I've seen various rental lengths sought by people renting out properties. Some have been as short as month to month right off the bat, while others have required a full two year commitment at signing.

I'm curious, for those in the renting business, what is your preferred time to rent? What are the upsides and downsides for that choice? How did you come to that conclusion?

For the two extremes I mentioned, it seems a M2M arrangement would make it easier to adjust rent based on the market, while locking in an agreement of two years guarantees that monthly rate for that time.

They request the home be professionally cleaned and carpets professionally vacuumed.

I had a tenant vacate my rental unit after 2 years. Prior to them moving out, I reminded them to leave the unit in "broom swept" condition. However, when I visited the vacated unit, I came across a unit with dirt/debris on the floor, stains inside the fridge and microwave, stains on the toilets, soap scum on a shower door, etc. etc. I ended up hiring a cleaning service to clean the place for $393 and took it off the security deposit. The tenant called me threatening to take me to small claims court claiming that they did leave the place in "broom swept" condition and everything else is normal wear and tear.

These tenants were the first tenants to rent the place after a major renovation after which I did hire professional cleaners prior to them moving in (I have pictures). So they can't make the argument that they left the unit in the same condition as when they moved in.

Small claims court is a pain in the butt, but I don't want to fold, so I would appreciate a few more pairs of eyes to take a look at the pics and let me know what you guys think.

EDIT: I used a "NJ Standard Lease", which is a template created by the NJ Assoc of Realtors, so there aren't any special provisions around "broom clean" but yes, what is "broom clean" has been determined by common law rather than a specific legal definition voted into law by the state legislature.

I am in a frustrating situation with my landlord in Utah and need some advice/validation on my next steps. He said he would "'work with me", but he is just being tricky and trying to take my money entirely at this point.

The Background

• Tenancy Length: 5 years and 8 months.
• Current Lease: Month-to-month.
• Current Rent: $1,050/month.
• Security Deposit: $1,050 currently held by the landlord.

The Timeline & The Problem

I recently got an out-of-state job and gave a written 30-day notice on August 10th stating I will vacate the property by September 10th.

• September Rent: Per the lease agreement, there is no mid-month proration. I accept this and am paying the full $1,050 for September on the 1st.
• The Landlord's Plan: The landlord emailed me admitting he plans to keep the house vacant for 15–25 days in September after I leave to do his own planned upgrades and repairs. He is also hiking the rent to $1,400 for the next tenant (which scared off a friend of mine who wanted to rent it).
• The Threat: Because it is the "off-season," he texted me saying he won't return my security deposit until he finds a new tenant. He implies that if the house sits empty into October, he will deduct that "downtime" from my deposit.
• The Carpet: He is also threatening to deduct for a carpet stain. The carpet is at least 6 years old (older than my tenancy).

My Understanding of Utah Law

1. October Liability: My 30-day notice satisfies Utah Code § 78B-6-802. My lease officially terminates on September 30th. He cannot legally charge my security deposit for October vacancy—especially since he is choosing to pull it off the market for 3 weeks to renovate.
2. Carpet Value: Under Utah Code § 57-17-3, landlords cannot charge for normal wear and tear. Per HUD guidelines, a rental carpet has a 5-year useful life. This carpet is 6+ years old and legally has a financial value of $0.
3. Exclusive Possession: Since I am paying full September rent, I legally own exclusive possession of the house until September 30th. He cannot start remodeling early without my permission.

My Proposed Strategy

I am tempted to tell him that since he refuses to guarantee the return of my deposit, I will not hand over the keys early on September 10th. Instead, I will hold the keys until September 30th at midnight. This completely collapses his renovation timeline and blocks his crew from entering.

I will offer him an ultimatum: I hand over the keys early on the 10th only if he signs a written agreement guaranteeing my $1,050 deposit back in full (minus a flat fee for general cleaning since I am short on time to deep clean).

My Questions for Reddit

• Am I legally solid here to withhold the keys until September 30th since I paid the full month's rent?
• Can he use the "downtime" clause in the lease to charge me for October even though my month-to-month contract is legally terminated on Sept 30th?
• How should I handle the lack of a move-in walkthrough sheet from 5 years ago if he tries to claim property damage?

