Hopefully this is the right category. Im going to be signing a lease to rent a house this week. Are there any special things to do for it being a house versus an apartment? Im having my attorney look over the lease. I will be doing a detailed pre-move in inspection with signatures and whatnot. What else am I missing…or is it pretty much the same as apartment rentals?
how would it be any different besides not having any other tenants under your roof?
having a lawyer look over a residential lease is a little bit overkill if you ask me, but hey different strokes
is this like a rent-to-own type thing or just an annual rental?
My father is my attorney…I wouldn’t pay for that service but for free, why not. I don’t see how it would be any different than an apt but I don’t claim to know a thing about real-estate. Just want to cover all of my bases before I dive into it.
Just an annual rental. Id never do a RTO .
Who mows the lawn and shovels the snow?
Me. Already discussed who provides the mower as well.
<— is a renter out here in SLC; We’re on our 2nd place since we moved (First place turned out to be in a rougher part of town and with a landlord who didn’t give a shit; but it served it’s purpose).
Differences are really only in maintenance/upkeep. IE: Mowing the lawn, trimming the bushes, plowing/shoveling the driveway, etc. I have/had agreements with both my landlords about repairs (Anything small under $50 I just notify them via TXT or VM, and fix it. Include the receipt and deduct it from rent.) Something like this is great for both parties, but also requires some trust between the people.
Otherwise, I’d say they’re very similar except more $$, no upstairs/downstairs neighbors. Very similar to owning a house, except the repairs are part of the rent.
Be sure to get plenty of Renters Insurance though; Both property replacement and liability. We’ve got a 500000 liability/75000 property with an earthquake rider out here in SLC.
If you’re handy you might also be able to work out some repairs for rent arrangement with the owner. When we were renting a house I would fix minor things that went wrong and get the cost of supplies plus an agreed upon amount of labor off the monthly rent.
Good that you already cleared up the mowing/plowing. I had an old coworker who rented a house and just expected the lawn and driveway to be taken care of like an apartment. Guess he didn’t bother reading the lease very well.