percent Fewer Replacements, and Here Is the Math
Before this system we were replacing about one disposal per year. Since we added the use and care instructions, the binder, and the video, we have replaced exactly one in four years. At the old rate we would have expected four over that stretch. We did one. That is a seventy-five percent reduction, and it does not even count the service calls that never happened because the tenant fixed it themselves after watching the video. Those never became a line item at all.
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 59: Determining Wear and Tear Vs. Damage to Your Rental Property — how to handle it when you find damage, named on air
Episode 137: Emergency Maintenance vs Routine Repairs — the urgent versus routine framework we use here
Episode 96: Tips From Our Contractor — everything Jim has taught us over the years
Episode 142: Best Time to Renovate a Rental — why turnover is the window for work like this
Kevin’s Disposal Reset & Jam Video — the exact video we send to tenants and put in every unit binder
InSinkErator Badger 5 — the unit we keep on the shelf, Amazon affiliate link
Disposal Hex Wrench — the backup wrench we keep on hand taped in every unit.
DoorLoop: The landlord management software we recommend for larger portfolios
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
Avail: Free Landlord Software
EZ Landlord Forms: State-specific lease documents, notices, and addendums
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Affiliate Disclosure: This episode may contain affiliate links. Your Landlord Resource may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products and services we believe in.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.
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The best time to renovate a rental is almost never the moment you finally get sick of looking at the kitchen. You can pick the perfect flooring, get a fair bid, and hire a great contractor to install it, and still lose money on the whole thing. Not because the work was wrong. Because the timing was.
Kevin opens with the framing that clears up half the confusion on this topic. There are only two categories of rental renovation, and landlords get themselves in trouble by applying the rules of one to the other. Once you know which bucket you are standing in, most of the hard decisions get a lot easier.
From there he makes the case for the window we use almost every time, and he backs it with three reasons that stack on top of each other. One of them is a cost most landlords never think to count. Then I take the calendar side of it, because rental markets are seasonal, and the best time to renovate a rental usually sits right inside your slowest months. I also get into why your own leasing history beats any general rule you will read online about the best time to renovate a rental, including ours.
Then there is the part where you do not get a choice. We had a bathroom flood in Chico, and there is no version of that where I sit down with a seasonality chart. That leads into the livability conversation, and one question I flag rather than answer, because I truly cannot answer it for you. What I can give you is the phone call to make before you ever need it.
Kevin also tells you about the Idaho unit, where we learned that the best time to renovate a rental and the right reason to renovate one are two separate questions. Three weeks of work, most of it the two of us on our hands and knees, and we did not get enough of a rent bump to justify any of it. We would still do it again, and the reason is worth hearing before you spend a dollar on your own place. Plus the three week vacation that became the best renovation window we have ever had, what actually fits into a one week versus an eight week timeline, and the appliance we refuse to buy anymore.
By the end you will know how to pick the best time to renovate a rental you own, and whether your next project is a business decision or a preference. Both are allowed. You just need to know which one you are making.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why the best time to renovate a rental is almost never the day you decide to
- The two categories of rental renovation, and why mixing them up costs you money
- Why tenant turnover is the single best renovation window, in three stacking reasons
- The cost of working around a tenant that never shows up on a bid
- How the off-peak season play turns weak vacancy days into free renovation time
- How to pull your own leasing history and find your real peak season
- What basic livability rules mean in the middle of a renovation
- The hotel question nobody can answer for you, and the two things to do about it
- The one insurance call to make long before a repair ever displaces a tenant
- What actually fits into a one, two, four, and eight week timeline
- How to calculate the ceiling on what any renovation can earn you back
- When to DIY, when to hire out, and the jobs you should never touch
- The appliance we stopped providing entirely, and the reason why
- What to know about smart devices before you install a single one
Key Takeaways
1. The Best Time to Renovate a Rental Is During Turnover
If you take one thing from this episode, take that. An empty unit is dramatically cheaper to work in, because a crew can drop their tools, spread out, and leave the mess overnight. In an occupied unit, every single day ends in pack up and clean up, and you are paying for all of it. Turnover work is also close to free vacancy, since you were going to have the unit empty anyway. If your standard turn is one week and the renovation takes three, you did not lose three weeks of rent. You lost two. That is the number that belongs in your spreadsheet.
2. Your Own Leasing History Beats Any General Rule
Everyone will tell you the best time to renovate a rental is the slow season. Fine, but which months are slow where you own? Go pull three to five years of your own leasing history and look at when applications spiked and when units sat. That is your peak season. Everything else is your renovation window. Because a general rule falls apart fast in a snow market, a college town, or the desert in August.
