What Every Renter Needs To Know #079

Was it the good old days? You know, we've dedicated entire episodes to being a landlord and investing in real estate, and we decided it was time to talk about renting from the renter standpoint. Yeah, and we've discussed in previous episodes how renting is often thought of as throwing money away and we completely disagree with that sentiment. Matt. We've talked about that in prior episodes, So if you're interested in knowing a little more about that, check out an

older episode called Renting Versus Buying. But Matt, before we get into what every rentor needs to know, I wanted to quickly mention an awesome discount that I asked for the other day that really panned out for me. Lay it on me, So I went to our local Kroger the other day. Usually I'm at all the yea, what do you doing at Kroger Man? Usually I'm at Aldi. But I had like a couple of last minute things to pick up, and there there are some things that

Aldi just doesn't carry, That's for sure. I love all the I love the simplicity, the fact that they carry of the things I need, but that one per cent sometimes I gotta make that Kroger run. Our girls are always wanting band aids, and I don't think that's something that Aldi carries. Right now, stepping up all the Let's get some band aidids. That'd be nice. But at the same time, Kroger also has a much better flower selection, and I like to get my white flowers every once

in a while. Right It's like a humble bragg or wa come on, I'm a sweetheart. Okay, That's that's what I'm trying to say. So I went in on a particular morning and it was looking at the tulips that are her favorites mine too. I like some nice tulips, and nice they're beautiful, sleek flowers exactly as flowers go. They're pretty modern, you know, like real clean lines you know, they're not real folky. I love the way too that when they're sitting in the sun they kind of bend

in all interesting directions. They almost kind of look like Medusa's hair or something. They're really cool, fantastic flowers. So I got these really pretty purple ones. But the thing was on the tag of the flowers, it said that they were on their last sell by date, so after that day they were either going to throw them away or put them in some sort of crummy flower arrangement

something like that. And so I asked the person working in the floral department if they'd be willing to give me a discount on the flowers since it was the last day that they could sell them, and she was more than happy to do it. So it was a thirteen dollar bouquet of beautiful purple tulips that I got for a dollar fifty, no joke, I know, right, discount. So you remember we did it an episode specifically about asking for a discount, and this is just one of

those cases where they go for it. I saw the date on it. Why not ask the man? I'm proud of you. That's a huge discount, thirteen bucks down to a dollar fifty. It's that's that's hard to be right there, I know, right, So yeah, I just want to encourage people to that asking for a discount is widely applicable in a lot of situations, and so I just exercise my god given American rights to ask for a discount

and it worked out. Okay, you want to introduce this beer that we're having today, Sure, yeah, Listener, Tiffany actually sent us a beer tonight, so super kind of her. This is Russell Kelly pale Ale and it's from Tell Your Ride Brewing Company. Matt, have you ever been to Tell Your Ride Colorado? I have not you I have actually, and uh it is a lovely town. It is this beautiful little ski town in kind of the middle of

nowhere Colorado. Um. And there are a couple other small, amazing cool small towns surrounding it about an hour away. There's Durrango in particular, there's a cool little town called Pegosa Springs that has this amazing hot springs area. Yeah. Well, on this can there's a picture of a dude up kayaking. Have you heard a kayaked before? I don't think so. Maybe a little white water rafting, but never kayaked this

This guy is like kayaking for real. Um. I tried it once when I was living up an Ashville on the French broad and I almost drowned. So I'm never gonna do that again because it totally sucked. At a tough time with it. I'm just gonna say that. All right, man, I guess there's no more kayaking in either of our futures. Yeah, so things again to Tiffany for sending us some Russell Kelly pale Ale, and we'll talk more about this beer

at the end of the show. All right, Matt, So onto the topic at hand, What every renter needs to know. Our goal here in this episode is to kind of provide an overview for someone who is currently a renter, for someone who is looking to rent a new place, but try to provide some insights for the potential issues that renters face, how you can look out for yourself, how you can find a good place to live, and how you can deal with your landlord effectively, amongst other things.

