Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants [Paperback]

Janet Portman Attorney Attorney Attorney Attorney Attorney Attorney Attorney (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 1413308643 | ISBN-13: 978-1413308648 | Publication Date: July 8, 2009 | Edition: Second Edition

Helps landlords and property managers screen and choose tenants. Gives them the legal and practical information they need. Residential landlords will find the answers they need to pick the best tenants possible

Editorial Reviews

Review

Authoritative in an easy-to-read style, chock full of forms, icons and highlighted boxes, written by a legal expert. (Mark Nash 20080202)

"At last, the long-needed, ultra-complete guidebook every residential landlord should have to find and select quality tenants." (Robert Bruss, syndicated real estate columnist 20080202)

"Offers balanced advice on the topic, shedding light on both the legal and practical aspects of finding great tenants." (Los Angeles Times 20080202)

"Covering all the angles, this book is a must read for landlords before handing out the keys to their investment." (Helene Lesel, syndicated real estate columnist 20090101)

"Pairs business and legal advice for those who own or manage rental property.... Helps readers with everything from conducting an open house to screening tenants without engaging in discrimination." (Library Journal 20090101)

Pairs business and legal advice for those who own or manage rental property.... Helps readers with everything from conducting an open house to screening tenants without engaging in discrimination. (Library Journal 20090101)

Offers balanced advice on the topic, shedding light on both the legal and practical aspects of finding great tenants. (Los Angeles Times 20090101)

How you choose your tenants is one of your most important decisions. Here's an extensive and helpful reference book. (Rent.com 20090101)

Includes sample scripts to help you learn what to say and not to say, in particular when handling objections, avoiding discriminatory statements, and dealing with questions about competing properties. (RussWhitney.com 20090101)

At last, the long-needed, ultra-complete guidebook every residential landlord should have to find and select quality tenants. (Robert Bruss 20090101)

Janet Portman is an effective, lucid communicator whose latest work is an understandable, thorough roadmap for landlords -- and for tenants looking to get a leg up on the competition. (Tom Kelly )

Covering all the angles, this book is a must read for landlords before handing out the keys to their investment. (Helene Lesel )

About the Author

As Nolo's managing editor, Portman oversees editorial work on all Nolo books. She specializes in residential and commercial landlord/tenant law, legal issues related to courts, landlords and tenants, and neighbor disputes. She is the author or co-author of Every Landlord's Legal Guide, Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants, Every Tenant's Legal Guide, Renters' Rights, Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business, Leases & Rental Agreements, The California Landlord's Law Book and California Tenants' Rights. Portman received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University and a law degree from Santa Clara University. Before joining Nolo in 1994, she practiced law as a public defender.

Product Details

• Paperback: 470 pages
• Publisher: Nolo; Second Edition edition (July 8, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1413308643
• ISBN-13: 978-1413308648
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 6.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #133,602 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #8 in Books > Law > English Law > Landlord & Tenant
  • #32 in Books > Business & Investing > Real Estate > Law

More About the Author

As Nolo's managing editor, Janet Portman oversees editorial work on all Nolo books. She specializes in residential and commercial landlord/tenant law, legal issues related to courts, landlords and tenants, and neighbor disputes. She is the author or co-author of Every Landlord's Legal Guide, Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants, Every Tenant's Legal Guide, Renters' Rights, Negotiate the Best Lease for Your Business, Leases & Rental Agreements, The California Landlord's Law Book: Rights and Responsibilities, and California Tenants' Rights. A nationally syndicated columnist with Inman News, Portman's column, "Rent It Right," appears regularly in the Boston Globe, Los Angeles Times, and other prominent newspapers and websites. Portman received undergraduate and graduate degrees from Stanford University and a law degree from Santa Clara University. Before joining Nolo in 1994, she practiced law as a public defender.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent reference for the landlord's biggest chore, August 7, 2009

By 

Scott FS (Sacramento, CA United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants (Paperback)

(What's this?)

I suppose I'm one of the best persons to review this book because I've been a landlord for 30 years. I concur with the idea stated in this thorough, exhaustive book that the choice of your tenant is the most important one you'll make when you decide to rent out a house. I can tell you from first-hand experience that you will meet and do business with all kinds of people, from the woman who moved the bed into the living room for the space, and used the bedroom as a port-a-potty for her multiple cats, to the nice couple with two children who lived in your house for several years doing well, until the husband started using drugs, began beating his wife, keeping his kids in rags, getting fired from multiple jobs, and finally having to be evicted. Then there are the joyous tenants who work with you to keep the house in tip-top shape because, well, it's where they live and they like to live in a nice environment. And when they leave you are left with nothing to do but to change the locks and hang up the 'For Rent' sign up. (Sadly in the minority.)