3. Some Repairs Are Not a Decision at All
Nearly everywhere in this country there is some version of a rule that says a rental has to be livable. Working plumbing, running water, a functioning toilet and shower, heat, working electrical. So if a repair takes the only bathroom in the unit out of service for any real stretch of time, you have moved past inconveniencing somebody. Whether you owe that tenant a hotel depends entirely on where your property sits, and that is a question to answer before you need it, not during.
4. The Best Time to Renovate a Rental Still Has to Pencil Out
Look at what the top of your local market is actually renting for right now, not what you hope it rents for, and compare it to what your unit rents for today. The gap between those two numbers is the ceiling on what a renovation can earn you, and you will never capture all of it. If that gap is a hundred dollars a month and the project costs twenty thousand, you are looking at more than sixteen years to break even on rent alone. That does not mean do not do it. It means do it for the right reason.
5. DIY Saves Labor and Costs You Time
Who swings the hammer changes the best time to renovate a rental, because it changes how long the unit sits. If a crew would take one week and you would take three, ask what two extra weeks of vacancy costs on that unit. On a four thousand dollar a month rental, that is two thousand dollars. If hiring it out costs less than the difference, you are not saving money by doing it yourself. You are paying for the privilege, which is allowed as long as you know that is what you are doing. And there is a short list you should never touch regardless of skill, starting with anything that needs a permit.
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 91: We Renovated 2 Out-of-State Units, Would We Do It Again? — the full Idaho story
Episode 117: Why We Installed Smart Locks (And Would Do It Again) — before you add any smart device
Episode 96: Tips From Our Contractor — everything Jim has taught us over the years
Episode 139: Landlord DIY vs Hire Out — the four-question filter for what to handle yourself
Episode 137: Emergency Maintenance vs Routine Repairs — what is urgent and what can wait
ENERGY STAR Rebate Finder — enter your zip code to find local utility rebates before you price a bigger efficiency upgrade
DoorLoop: The landlord management software we recommend for larger portfolios
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
Avail: Free Landlord Software
EZ Landlord Forms: State-specific lease documents, notices, and addendums
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Affiliate Disclosure: This episode may contain affiliate links. Your Landlord Resource may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products and services we believe in.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.
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Rental appliance repairs are one of those decisions you never actually make. You just get ambushed by it. The refrigerator quits at nine o’clock on a Friday night. The dishwasher waters the floor instead of the dishes. The washer starts walking across the laundry room like it owes somebody money. And there you are, phone in hand, wondering what your policy actually is.
That was me with our very first rental. We inherited the original appliances from the previous owner. They were white, which was very early 2000s, and they were cheap, but they did the job. Right up until the refrigerator didn’t. I freaked out a little, because I could not tell you whether that was our problem or the tenant’s, and I honestly did not know what our lease said about it either.
Here is what I wish somebody had told me sooner. You have more than one option. Landlords handle appliances about five different ways, and most of us never look at four of them.
We start by breaking appliances into three tiers, because what tier something falls into changes everything that comes after. Then I get to the rule that hangs over the first two tiers, which is refreshingly simple and catches a surprising number of landlords off guard. Kevin follows with the legal piece, kept deliberately short, because your answer depends entirely on where your rental sits and not on what works for us in California. He gives you a twenty-minute homework assignment that will settle it for your own market.
Then Kevin gets into tenant-provided appliances, which is the option people ask us about the most and handle the worst. There are four things to put in writing before that appliance comes through the door, and the third one is the one nobody thinks of until two in the morning when it becomes very expensive.
I come back with the line that decides most repair calls, which is normal wear and tear versus tenant misuse, and more importantly how you prove which one you are looking at. I read you the actual exceptions in our lease addendum. I also answer a follower who wrote in asking how to word an addendum for the washer and dryer she provides, including whether a short warranty window is worth offering.
Kevin closes with all five options laid out side by side, told honestly, including how each one fails. One of them looks like it saves you money and quietly costs you more. Another one only works on certain appliances and will not save you at all on the ones that matter.