Property is 2b, 1.5bath, washer/dryer in unit, with 1 car garage. $3,000/mon

Tenant reached out after we sent them first lease renewal(no increase) and requested a rent decrease. All he said was rent has decreased in the area (Massachusetts-metrowest). He did not present comps, nor negotiate any specific amount so we are unsure of what to respond. A quick search on Zillow, Trulia and Rent.com shows that we are fair market, we could possibly do a $50-100 decrease a month.

Their history: They have paid on the 1st every time. For background, we cleaned carpets, repainted the whole place and fixed some leaks prior to them moving in. The wife was expecting and dealing with allergy issues and not being able to sleep in her last trimester so the tenant reached out after 1month of moving in complaining that there was animal urine still in the carpets to which we immediately understood and changed the whole carpeting (bedrooms, hallway and stairs). Downstairs is all laminate vinyl so that was untouched. No issues or complaints since.

But I am not sure what to do. Offer a small reduction ($25-50) or value their payment and non-issues to keep them longer ($100)?

Edited to add that we’ve been hit with $1700 from HOA on upcoming projects that they want to fund (roof, siding and deck). Plus I just paid $1700 today for a new skylight as HOA also requested since roof is being redone.

I've been a long time Bigger Pockets forum member, and I can remember a time when legitimate discussion took place and I honestly learned a lot there. But if you go on there now it's literally just bots talking to other bots. I posted a question recently and got 3 cookie cutter answers that I could have easily gotten myself from Claude.

I'd love to find an online community where I can connect with actual humans with real-world experience investing in real estate. Is it just Reddit at this point? Is there some other cool forum I might be missing?

Long story short I’m renting an apartment to 4 people -they’re all friends. One person wants to leave (no idea what drama occurred or why they want to leave). They said they will continue to pay rent until they find someone to take over their spot. Well, the person they found has terrible credit (450) and makes $800 a month. Rent is $650. There’s ONE tenant who pays me all of the rent because I guess the other room mates pay him. Is it illegal to talk to the tenant who pays me rent in full and just say I’m concerned about the credit score and ability to pay rent regarding the new potential tenant? Or is that illegal? I wouldn’t discuss actual numbers but I have to somehow prep my existing tenant because I’m not sure if he has any clue about this new potential room mate. If this new room mate says he can’t pay, it’s going to cause issues for everyone.

First time landlord here. My tenant is setting up rent payment via bank transfer. I provided him routing and account number. He just emailed that his bank is going to make two small deposit into my account, and I will have to tell him the deposit amounts for verification. My questions are, is this going to allow him to pull money from my account? Is there a different way of money transfer without linking my account to his? I am trying to figure out a reliable and safe way for both of us.

Located in the City of Los Angeles.

Two units house hispanic tenants. The third unit has had some rowdy visitors who yell at the tenants in the other two units with threats to call ICE.

Does anyone know what can be done about this?

I’m quite stressed and wanted to ask if I’m really that screwed in my future rental applications because there is a specific apartment complex I’m eyeing and it would be my dream to move in there but also asking in general.

Since I’m applying to large complexes managed by a company maybe a landlord that works with a company could help me understand what you see in the screening process.

At my last apartment which was a run-down place without the best communication they sent me to collections for $200, for damages. Never knew about it until I got an email from debt collectors

I paid the debt once I found out but it is still on the reports regardless.

My credit score is 785, I have no late rent payments, 4 years rental history, fully paid off credit cards each month, I make 3x the rent, and I have enough liquid assets under my name to pay off 2 years of the lease upfront if I wanted to.

I am very nervous that this collections debt on my reports will ruin my chances of renting anywhere mostly afraid the automated system will automatically decline my application.

Is there anything I could do to help? I’d offer to pay double security deposit, I’d show mt bank statements, but if I’m auto rejected can I do anything?

Sucks that I could potentially be ruining chances over 200 bucks that I paid off!