So this is gonna be kind of a wide ranging episode, trying to cover just a lot of things that are perspective or current renter needs to know. Yeah, Jolson, when renters are looking for a place, we're gonna talk about some things to watch out for. There can be issues with landlords, both big and small, like small as in like mom and pop landlords like you and I. Right, that's what we do. Yeah, we each have just a

few rentals of our own, and so we're small time. Yes, so we're speaking to this from personal experience as well. But then the issues when it comes to bigger landlords, they're just more well documented. Be sure to check reviews for bigger apartment complexes. You can go to a site like apartment ratings dot com and it's actually very robust. I spent some time on there earlier today, and I was checking out some of the apartments near us to

kind of see how they did. Some not so great, but either way, whether they did well or not so well, I was really impressed with the apartments responding to comments and engaging with the different tenants that live there or had lived there or whatever that just had a beef or we're really happy. I think it's really cool to see a dialogue like that between two parties while at the same time the apartment is trying to improve. Yeah, and I guess that's one major benefit of the Internet

where you can kind of post a review. If you're having an issue with an apartment complex, you have some recourse if they're treating you unfairly and so yeah, documenting that at a website like a heartment ratings dot Com is a helpful way to go. And like you said, Matt, there can be issues with landlords big and small. A mom and pop landlord can be completely unattentive to your needs. You can find them not replying in a timely manner, not getting back to you, and not providing service and

repairs when things go wrong. The same thing can be true of bigger landlords. And I did want to mention that people should particularly watch out for Wall Street companies

that are renting out single family homes these days. If you see the name Blackstone or Invitation Homes on properties that you're looking at single family homes where you're looking to rent, there are major issues with some of those Wall Street companies jacking up fees, not fixing problems that exist with the home, and finding ways to force fees

on tenants in ways that aren't forthcoming. In above Board, and there was a really long form piece in the Atlantic that we will link to in the show notes as well, that just documents their inability to landlord well. And so I just wanted to put that out there real quick as a disclaimer that if you're looking for single family homes from some of those bigger companies that own a bunch thousands and thousands of single family homes across this country, you do need to watch out. Yeah, Joe,

that article crazy compelling. Right. There's a stat in that article that said how of homes were purchased by invitation homes by Black Rock UH in a specific zip code here in Atlanta. That is a huge amount of homes in our area. Nine out of ten. That's incredible. Yeah,

that's it's it's massive. And like you mentioned earlier, some of the things that they had going on, like they started setting up call centers for repairs on the houses they're sitting about, electronic locks for contractors to kind of come and go whenever they needed to so that they didn't have to contact the tenants, and oftentimes they didn't have enough contractors on staff in order to even come out in cases of even major repairs that were necessary.

Busted pipes where there's a four inches of water in homes. It was Yeah, it was crazy to read through those things and to think that, man, there's people that are living in homes where that's the kind of service that they're getting. Definitely not the best conditions that you're looking for when you're a wrinter, no doubt. But there are so many things you need to be aware of to be an informed tenant, and in particular, that lease is

such a crucial part. We're going to get into what you need to know before you sign on the dotted line on that lease right after the break, all right, Joel, Before the break, you mentioned leases, and you know, it is very important that you familiarize yourself with your tenant landlord handbook, if there is one in your states. This is important because the laws are different in every state, and so you know, some are much more landlord friendly, while others they tend to look out for the renters

a bit more. Yeah, each state takes a different stance in Some states are known for being more landlord friendly and other states are known for having laws that are more favorable to tenants. Yeah. Rent Cafe has a pretty cool rite up and we'll link to that in our show notes, where they have some visuals comparing friendly states to non friendly states when it comes to how they treat tenants. But also check out Landlord Oology will also

link to that side as well. They have a little map of the entire United States and you can click on your state and will link you out to the governing laws when it comes to that landlord tenant relationship. Yes, some states in particular have a specific landlord tenant handbook and not not everyone does, so will link to those other resources that kind of break things down for you in an easy and simple to understand way. It's just so helpful to know what your rights are in that

state before you actually sign a lease. Another thing you need to do before you sign a lease is to read it thoroughly, take your time. It's helpful in particular if you have come to terms with a landlord to ask them to send you the lease before signing day so you have a little bit of extra time to review it when you're not sitting in front of them.