By the end you will know which of the five you are actually running right now, which is more than most landlords can say.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- The three tiers of rental appliances, and why the tier decides the answer
- Why appliance decisions are a comps question, not a national one
- How every appliance is a marketing asset and a maintenance liability at the same time
- The one rule that hangs over your kitchen core and your expected extras
- Why a lease that is silent about appliances never works in your favor
- The implied warranty of habitability, in plain English
- A twenty-minute homework assignment that settles your state’s rule
- Why a lease clause pushing habitability repairs onto a tenant will not hold up
- The four things to put in writing before a tenant’s appliance comes through the door
- The tenant-supplied clause that turns a repair into a water damage claim
- How to prove tenant misuse instead of just deciding it was their fault
- The exceptions we spell out in our own lease addendum
- How to word an addendum for a washer and dryer you provide
- All five options for handling appliance repairs, and how each one fails
- Why the repair deductible can cost you more than it saves
- When to repair, when to replace, and the one time you ignore the math
Key Takeaways
1. Rental Appliance Repairs Start With One Simple Rule
If you provided it, you maintain it. That covers the stove, oven, and refrigerator, and it covers the dishwasher, built-in microwave, and garbage disposal too. If it was sitting in that kitchen when your tenant walked through on move-in day, it is part of what they agreed to rent. It got priced into the rent whether you thought about it that way or not. So when it dies of old age, that is your bill.
2. A Silent Lease Is Not a Win
The mistake we see most often is a lease that says nothing about appliances at all, and a landlord who assumes silence means it is the tenant’s problem. Silence almost never works in your favor. When your lease does not take a position, the default fills the gap, and the default is that whatever you handed over working, you keep working. Therefore, if you want a different arrangement, you have to write it down. And it has to be legal where your property sits.
3. What You Include Is a Comps Question
I cannot give you a national statistic on what percentage of rentals include a washer and dryer, and I am not going to make one up. But you do not need a national number, because this is a local decision. Pull ten active listings in your neighborhood, at your price point, in your property type. Whatever eight of them are doing is your market standard. Furthermore, remember that every appliance you add is both a marketing asset and a maintenance liability, so decide on purpose rather than by accident.
4. Tenant-Provided Appliances Need Four Clauses, Not One
Most landlords write down the easy one, which is that repairs are the tenant’s problem. Then they stop. You actually need four. Ownership, so it is clear the appliance belongs to the tenant. Repairs, which is the obvious one. Damage the appliance causes, because a washer hose that lets go at two in the morning is not an appliance repair anymore, it is a water damage claim, and this is why renters insurance matters so much here. And move-out, because otherwise that appliance gets abandoned in your garage and becomes your disposal problem.
5. Wear and Tear Is Yours, Misuse Is Theirs, But You Have to Prove It
A compressor that dies at year twelve is a lifespan problem, not a tenant problem. Misuse, abuse, and neglect are a different story. However, you do not get to decide it was their fault simply because you do not want the bill. Your evidence is your repair tech, who can tell you flat out whether that drum failed on its own or whether the washer has been loaded like a clown car for two years. Get it in writing on the invoice, because that is what makes this a conversation instead of a fight.
6. There Are Five Options, and Each One Fails Differently
You can supply and cover everything, which is the most common approach and what we do. You can use an as-is clause, which genuinely works on non-essentials and will not save you at all on a stove or refrigerator where those are habitability items. You can use a repair deductible, which stops the light bulb calls and also stops the calls you actually want. You can charge an appliance amenity fee, provided that is permitted where you operate. Or you can go tenant-supplied, which costs you the least and narrows your applicant pool the most. Most importantly, pick one on purpose and write it into your lease.
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 128: AI Is Your New Business Partner, how to use AI to search your own lease
Episode 131: Landlord vs Tenant Maintenance Responsibilities, who handles what
Episode 137: Emergency Maintenance vs Routine Repairs, what is urgent and what can wait
CPSC Recall List: The federal recall database, worth checking against your appliance model numbers
EZ Landlord Forms: State-specific lease documents, notices, and addendums
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
DoorLoop: The landlord management software we recommend for larger portfolios
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Affiliate Disclosure: This episode may contain affiliate links. Your Landlord Resource may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products and services we believe in.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.
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If you’ve ever felt like filling a rental vacancy is chaos — a flood of messages, no-show showings, applications missing half their paperwork — this episode is your landlord vacancy checklist. We break down the exact process we follow every time, from the moment we place the ad to the moment someone walks through the door, plus one bonus step that happens after.
Key Takeaways
• A clear, detailed ad lets prospects pre-qualify themselves before they ever contact you — saving everyone time.
• Photos are communication, not decoration. Well-lit photos of every room set honest expectations.
• Prescreening comes before every application or showing, with the same questions asked in the same order, every time — that consistency is what protects you.
• Income and credit standards should be set once and applied evenly to every applicant. Fair, consistent, and documented is the whole game.
• Move conversations off the listing app and onto text or email once you’re ready to schedule a showing.
• Scheduling showings back to back creates natural urgency, and a first-come, first-qualified policy keeps things fair.
• A one-hour confirmation text before every showing all but eliminates no-shows.
• A simple, unrushed walkthrough lets the property sell itself.
• A property information flyer sends prospects home with everything they need to remember and apply.
