Corporate Housing Rental Documents 101: The Lease Agreement

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Published Date: 2012-06-20

This article is part of a series of articles discussing the various documents you'll need as a corporate housing landlord.

A rental lease agreement is one of the most important documents in corporate housing property management

In our last post we talked about the importance of a rental application. It's the first step to protecting your rental property from unruly renters and serves as a way to qualify quality tenants.

In this post, let's talk about the actual lease agreement. This is the document you have your tenants sign once the application process has cleared and before they move in. It is often considered the most important document in the field of property management.

To create a go-to lease agreement you can use for every tenant, you'll want to start with a template. We suggest you either search the Internet or visit some of the recommended rental resources we list out. You can also visit with a trusted lawyer - they likely have many templates they can customize to your personal situation.

Some CHBO members have used WhichDraft.com, a service that provides a template lease agreement that you can customize for a small fee. Some also use ezLandlordforms.com - this company provides state-specific legal forms you can use, including sample lease agreements.

Because lease agreements are specific to your property, it's important that you get a lawyer to review any template you're planning to use. It should take a lawyer no more than an hour to read your agreement and provide you with feedback... this is a small price to pay to protect yourself for years and years to come.

In our next post, we'll talk about the inventory check-list.

Read our page post about the Corporate Housing Rental Application.