And if there's something you don't understand, look it up and make sure in your lease that your landlord has outlined who is responsible for what we're talking about, things like utilities obviously that's kind of a major one, but other things as well, like pest control or small repairs, lawn maintenance, even snow removal if you're in some northern states.

These are things that you don't really think of in the moment, but you know what, when the time comes and you've got a clock toilet, that's the kind of thing you want to know. Okay, is it in my lease that I'm supposed to take care of this? Or can I call my landlord? You know, as a tenant, if you were to like have somebody come out and perform some of these these tasks and fix some of these things that go wrong. These are hundreds and hundreds

of dollars over the full term of your lease. Yeah, you're also going to want to make sure that whatever you have seen on the listing site, whether it's apartment ratings dot Com or whether it is zillo or Craigslist, wherever you're looking for properties, those terms that are explicitly listed out there have no bearing on what you sign

in the lease. It would obviously be incredibly shady of a landlord to list a property for a different price or security deposit than they actually write in the lease, But just make sure that whatever you agree to verbally or whatever you see online matches what you see in writing in the lease. Yeah. And again going back to having your landlord or your potential landlord to send you the lease ahead of time. That gives you time to

look over it, to take your time. Uh, so you don't feel pressure to quickly sign an initial and you know, if you're meeting in public or at a notary's office, if you have to get a notarized, there's just that pressure when someone is kind of standing there waiting on you. You tend to kind of burn through those pages pretty quickly and you might be signing things that you may not necessarily want to sign. So make sure those terms are in there and make sure that you've seen that

they're in there. Yeah. So, while we're on the subject of leases, it's also really important for anybody who's a renter to know that leases are negotiable. Do you want to stay longer at your property, well, you might get a rent discount. It's worth asking if you're planning on staying in a place for longer than a year, which is pretty much the standard lease that most people agree to. That asking for a discount on rent isn't unheard of, and a lot of landlords are willing to oblige and

mend the lease accordingly. Also, do you have multiple pets. Almost always there's a pet deposit, whether it's refundable or not included in a lease. It's worth asking for a discount on that pet deposit if you have have multiple pets. Yeah, Jill, just like with you and your flowers, it never hurts to ask. And there's a really good change, you might be able to strike a really good deal. And I would also encourage you as a renter to be creative when it comes to negotiating the terms on your lease.

For instance, if you know there's a good chance that you might want to stay there longer, see if you can work in something along the lines of, Hey, if I always pay my rent on time or early, I would love to be able to renew a second year without the rent increasing, because right now that might seem like maybe a small win, right but you know a year from now, when rents in the area have gone up, say ten percent, Well, you want to be in a position where you can sort of exercise that right to

resign at your current rate for a whole another year. Hopefully you've been a great tenant up until that point, and your landlord might be happy to see you resign and to have another solid year ahead of them where they know that rents gonna be paid on time. Yeah. One caveat we need to mention when it comes to least negotiation is that it's going to be more difficult

to negotiate with a bigger landlord. Let's say you are in a house that is owned by one of those Wall Street companies that we talked about earlier, or a major apartment complex. Chances are the terms are just way more rigid. With a company like that, they have a lot of bureaucracy in place, and they're just not willing to amend the terms of a lease in kind of

a one to one negotiation. So this is an all likelihood a tactic that you're going to be able to apply to dealings with a mom and pop landlord in a lot more instances than you are with one of those bigger, major landlords. Oh it makes me think, Joel, have you ever lived in any of the post properties posted? It's a it's a big company in Atlanta. They owned tons of different apartments all across the city. Nope, never did. Man, I was always like slumming it and cheaper of our complexes.