• A 24-hour follow-up text after the showing tells you quickly who’s actually interested.
Want the full system, including every script and template? Get on the waitlist for From Marketing to Move In at https://yourlandlordresource.com/m2mwaitlist/
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 124: Shop Talk — The Importance of Rental Property Photos
Join the waitlist for From Marketing to Move In
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Affiliate Disclosure: This episode may contain affiliate links. Your Landlord Resource may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products and services we believe in.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.
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The landlord DIY vs hire out decision is one you make constantly, usually in the worst possible moment. Something breaks. You are standing there with your phone in one hand and a YouTube tutorial in the other, running the math on whether you can handle this yourself. I have run that math wrong more than once. Sometimes it cost me a Saturday. Once it cost a whole lot more than a Saturday.
The idea for this episode came straight from one of you. A listener wrote in and asked, basically, what should I be doing myself and what should I be paying somebody else to do? I will be honest; it was a vague question. Kevin said so out loud. But that vagueness is exactly what makes it worth an episode, because it is not one question at all. It is a maintenance question, a legal question, a bookkeeping question, and underneath all of it, a question about whether you want to be a property manager in the first place.
Kevin starts with the filter we actually use, four questions that take about ten seconds to run. The first one is a hard stop that ends the debate before it starts. The fourth one is the interesting one, because it pushes back against the first three, and it is the reason we still do plenty of things ourselves that we could easily pay someone else to handle.
Then I go through the five things we keep under our own umbrella no matter how buried we get. One of them is not really a task at all, and it is the one I would fight hardest to protect. Kevin follows with his list, and his is simpler: spend the money. Licensed work, life-safety work, and anything where doing it wrong shows up months later instead of the same week. He also gets into evictions, a 2025 change to California’s process that caught a lot of landlords off guard, and something about holding property in an LLC that removes an option you might assume you have.
Finally, the piece our listener did not quite ask about. Whether you should be self-managing at all. There is a middle lane between doing everything and handing over the keys, and most landlords have no idea it exists. I walk through how to buy management in pieces, why a lot of companies will push back when you ask, and what our own team actually looks like, including the hourly rate that keeps us honest about how much we DIY.
By the end you will have a filter you can run on the very next thing that breaks, instead of a rule you have to keep second-guessing.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- The four-question filter we run before every DIY vs hire out decision
- Why “can I figure this out on YouTube” was never the right question to ask
- The permit rule that ends the debate instantly, and the one exception to it
- How to weigh downside risk instead of comparing price tags
- The five jobs we keep in-house no matter how busy life gets
- Why the approve-or-decline decision on a tenant should never leave your hands
- How not knowing your numbers makes the hire-out question impossible to answer
- What we always pay for, and the insurance exposure when you DIY it instead
- The 2025 California change that doubled a tenant’s response window
- Why an LLC removes your option to represent yourself in court
- How to hire property management Ă la carte, and why managers resist it
- What our team costs us, and why that makes us better DIYers
Key Takeaways
1. Landlord DIY vs Hire Out Starts with One Hard Stop
Does the job need a permit or a licensed trade? If yes to either, you are done deciding. Permitted work gets inspected, and it follows the property. It surfaces in an insurance claim, in an appraisal, and eventually at the closing table when you sell. Do not create a paper problem to save a few hundred dollars. If you are not sure whether something needs a permit, one call to your local building department settles it before you start rather than after. Naturally, if you are a licensed contractor who owns rentals, this is a different conversation entirely.
2. Ask What It Costs to Get It Wrong, Not What It Costs to Hire
Most of us compare the invoice to our Saturday. That is the wrong comparison. Look at the downside instead. A switch plate you install crooked costs you nothing but your pride. A water heater you strap wrong costs you a flooded downstairs unit and an insurance claim. Same afternoon, wildly different risk.
3. Some Jobs Are Cheap to Hand Off and You Still Should Not
Kevin’s fourth question pushes back against the first three: would hiring this out put a stranger between you and your tenant, or between you and your money? Who gets approved to live in your property. Who your tenant calls when the sink backs up. Whose account the rent lands in first. In Idaho we are lucky to see our rent by the tenth, and often it is closer to the fifteenth. That is the cost nobody quotes you up front.
4. Your LLC Changes What You Can Do in Court
This one catches people who did the smart thing and put their property into an entity. In California, an LLC or corporation cannot represent itself in a court of record. It has to appear through a licensed attorney, and that has been settled law since 1978. Our Sacramento six-plex is held in an LLC, so if we ever have to file, our first call is our lawyer whether we feel like it or not. Add to that Assembly Bill 2347, effective January 1, 2025, which extended a tenant’s response window from five days to ten court days. Weekends and court holidays do not count toward that. One defective notice and you start over, having already lost weeks of rent.