'Every Landlord's Guide...' comes from the solid publishing house of Nolo Press, who has found a profitable niche in providing generalist legal guides on all subjects, including how to be a landlord, how to hire people, how to be a good neighbor and how to resolve disputes in a neighborly way. They even have a book on how to evict bad tenants, which I unfortunately had to purchase for my druggie tenant. Took a while to get him out, too.

As it's written by a lawyer, the book could be faulted only in that is it depressingly complete. The author wants everything written down, including interview sheets, tenant evaluation sheets, tenant telephone call sheets, credit sheets, application checklist sheets, a rehearsed script for your answering machine, etc etc. I suppose this is what you want to have if you are unfortunate enough to go to court, but I don't think the average person is that obsessive. I will tell you that I am not, and I've done OK over the past 30 years.

However, author and attorney Janet Portman probably loves clients who do all of the legwork to make her task of suing bad tenants easier. And she properly brings up the ridiculous folks who want to sue at the drop of a hat, claiming discrimination over everything. I don't mean racial and the like, I mean the number of people per bedroom (there are laws covering that) Americans with Disability Act modifications (who pays for what for modification) etc. These are called protected classes and unless you want to make your life miserable, you have to play by the rules. Not hard. But posting my non-discrimination poster at my home where I do my work but tenant never see? A bit much. Appropriate for an apartment house, but not for the small-time landlord. Of course, you can just use what applies to you.

Am I glad I got this book? Yes. I thought I knew everything about landlording, but I've learned a few things from the book, always the sign of a helpful tome, one worth buying. And if I was just starting out, I'd run out and get this book even before I bought my first rental property. Know what you are getting into! It's not always an easy business. (Did I tell you about the woman who wanted me to come out to her house to change every light bulb when it burned out???) Or the woman who stapled black construction paper on every wall and ceiling in the bedrooms? (I think I was pulling staples out of that house for years afterwords). Or the troubled 14 year-old girl who spray-painted obscenities all over the inside of the house she liven in with her grandmother? (Four coats of paint to hide all of that.)

Highly recommended. This is a reference work that can be used in bits and pieces as needed, or read completely through, and then marked up with notes on the parts that seem most important to you. This one is a keeper!

14 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars "the best desk reference for any landlord" The Midwest Book Review, January 18, 2007

By 

Litocracy "reviewer" (San Francisco, ca) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants (Paperback)

The following is from a review published in

REVIEWER'S BOOKWATCH
January 2007

...EVERY LANDLORD'S GUIDE TO FINDING GREAT TENANTS [is] designed in a reader friendly format, full of icons, shaded call-out boxes, sample forms, and checklits. Easty-to-read tables outline state-specific laws on returning security deposits and showing notices, to name a few. From apartment makrketing programs, how to show a rental, fielding and screening calls, and chekcing references, no step in the process is left out and all procedures are drilled down to the bottom line.

Ms. Portman brings an expert's perspective on the law, but don't thinkt hat this is a dry read. Engaging text sprinkled with bullet points, graphics, and clever caution points, make this the best desk reference for any landlord. Perfect for the experianced but exasperated landlord [or] the freshly mined, this is a must-have rental resource.

...comes with a hand CD-ROM for on-the-go landlord. The CD has files of all forms featured and discussed in the book, as well as sample landlord-tenant conversations. Nothing has been left of out this complete guide and the format makes it simple to focus on a particular theme, and revisit others on a when-the-time-comes basis.

...This book is a solid ten and highly recommended to building pwners, 1031 Exchange Qualifying Intermediaries, real estate editors and educators, leasing and rental managers, real estate agents and brokers.

29 of 35 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Worth getting for the forms on cd-rom, November 3, 2006

By 

Elladrell, LLC (Saint Louis, MO) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Every Landlord's Guide to Finding Great Tenants (Paperback)

I find the forms included with the book on cd-rom to be very useful (they are included as both PDF and RTF files--you can edit the RTF files in any word processor.

However, the book itself is mostly 'duh', and what it does say it repeats. The book could easily have been 100 pages shorter. Almost all of what the book says can be found in more concise form in a good book on landlording (such as Leigh Robinson's book 'Landlording'). Also, the legal issues of finding tenants and not discriminating are better addressed in Nolo's "Every Landlord's Legal Guide".

So while this book is worth getting for the forms, it offers little information in the book itself that is not better said elsewhere.