Thank you

A prospective tenant applied with his mother through a popular online rental platform. The platform pulled credit and background checks on both of them.
Mom has an 800+ credit score, completely clean background, and submitted a paystub showing about $80K YTD income. Son is around 20, makes approximately $20/hour, and has a credit score in the low 600s. Their combined income is well above our requirement, and with Mom’s pristine credit, on paper we have no problem renting to them.
Here’s what is giving me pause.
Mom didn’t come to see the property because she says she’s traveling. They apparently lived in a house that was sold last week, but she hasn’t been able to provide payment/mortgage history for it. I also haven’t been able to independently verify her employment or current living situation.
Some of the questions she’s asked make her sound very new to the rental process, which could make perfect sense if she’s been a homeowner for years.
My suspicion is that Mom may simply be helping her son qualify and doesn’t actually intend to live there. Honestly, that by itself wouldn’t bother me as long as everything is disclosed and she understands that she would be legally responsible under the lease.
What I’m more concerned about is making sure she really is who she says she is and that this isn’t a situation where a young adult is using a parent’s information without their full knowledge—or some other form of family identity fraud.
Everything that came back through the platform looks legitimate and exceptionally strong. There are just enough little things I haven’t been able to independently verify to make me hesitate.

Would you move forward based on the credit/background reports and income documentation, or would you require additional verification first? What would you ask for?

After being a landlord for 25+ years. It is quite common for tenants to move out leaving a mess, and of course they do not want to pay for cleaning it after they are gone.

On the other side of the coin, you have tenants who want to cry if the place isn't clean when they move into a rental and expect you to pay someone to clean it.

Now we all have clauses in our lease about carpet cleaning, and cleaning fees and what not.

I'm tired of it, so I'm starting to think about just being blunt about it and just telling people, "I have yet to have a tenant leave it clean when they move out. Cleaning is the tenants responsibility, if you want it clean upon move in, I'm willing to allow entry a few days prior so that you may do so rent free. I won't be charging you to clean it when you move out."

Then it becomes a matter of how willing are the tenants willing to screw over the next tenant. What do you all think?

EDIT: I think u/Secret_Ad1372 came up with the perfect solution.

The safest way for me to go about doing this is finding a tenant first, give them 60 days to move in and I find another primary house in 60 days.
Is this a typical way to do it? Are renters OK with waiting 60 days before moving in?

I assume they have to lock in 1 year lease for me to be safe

Chicago landlord. Tenant e-signed the lease Wednesday night, move-in is tomorrow, and I’ve got zero dollars in hand — no deposit, no first month’s rent. Excuses so far: “I’m traveling,” then “the funds didn’t go through, let me check.” Nothing’s landed.

Where do I stand? Is a signed lease with no payment still enforceable against me, or can I treat it as a failed deal and re-list? If I re-list and they show up tomorrow with a check, am I exposed? And what’s the cleanest way to set a firm “certified funds by X or the lease is void” deadline without tripping Chicago RLTO rules?

Trying to move fast without creating liability. Appreciate any IL-specific input.

Update - No keys given until all cash is received
Update 2 - I only take Zelle
Update 3 - I emailed the tenant to pay by 5 pm Aug 31 or I will relist. Also emailed a real estate attorney who practices contract law and litigation for a consultation.
I will provide this group an update tomorrow how it unfolds.
Update 4 - Slept well knowing options. Thanks y’all. No communication from tenant - nothing. 5 pm deadline expired. Will start showing tomorrow. Huge lesson learnt! Thanks all 🙏🏼🙏🏼. This community is a life saver, seriously. My real estate attorney no longer deals with individual residential properties. Any recommendations on a good Chicago RLTO attorney will be greatly appreciated.

I recently saw a post about a Section 8 tenant deliberately running up a massive water bill and refusing to let the landlord in to check or fix it. When the owner tried to update the lease so the tenant had to pay for water, the housing authority basically told them too bad, increases not allowed, and forced him to non-renew the tenant.

This is the exact reason so many landlords refuse to deal with Section 8, and honestly it has nothing to do with the tenants themselves.