I think, yeah, your last coiment made me think about when Kate and I were looking at a post property that we really liked and we're really interested in getting, but they actually had laid out that rents were going to be increasing, and they told us how much that

they're going to be increasing. It was not negotiable, And that was honestly one of the biggest reasons that we backed out of running that apartment, because we knew that we wanted to stay there for at least two years, and we didn't want to see our rants increase my hundred fifth bucks, so so we had to pass. Yeah. And at the same time, if rent prices do increase more than you're willing to handle, you get the factor of those moving costs, which can be a pain in

the butt for a renter. You want to factor that in in the back of your mind when you're signing a lease. Do I want to stay here for a longer period of time than one year? And if I do, can I get that in writing now so that I don't feel like when rents do go up that I have to leave and go through the hassle of moving again. Keep in mind as a renter that the landlord will and should at least run a background and credit check on you, and so they will check your employment and

they'll check those references. Make sure that you're being upfront and honest with your landlord. Realizing that communicating with your potential landlord and being honest like that that it builds trust and know that that's the kind of relationship that you do want to have with your landlord. As a renter. Anytime you apply to living and property, you are going to pay an application fee and that goes towards this

background and credit check. And so if you're not upfront with your landlord, you might find yourself paying more fees across town to landlords then you want to and getting rejected for properties. So being upfront can help you avoid the extra costs of applying for properties that you aren't going to get. And I do agree, man, I think

being up front. You know, I've worked with different tenants at different times and been more than happy if they're completely honest to figure out terms that work for both of us. In the case of credit that is less in stellar or or whatever it may be. And I think as long as you are above board and open and honest with your potential landlord, I think that bodes well and it helps the landlord know what they're getting into before they perform the background and credit check. It

makes them realize that you're a person then can be trusted. Okay, let's go ahead and say now that you've gotten past that background check, you've gotten past that credit check, you are now at the point we're gonna go through that walk through, and that is crucial because that is your chance to document the states the current state of the property.

You want to make sure that you take your own pictures before you move in and if you see anything that seems that needs to be repaired, and at that point you can go ahead and email the landlord with any issues that you notice that need fick s. Yeah, taking those pictures on your moving date is actually a way of protecting yourself from the landlord coming back and saying that the property wasn't left in good condition upon your moving out. You want documentation of what the property

looked like when you took possession of it. That's the best way you can protect yourself in a situation like that, you're also going to want to take thorough pictures upon moving out to document that you left the property in good condition. So if those pictures a year apart time stamped on your phone look similar, then the landlord has a lot less grounds to hold some of your security deposit for repairs. And there's pictures they protect yourself now.

But then after the break, we're gonna talk about when things go wrong with the place that you're living in and then what you can do about it. All right, Matt, stuff happens when you're running a place. It could be busted pipes, it could be bedbugs. There are a whole host of situations that can negatively affect your experts as a renter, And so we have to talk about how renters can protect themselves when they're in the middle of

a lease and things go wrong. And so the first and easiest and cheapest thing that you can do to protect yourself is to get renters insurance. Oftentimes your lease actually requires that anyway. But you know what, only thirty seven percent of people have renters insurance, and the typical cost of renters insurance is about ten dollars a month. That's like less than the cost of Netflix. Matt yeah, and the like twelve dollars. Now I think I don't

even it's not up. Yeah. So most renters think that their landlords insurance covers their possessions in case of an accident, but it doesn't, So you have to get renters insurance. There are easy ways to buy renters insurance online. Policy Genius is a great website to check out that will offer you quotes from multiple different providers. Just don't forget to get renters insurance please. As a tenant, that's step

number one for sure. And you know, one of the great things about renters insurance as well is that a lot of times it will cover off premises theft as well. So I'm thinking about bikes, like that's something that I have that I leave in other places where it might be in danger of getting stolen. Well, if you have a bicycle, if you have wrinters insurance, that's something that for the most part, will be covered if it gets stolen, say if you're at the restaurant down the street, or

if you're at the library or something like that. So it really is affordable and there's just a lot of peace of mind that comes with taking the proper precautions when you're a renter, all right, So what happens if there is an issue with the property, whether it's just the lawn that's become unkempt, there's an issue with a major appliance, the facts not working and it's getting pretty hot outside, well, no matter what the issue is, it's

best to document everything in writing. An email in particular, is probably in all likelihood the best way of getting problems addressed. As a tenant. If you're calling your landlord on the phone in order to make problems known, you're putting yourself in a much more difficult situation by not having it in writing that you're requesting certain things off

your landlord. So if your landlord prefers to be contacted be phone, make sure to talk to them ahead of time and let them know how important it is to