5. Self-Managing Is Not All or Nothing
There is a middle lane. Some companies will do tenant placement only, marketing and showing and screening, then hand you a signed lease while you take over day to day. Or flip it: place your own tenant because nobody is pickier than you are and pay someone to handle rent collection and the after-hours line. That version works beautifully for out-of-state owners. Expect pushback though, and expect to pay a premium, because a manager who did not screen your tenant cannot really stand behind them.
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 3: Spring Maintenance Checklist
Episode 109: Fall Maintenance Recap
Episode 14: Building Your Maintenance Team, Pt 1
Episode 15: Your Office Operations & Business Team, Pt 2
Episode 16: Is Holding Your Rental Property in an LLC Right for You?
Episodes 39–40: 50+ Must Ask Questions When Hiring a Property Manager
Episode 88: Should Landlords Get Their Real Estate License?
Episode 96: Tips from Our Contractor
Episode 137: Emergency Maintenance vs Routine Repairs
DoorLoop: Landlord software for larger portfolios
TurboTenant: Landlord software for newer landlords
EZ Landlord Forms: State-specific lease and notice forms
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Affiliate Disclosure: This episode may contain affiliate links. Your Landlord Resource may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products and services we believe in.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.
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If you want to collect rent on time, the first thing I’d ask you to do is stop thinking of it as something you chase. I know that sounds like a platitude. Stay with me for a second, because it genuinely changed how we run our properties.
When landlords come to us frustrated about late rent, they almost always describe it as a people problem. My tenant is irresponsible. My tenant doesn’t respect the lease. And sometimes that’s true. But in our experience, the overwhelming majority of late rent is not a character issue at all. It’s a systems issue, and that system might be on the tenant or it might be on you. That distinction matters, because you cannot fix a character problem. You can absolutely fix a system problem.
Here’s the story that taught us this one. We had a tenant who paid on the first of every single month, without fail. Set up her autopay herself, completely conscientious. And her money kept landing in our account on the fifth or sixth. Technically, by our lease, she was late. But was she? In her mind she paid on the due date. In her bank’s mind the transfer was still in progress. Kevin gets into the fix we made and why it was a communication problem, not an enforcement one.
We also spend real time on late fees, and I’ll admit this is where I have to tell on my younger self. Years ago we restructured a late fee and ended up collecting a few hundred extra dollars a month from one tenant for years. At the time I genuinely called it free money. Kevin walks through what we understand now about how California actually judges a late fee, including a case where a landlord’s fee got thrown out, and the single question you should be able to answer before you write a number into your lease.
Then we flip to the carrot, which almost no self-managing landlord uses. There’s something you can offer your tenants that costs you close to nothing and that they genuinely want. There’s now a California law attached to it too, and the exemption language surprised me when I checked it against our own portfolio.
Plus, the four lease clauses that quietly do most of the work, a six-month mistake that cost nothing to fix and everything to notice, and why our software has to be able to say no in a moment when we might not.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a list of things you set up once, rather than a task you repeat every month.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- Why most late rent is a design problem you can fix, not a character problem you can’t
- The three payment methods we won’t accept, and what we use instead
- Why cash apps like Venmo and Zelle create a legal problem you won’t see coming
- The float between “sent” and “received,” and how it turns good tenants into late ones
- The four lease clauses that specifically drive on-time payment
- Why a five-day grace period doesn’t create a cushion, it moves your due date
- What California actually requires of a late fee, and the test to run on your own
- Why you should think twice before putting late fees into a pay-or-quit notice
- How rent reporting works as an incentive, and who AB 2747 actually covers
- Our full invoice and reminder schedule, dates included
Key Takeaways
1. To Collect Rent on Time, Fix the System, Not the Tenant
Autopay that never got set up. A bank that takes six business days to clear an ACH transfer. An invoice going to an email nobody opens. A tenant who believes rent is due on the fifth because that’s what your grace period taught them. None of that is a bad tenant. That’s a leaky system, and a leaky system is something you can actually go fix.
2. Know Your Float, and Put It in the Lease
An electronic payment can take anywhere from one to seven business days to land, depending on the platform and the banks involved. That gap is where good tenants start looking like late ones. Go look up how long your platform actually takes to settle instead of guessing. Then write it into the lease and say it out loud at signing.
3. Define What “Paid” Means
Our lease says rent must be received by the first to be considered on time. Received. Not postmarked, not initiated, not “I hit send.” If your lease doesn’t spell this out, you will lose the postmark argument, and you’ll lose it repeatedly. Pair it with a deliberately short grace period, because a five-day grace period doesn’t give your tenant a cushion. It teaches them rent is due on the fifth.