The main issue is the housing authorities. Most of these bureaucratic agencies are run by people who have zero real estate experience. They enforce rigid, one-sided policies that leave property owners completely unprotected when someone decides to be spiteful or cause damage, while at the same time often paying under market rate rent.

If these government programs actually protected landlord rights half as much as they protect tenants, housing availability would skyrocket. But until they fix the system, most owners are just gonna keep opting out. People want blame the 'evil landlords' for not taking vouchers, but maybe blame the bad actors making it impossible for the rest of us to stay in the program.

According to the lease agreement, the maintenance of the landscape and the upkeep is tenant responsibility. They now ask me to reimburse as the mulch will be benefiting property as it is a landscaping material.
Worth saying that they just renewed the lease for another year.
Should I reimburse?

[Landlord US-WA]

So, I’m in Washington state and have a lodger type situation. I own the townhome I live in, and I’ve rented out the two spare rooms, with their own bathroom. The garage, living room, kitchen, and back yard are all common areas. Anyway, it’s her and her daughter plus their cat, $900/month all inclusive. She is a single mom, and a year ago she was escaping a situation that I was informed could go badly, hence the “good deal”. Anyway. I deployed for 10 months, it was supposed to be 6, and the day I come back, I find that her two sons (she has custody of during the summer) were living there too, as was her mom for a while, and a cousin. And her new fwb or whatever was staying over multiple times a week. This is multiple violations of her lease. And she was 2.5 months behind on rent. Things were still amicable, and she was working on solutions to catch up on the rent. Her mom and cousin left after a few days. The kids went back to their dad. I didn’t make that big of a deal about it. But this week, I served her notice that I’m going to terminate her lease on November 30 (in Washington, leases go month to month after their fixed term ends unless another agreement is reached). Her lease technically ends tomorrow. But when I served that notice, all HELL broke loose. Anybody deal with somethin similar? My main concern is she won’t pay the rent she still owes ($1,900 total) and also might not pay future rent (I’m not, and she knows this, holding her to rent through November 30. If she moves out on September 3, for instance, I’ll prorate September’s rent) and she won’t fix the damage her kids did to the house. And if I want to take her to small claims court after the fact, I’ll need to know how to find her, or an address to serve her at. And me being a bigger dude and her being a single mom, I know this could get VERY touchy, at least if she were to try and start somethin. So I’d like to avoid that. Just looking for advice.

Hi all, I am planning on leaving the country in a few months due to an emergency. My current lease agreement goes on until mid 2027. I need to break this lease but my understanding is that if I do I will be responsible for the rent either until the lease ends or until they find a new tenant.

My question is , would it be possible to work out a deal where I pay 2 months in advance and we agree to terminate?

Follow up question - if my landlord refuses to work out a deal, It says on the lease that he can terminate my lease under certain conditions like disorderly conduct or endangering the safety of others. So does this mean if I smoke a cigarette in the lobby every day he will eventually terminate my lease for free?

I also don't care about my credit score so if all else fails and he takes this to court and wins a decision, I will be in another country , what can he do?

So I have this tennant who’s been living in my house for 7 months now. And quite frankly he’s a pain. For the first two months I got my rent on time since then he hasn’t been on time once. He got divorced and his wife moved out and I’m convinced she was the responsible one and why their rent history was good. He usually ends up paying and eventually bit I don’t think he ls getting caught up this time

The rent is 1700/ month plus the utilities he refuses to switch over plus late fees which I will not waive due to his history ( 100 flat fee plus 10 a day) at this point I just want him out because I’m tired of him and it’s always going to be a fight and I think eventually eviction is what it will come to

So here’s my question he’s currently at 2082 for this month which he told me today he doesn’t have but working on it. Do i start eviction now or do I wait till September 6th so I can put more money on the total basically ensuring he can’t pay. The goal is I need him out as soon as possible. Plus I’m not getting a court date till next month anyway

Looking for perspectives from fellow landlords on appropriate agency boundaries in New York State.

We hired an agent to list a rental property while the current tenants were finishing their lease. Part of the agent’s role was coordinating access and walkthroughs with the tenants.