you that these things be addressed via email. Or you might think that text messaging is just as fine as well, because obviously it's got the date and time on there, but that's not the case if you've got to set up to where your text delete after thirty days because you're trying to save on storage space on your phone, so again email it's always best and if you have a landlord who's slow to respond when it comes to maintenance issues, but especially in emergency situations, you might be

able to pay to have the repairs made yourself and then deduct that from the rent that you owe. Again, you want to make sure to check your local state laws or if you are lucky enough to have a landlord tenant handbook, all those things will be defined in there and will outline the different emergencies and help you to see when you can move forward with that pay

and deduct route. Again, just make sure that you're documenting this well and again call around to a few different providers as well, because if you if you can show that you've gotten several different quotes and you decided to go with one that was comp bolt to the rest, that's another check mark in your box when it comes down to the case of getting your landlord to pay for some of those repairs or if you're going to

deduct that from the rent. Yeah, repair and deduct is a strategy that you use in a worst case scenario. You want to exhaust every option available to you before you get to that point. So hopefully your landlord is being communicative. It's also important to remember that in the case of repair and deduct that only applies to emergencies, and you can even see oftentimes in your landlord tenant

handbook what is considered an emergency and what isn't. Yeah, mat for example, Interestingly enough, a lot of states don't consider an air conditioner being out in the middle of summer to be an emergency. And you might consider that

an emergency, but your state just doesn't. And so that means that if you try this repair and deduct method just a couple of days, let's say after that air conditioner breaks, I mean, hopefully you're working with a landlord that is helpful, responsive and trying to work on that issue quickly. But if they take too long, that doesn't necessarily mean that you have the right to do repair and deduct, and you might come out on the losing side of that when you try to fix the problem

yourself and take that money out of the rent. Yeah, that would really suck to basically get stuck with a bill where you're improving the property of your landlord who you feel like wasn't responsive, and then you have to move out a few months later. I would be pretty pissed. Yeah, right, that sucks. So you want to make sure that you know your rights and that you know whether you can do repair and deduct or not. Also, exhaust every means

possible before you get to that point. Also, we got an email recently from a listener Stephen, and he mentioned that he found a bed bug in his apartment. Oh, and there's never just one bedbug, right, there's more to follow, and they replicate, They procreate very quickly, so there's gonna be more coming. Have you ever seen a bedbug? But

they're super realized, right, they're hard to find. Yeah, I think it kind of like just looks like like dirt, like in the corners of your mattresses or couches and stuff like that. In big cities like New York and stuff like that, when you see couches on the side of this the street or on the sidewalk, you stay away from those things. Yeah, because they're infested with bed bugs.

You don't want to take those in the house. So Stephen wrote in he was asking about, you know, how he attacks the situation with his landlord, and in his case, his landlord seemed to lack the proper motivation to take care of it. And particularly because bed bugs, like we said, replicated such a rapid pace. Figuring out the issue, nipping it in the bud before it becomes a worse issue

is crucial when we're talking about bed bugs. And so because of his landlord's failure to act and insistence on waiting, Stephen decided to go the repair and deduct route. I think in his case it was the right move and I hope it works out for him. He also has a litany of solid emails and evidence to back him up in the case his landlord was wanted to fight that in a in a court of law, and so

that's a great example. Again, though, make sure you check with your state laws because some states can be very landlord friendly to again where the tenant would be stuck with that bell regardless of the situation. And if you feel like your landlord is in some sort of violation of the law and is negligent in addressing issues that come up, your best route to go is to complain

to the correct local authorities. And if you think that there are discrimination issues involved based on your race, gender, ethnicity, or family status, it's really important to reach out to the Department of housing and urban development. That's a place where they feel those complaints and they take them very seriously. In addition to these issues with maybe the landlord or

with the home. Right aside from those, if you personally are having a tough time or you're having financial issues, make sure that you are communicating that with your landlord. They might be willing to work out a plan with you, but chances of that happening are going to be much

higher if you address that ahead of time. Yeah, Matt, Just like we talked about being upfront about your credit score or your criminal history while you're applying for a property, that landlord is much more likely to accept your application and offer you a chance to live in the property. In the same way, if you've been a tenant there for a while and you're starting to have some money issues, well it's best to be a front about that with your landlord then kind of ghosting them and being m