4. California Doesn’t Cap Late Fees. It Applies a Standard.
There’s no maximum number written into California law. Instead, your late fee has to be a reasonable estimate of what the late payment actually costs you, and in a residential lease the burden sits with the landlord to justify it. So, here’s the test: if you had to stand in front of a judge and explain how you arrived at that number, could you? If the honest answer is that it seemed like enough to motivate them, that’s a penalty. Check your own state, because this is the most state-specific topic in the whole episode.
5. Use the Carrot, Not Just the Stick
Most of us only penalize. There’s no upside at all for the tenant who pays on the first for thirty-six straight months. Offering to report their on-time payments to a credit bureau hands them something with real financial value, in exchange for the exact behavior you already want. Under AB 2747, holding property in an LLC does not by itself put you on the hook. The statute requires at least one member of that LLC to be a corporation.
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 28: The Cash Reserves Blueprint: Protecting & Expanding Your Portfolio
Episodes 32–34: Our Lease and Addendum Breakdown, A 3-Part Masterclass
Episode 49: Analyzing Credit Reports for Tenant Selection
Episode 51: The Hidden Dangers of Using Cash Apps to Collect Rent
Episode 87: Essential Communication Methods Every Landlord Should Know
Episode 128: AI Tools for Landlords
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
Innago: Completely FREE landlord management software
RentRedi: Management software that syncs with QuickBooks Online
DoorLoop: The best landlord management software for larger portfolios
Rental Kharma: Rent reporting built for tenants with thinner credit files — your listeners get $10 off the setup fee with our link LLResource25OFF
QuickBooks Online: What we use to invoice our own tenants
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
*This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a very small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you purchase from here. These small commissions are to benefit our business so thank you for your support.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
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It’s 9:40 on a Tuesday night, your phone lights up, and the toilet in your rental is leaking. Do you get in the car, or do you go to sleep and call your plumber in the morning? Emergency maintenance requests are the one call almost every self-managing landlord gets wrong at least once, and here’s the frustrating part: you can get it wrong in both directions.
Move too slowly and a $15 dollar supply line becomes subfloor, drywall, cabinets, and possibly the unit below. Kevin shares what that cost us at a vacant property, and the number still makes me wince. However, moving too fast on everything carries its own price. If you send a repair person out, you’re paying after-hours rates on a running toilet, you’re burning out your maintenance person, and worst of all, you’ve quietly taught your tenant that a dripping faucet and a sparking outlet deserve the same phone call.
Read more: Emergency Maintenance Requests: Urgent or Not?In this episode, we’re handing you the three-tier framework we use to sort emergency maintenance requests across our own portfolio. Tier one is to drop everything. The second tier is to act within twenty-four to forty-eight hours. Tier three is sometime this week, guilt-free. We give you our actual lists for each one, including a tier one item that isn’t dangerous in the slightest but still gets us moving.
Most importantly, we get into the piece almost nobody talks about. The item does not set the tier. The context does. Plus, why it is important to understand your state and local law on habitability violations.
We also share two stories from our own buildings, the four things we set up long before the phone ever rings, and a simple trick involving your phone and a QR code that has saved us more repair calls than anything else we’ve tried.
By the end of this episode, you’ll have a framework you can write into your lease, hand to your tenants at move-in, and stop second-guessing at bedtime.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
• The two-part test we run before deciding whether anything qualifies as a true emergency
• Our full tier one list, from gas and carbon monoxide to a unit that can’t be secured
• The tier one item that isn’t dangerous at all, and why we go anyway
• What lands in tier two, and the jurisdiction question you need to answer about hot water
• Why the same broken toilet is a next-day call in one unit and a same-day call in another
• Why tier three still gets a same-day acknowledgment, even when the repair is days away
• The middle move between driving over right now and telling them to wait four days
• The four things we set up at move-in so the after-hours call goes smoothly
• How to build a QR code linked to your own how-to video, and why it works
Key Takeaways
1. Sorting Emergency Maintenance Requests Starts with A Two-Part Test
An emergency is anything that threatens life, health, safety, or the structure itself AND gets meaningfully worse with every hour you wait. Both halves have to be true. If they are, you move now regardless of what the clock says. That test is doing more work than any list you could memorize, because it travels with you to situations your list never anticipated.
2. The Item Doesn’t Set the Tier. The Context Does.
This is the whole point of the episode. A clogged toilet in a two-bathroom unit is a next-day call. That same clogged toilet in a one-bathroom home is not. Air conditioning out in mild weather is tier two; at a hundred and eight degrees in Sacramento with an infant in the unit, it’s tier one. Same broken part, different household, completely different answer.