A few things made me question where the professional boundaries should be:

In his very first text to the tenants requesting access on our behalf, the agent also offered to represent them in their own housing search. He repeated that offer later.
During an ongoing dispute between us and the tenants, the agent encouraged us to give them favorable rental feedback, including saying we would rent to them again. That was absolutely not our actual experience, so we found this inappropriate.
When we asked for the communications relating to access, the agent provided partial screenshots. When we asked for the complete exchange because portions were missing, the full thread was not provided.
I’m not accusing anyone of a formal dual-agency or ethics violation. I’m trying to understand normal industry practice so I can structure a better listing agreement next time.

So my questions are:
Is offering to represent outgoing tenants in the same communication used to coordinate access for the landlord common practice, or does that create a potential conflict of interest?
Isn’t the agent supposed to work on our behalf and represent us, mainly?
Once the landlord and tenants are in an active dispute, should the listing agent solicit those tenants as prospective clients while representing the owner?
Isn’t it unethical to encourage a landlord to say they would rent to an outgoing tenant again when the landlord has said that does not reflect their actual experience?
I didn’t feel this was a professional way to coordinate access with occupied tenants without blurring agency lines or creating competing interests. Perhaps competing isn’t the appropriate word here. But it doesn’t feel right.
Thank you!

I am looking to get my first warehouse lease signed but the landlord is insistent on not having a controllable CAM increase cap and audit rights. He claims that no landlord will ever have a CAM cap in their lease but from what I’ve seen online it seems pretty common? For the landlords, do you have a CAM cap in your lease and from your perspective how would I best be able to negotiate one in?

How do you do this differently than a normal tenant screening? With a furnished mid-term rental for 3 months or so for temporary housing used by transient workers such traveling nurses and college interns, the tenant would normally still be paying rent or mortgage at their main place or maybe the housing isn’t in their name at their main residence, so they don’t have their own current rental payment history.

Maybe they are less concerned about consequences of defaulting on any balance owed at the end since it isn’t their main place of residence and they can just fly back to their home state without paying.

Do you expect them to make more than 3X the monthly rent since they may need to maintain rent in 2 places? I assume most will not want to prepay their entire expected rent for the period in advance, especially if there is a chance their work contract might get canceled early.

My neighbors were evicted, they were professional scammers who only paid the deposit.

The land lord lady said she would be "strict next time" and verify income, ask for a month deposit ect...

How do I talk to her and tell her that she should consider using a realtor or service to find her next tenants? Also, a 1 bed and 1 bath apartment is at least 1850 and she charges 2000 for a 2 bed 2 bath condo that functions.

She doesn't want bad tenants and I dont want lucky neighbors.

I use doorloop and allow CC payments. Yesterday, I started getting tenant payment return notifications for one tenant. I looked and it says they are disputed via CC. I contacted doorloop support and they sent me some form and asked me to send a copy of the lease. Which I've filled out and returned back to them. The tenant has been on Month-to-month for about 5 years now. He refuses to sign a new lease so the only lease I have for him is from 2020.

The tenant has disputed every payment for the past 6 months and now has a $5,000+ balance on his account. I called the tenant and he "claims" he didn't dispute anything with his bank or CC. I'm not sure I believe him on that.

Doorloop support said this money will be withdrawn from my account on the Monday transaction run!!

Has anyone had something like this happen before? What was the process? Were you able to successfully get the money back?

I'm tempted to turn off CC payments if it's this easy for them to take the money back.

Therefore they cannot pay rent. They said they were in the hospital due to an injury and were waiting on money from a settlement. They have been a good tenant always paying on time but the last month was late and they haven’t paid this month at all. I have been very chill about it. I waived last month’s late fee as it was their first time being late. However now I’m getting annoyed. I’m being sympathetic to them being injured but we already charge below comps and I’m just curious as to what you all would do. I don’t want to be a Scrooge but their communication hasn’t been all that understanding.

TL;DR previously decent tenant was injured and is waiting on settlement to pay rent. Late last month, no money this month.