I A when the first of the month rolls around. Okay, now we're at the end of your lease and when it comes to moving out, you want to make sure that you have documented everything. We previously mentioned how you want to make sure that you take thorough picks when you move in the same thing. When you move out, you want to make sure that you have plenty of

pictures documenting the state of your place. Once you leave, a more shady landlord will try to get you to pay for your things that aren't actually broken, or if there is actual damage, you can show that you have pictures from your walkthrough from before you moved in that show it was already broken when you moved in. Pictures or even a video walk through of the apartment or

the house are so clutched in these situations. And final tip if you have a roommate, will try to move out on the same day, because if you are the last person to move out of the house, you might be stuck with all the cleaning and potential junk removal. Your roommate could leave you in the lurch, high and dry.

It could be a nasty little situation where you have hours and hours of work ahead of you to make sure that you're leaving that place like you found it in order to you avoid money being taken out of that security deposit. Nice Joe, I'm gonna take us back to the beer we were drinking this episode. A Russell Kelly pale ale by Tell You Ride ruined company, and man, it was solid. I'm mostly jealous that you've been to tell you Ride and I haven't. Is that how you

say it, tell You Ride? I think so, Yeah, tell you Ride. I don't really remember how people said it when I was there, but I say it differently out last. I don't know. I just you know what I specifically remember from being and tell your Ride. Well, first, it was beautiful of the mountains, the snow, but I remember the thrift store there because it was this nice, cute little town. They had an awesome thrift store. So I

don't know why that sticks out in my mind. But if you go to tell your Ride and make sure to check out their thrift store downtown, it's a good one. They've got a great film fest there, too, don't they like they tell You Ride film fests? I think so. I think we do. Yeah, I haven't been there for that, but probably accurate. It's a it's a it's a high flute place. But yeah, that area of Colorado is just so freaking beautiful. And this beer was almost as lovely

as the town itself. So mad props thanks to Tiffany for sending this one out to us. We appreciate it. Yeah, thanks Tiffany. All right, Matt, let's get to our final thoughts on the subject of what every renter needs to know. The first thing is that every single renter needs to know their rights, and they're different from state to state. Some states have more landlord friendly laws, others have more tenant friendly laws. It's important to know that from the outset.

It's also crucial to know what's actually in release before you sign it and then Joel. In addition to that, you want to make sure that you are documenting everything and that you are communicating as much as you can. Take pictures before you move into that place. You want to document the current condition before you have moved a single box into that place. And if any issues do

arise when you're renting, use email. Email is such a clean and easy, a very black and white way to document any concerns and guess what your landlord automatically has a copy of that there are no questions documentation. Again, on the back end, make sure you take pictures when you're moving out to prove that you left the place in good order and acceptable condition to your landlord. Yeah, good documentation could save you in a pinch. Also, make

sure to advocate well for yourself. Sometimes it's true the squeaky wheel gets the grease and you don't want to be that annoying, complaining tenant. But if there's a legitimate issue, it's important to make that known to your landlord and not to relent until that problem is fixed. And if your landlord refuses to act, well, you might need to go with a method like repair and deduct or even complain the local authorities. But just make sure to stick

up for yourself. Yeah, advocating for yourself, jo I love that. You know, if you take renting a little bit more seriously, that kind of puts you in the driver's seat when it comes to the relationship that you have with your landlord. Maybe just a little bit, but it at least keeps you from getting pushed around, no doubt, buddy. All Right, that's gonna do it for this episode. We'll have some really important links that we referenced in this episode on

our website how to money dot com. And we know that we've only scratched the surface, uh in this episode, And so as a tenant or a future tenant, if you have some questions head over to our Facebook group. Just search for how some Money, look for that route and throw your question out there. There are a lot of folks who are in similar positions as you, and we all love helping each other out, so join that community. Oh and Joel, we wanted to announce our winners from

our book Gavoy. Last week we had four copies of Tanya Hester's book Work Optional and thanks to m r W two to five, Julio Rojo Underscore See one seven and a Perkins eighty nine, y'all are the winners and Joel or I will be reaching out to you very soon, no doubt, buddy. All Right, until next time, Best friends out, Best Friends Out,