3. What California Law Actually Requires
Civil Code 1941.1 spells out what has to be functional in a rental: heat, plumbing, hot and cold running water, electrical, and weather protection. Civil Code 1942 then presumes thirty days is a reasonable time to make a repair, and that number gets misquoted constantly. It’s a ceiling for routine items, not a target, and the statute itself says it doesn’t stop a tenant from acting sooner when circumstances require it. A gas leak does not get thirty days. As always, check your own state and city, because these rules vary enormously.
4. There’s A Middle Move Between “Driving Over Now” And “Wait Four Days”
When a tenant’s bidet project left him without a working toilet in a one-bathroom unit, we didn’t drive two hours, and we didn’t tell him to wait. We coached him through a workaround on the phone that got him to morning. A bucket under a slow drip. Manually filling a toilet tank. A cooler with ice for a dead fridge. That call costs ten minutes and buys everybody a night of sleep.
5. Set It All Up Before the Phone Ever Rings
Put your definitions in writing with response times attached, not just “call us for emergencies.” Give tenants one after-hours number and be explicit that fire, gas, and carbon monoxide go to 911 first. Route routine requests through software so everything is time-stamped. And teach every tenant where the water shutoffs are at move-in, then back it up with a video and a QR code in the unit binder. Tenants want to be self-sufficient. Give them the chance.
Episodes & Resources Mentioned In This Episode
Episode 8: Our Best Tips for a Smooth Tenant Move-In
Episode 123: Landlord Systems: The Unit Binder
Episode 131: Landlord vs. Tenant Maintenance
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
Innago: Completely FREE landlord management software
RentRedi: Management software that syncs with QuickBooks Online
DoorLoop: The best landlord management software for larger portfolios
California Civil Code 1941.1 (habitability standards)
California Civil Code 1942 (repair and deduct) Â
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
Affiliate Disclosure: This episode may contain affiliate links. Your Landlord Resource may earn a commission if you purchase through our links, at no additional cost to you. We only recommend products and services we believe in. These small commissions are to benefit our business so thank you for your support.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.Â
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So, the lease is signed, the confetti’s basically falling, and then… what? If you’ve ever found yourself scrambling three days before move-in trying to remember whether you actually collected the security deposit, this episode is for you. Kevin and I are walking you through exactly what to do after a tenant signs their lease, starting with the money you need in hand before you ever hand over a key, and the one rule we refuse to break, no matter how much we like a new tenant.
We’re also getting into our pre-move-in walkthrough process, including a California law that changed how many photos we now take of every single unit, and why it’s actually in our best interest, even though it felt like a hassle at first.
Plus, I’m sharing what’s actually inside our welcome email and our tenant unit binder, the small welcome gift we leave for every new tenant, and a story about a garbage disposal habit that cut our repair calls almost to nothing.
And toward the end, we give an honest, unsponsored rundown of the landlord software platforms people ask us about most, so you can decide what’s actually worth paying for.
Hit play, because by the end of this episode, you’ll have a repeatable process for everything that happens between signing day and move-in day.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- The exact order of operations for funds, documentation, and rent setup after a lease is signed
- The one rule we never break, no matter how much we like a new tenant
- Why California now requires landlords to photograph every unit before, during, and after a tenancy
- What’s actually inside our welcome email and tenant unit binder
- The simple habit that’s cut our garbage disposal repair calls to almost nothing
- An honest, unsponsored comparison of Innago, TurboTenant, DoorLoop, and RentRedi
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 8: Our Best Tips for a Smooth Tenant Move-In
Episode 26: Welcome Gifts — Why They’re Important for Your Rental Property Business
Episode 67: Renters Insurance — What Every Landlord Needs to Know
Episode 123: Landlord Systems — The Unit Binder
FREE Move-In / Move-Out Inspection Form
BLOG: 10 Things Tenants Need to Know at Move-In
BLOG: The What and Why of Move-In and Move-Out Inspections
Innago: Completely FREE landlord management software
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
RentRedi: Management software that syncs with QuickBooks Online
DoorLoop: The best landlord management software for larger portfolios
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
📱 Follow us on Instagram, Facebook, & join our private Facebook group
🎧 Listen & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or your favorite podcast app
*This post contains affiliate links. We may earn a very small commission (at no additional cost to you) if you purchase from here. These small commissions are to benefit our business so thank you for your support.
Estimated reading time: 3 minutes
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If you have ever stared at a lease wondering whether you need a lease addendum vs new lease entirely, you are exactly who this episode is for. It is one of the questions Kevin and I get asked often, and it makes sense why. The wrong call does not just feel messy; it can leave your paperwork unable to hold up when you actually need it to.
In this episode, we walk through the simple test we personally use every time something changes mid-lease, whether that is a new pet, a new fee, or a tenant situation nobody saw coming. We share a few of our own stories along the way, including a routine mold inspection that turned up something unexpected in a supposedly empty closet, and the time complete strangers tried to rent one of our units with zero intention of ever actually living there.
We also pull back the curtain on where Kevin and I personally get our own leases and addendums from, and we give an honest, unsponsored rundown of the landlord software platforms people ask us about constantly, so you can decide what is actually worth paying for.
By the end of this episode, you will have a clear, repeatable way to know exactly which document to reach for, every single time something changes.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- The simple test we use to decide between an addendum, an amendment, and a brand-new lease
- The difference between changing a term that already exists in your lease versus adding a completely new one
- Real examples of when an addendum is all you need, including pets, utility fees, and subletting rules
- Why a routine inspection once turned into a lease decision we did not see coming
- The near miss that almost turned one of our own units into a full time Airbnb, and the insurance detail every landlord should know about short-term stays
- When a rent increase, a security deposit change, or a new lockout fee only needs an amendment
- When occupancy or timeframe changes means you need to redo the lease completely
- Why getting this distinction wrong can cost you in front of a judge or with a confused tenant
- Where we personally get our own leases and addendums from, and what it actually costs
- An honest, unsponsored breakdown of the landlord software platforms people ask about most
Key Takeaways
1. Lease Addendum vs New Lease: The Simple Test We Use
Our rule of thumb is this: if you are adding something that was not in the original lease, like a new pet policy or a new utility fee, an addendum is all you need. If you are changing a term that already exists, like the rent amount or the security deposit, that is an amendment. And if the relationship or the financial terms have changed enough that a judge would need real effort to piece the story together from your original lease plus an attachment, it is time to write an entirely new lease.
2. Addendums Handle New Rules Without Touching What You Already Signed
We cover real examples from our own properties, including a pet addendum we personalized for a tenant’s new cat, and a utility fee addendum we rolled out when we started billing tenants for a portion of water, sewer, and garbage costs. We also share a story about a near miss with a couple who wanted to rent one of our units purely to sublet it on Airbnb, and why that pushed us to start offering midterm rentals ourselves.
3. Amendments Update What’s Already There, Redoing the Lease Starts Fresh
Sometimes you are not adding something new, you are changing a number or a rule that already exists, like raising the rent to offset a higher insurance premium. That is an amendment. But when the occupancy or the timeframe of the agreement itself changes, like a guest becoming a permanent roommate or a tenant’s child turning eighteen mid-lease, we walk through why that calls for a completely new lease instead.
4. Where We Actually Get Our Own Leases and Addendums
Kevin and I pull our own leases from the California Apartment Association, a paid membership that gives us far more than templates. We also talk through what to look for in a state or local rental housing association if you are outside California, and when it makes sense to simply pay a real estate agent to draft the lease for you. From there, we give an honest comparison of Innago, TurboTenant, RentRedi, DoorLoop, and ezLandlordForms, including which ones we actually use ourselves.
Legal Disclaimer: Nothing in this episode constitutes personalized legal or financial advice. Always consult a licensed real estate attorney or CPA for guidance specific to your state, city, and situation.
Links & References Mentioned in This Episode
Episode 32-34: Our Lease and Addendums Masterclass (starts at EP32)
Episode 115: Our New Utility Fee Breakdown
Episode 129: Should You Allow Smoking in Your Rental
Episode 130: Guest Policies — What They Are, Why They Matter, and How to Actually Enforce Them
Episode 22: The Pros and Cons of Renting to Pet Owners
Episode 61: Fair Housing and Emotional Support Animals (ESAs)
Episode 108: Navigating Reasonable Accommodation Requests
Innago: Completely FREE landlord management software
TurboTenant: Great landlord management software for newer landlords
RentRedi: Management Software that syncs with QuickBooks’s Online
DoorLoop: The best landlord management software for larger portfolios
EZLandlordForms State specific leases and addendums, over 400 forms available!
California Apartment Association Where we get our landlord forms
Connect with Us:
🌎 Visit our website
📧 Subscribe to our newsletter.
👆Click this LINK to select from our FREE Landlord Forms and Doc’s
🤳Text Us SMS text to 650-489-4447. We love questions and love letters, hate mail not so much!
đź“©Email us at: Stacie@YourLandlordResource.com, Kevin@YourLandlordResource.com
✔️Course Waitlist: From Marketing to Move In, Place Your Ideal Tenant
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