How to Write an Apartment Rental Contract

Apartment rental terms must be fully understood by landlord and tenant through use of a written lease agreement.

When a landlord and tenant agree on the rental of an apartment, the landlord must prepare a contract, known as a lease agreement, that sets out the terms of the rental. Several important points must be included in the lease to protect both parties in the event of any disagreements or issues that come up in the future. The more detailed the lease, the more terms that will be understood by both parties, and the less likely is the chance for misunderstandings or litigation of any kind.

1

Identify the landlord and all tenants at the top of the contract, as well as the rental address and contact information for the landlord: address, phone and, if possible, email. The lessor is the party granting the lease, or landlord; the lessee is the party renting the property.

2

Head the next section "Rent." List the beginning and ending dates of the rental, the amount of the monthly rent and the address where the rent is to be paid. Give the deadline at the beginning of each month for payment of rent and any penalty that will be levied for late payment. Also give the penalty for any returned checks.

3

Start another section headed "Security Deposit." Give the amount of the deposit and the circumstances under which the deposit will be charged and held by the landlord. Give the period of time within which the landlord must return the deposit at the end of the lease on the tenant's meeting all the obligations of the lease. This is also the section for listing terms of a separate pet deposit.

4

Head the next section "Utilities." List the utilities for which landlord and tenant are each liable for payment. Most leases have language releasing the landlord from any liability due to faulty operation or installation of utilities such as phone, cable, electricity and gas fixtures on the part of the tenant.

5

Start a new section entitled "Condition of Premises." The landlord warrants and the tenant agrees that the premises are in good condition at the start of the lease term. The lessee is obligated to report any damages or needed repairs to the landlord promptly and, in some cases, in writing. The lessee is also responsible for ordinary upkeep and maintenance of the property.

6

Begin the next section "Access." This section explains that the landlord shall have access to the property in order to make inspections or carry out repairs. The landlord also normally has access, with advance notice, to the property in order to show it to prospective future tenants.

7

Title the next section "Liability and Insurance." The lessee agrees to hold the landlord harmless for any damages or injury resulting from an accident, from normal use of the property, or from a repair for which the tenant did not notify the landlord, as well as to indemnify the landlord against all claims of guests or visitors arising from the same circumstances.

8

Additional sections can be added describing the move-out policy; any local ordinances relevant to rental and activity by the lessee and his or her guests; default and eviction policies; eminent domain; fire insurance; abandonment of personal property; storage facilities; parking facilities; subletting policies; and conditions of tenancy in such matters as smoking, use of drugs or possession of firearms.

Which Makes Sense for You: Renting or Buying a Home?

Date:July 2, 2014 | Category:Tips & Advice | Author:Mary Boone Brought To You By

Should you rent or should you buy? It’s a big question that nearly everyone faces at some point in life.
Take Nila Dulay and her husband, Erick. They owned a home in a beautiful gated community in Lakeland, FL, complete with a pool, tennis court and boat dock. But when the couple accepted jobs in the Seattle area in late 2012, they faced serious sticker shock: Seattle’s home value index is currently $465,300 – more than $300,000 above the values in Lakeland.
“The prices of homes were so much higher, we realized we wouldn’t get a nice home for the same money,” said Nila.
So, for $1,600 per month, plus utilities, the couple moved into a rental in Covington, WA, 25 miles south of Seattle. The situation wasn’t ideal, but it made short-term sense for twenty-somethings who just moved across the country.
Finances drove the Dulays’ decision to rent. But there are other factors to consider.

Reasons to rent

• Flexibility. Renting offers an easy way to test an area’s safety, amenities and ease of commute.
• Career uncertainty. If job stability is a concern, renting may be a better option since buying is typically a longer-term commitment.
• Smaller cash outlay. Renting usually requires first and last months’ rent and a security deposit. Buying requires tens of thousands of dollars down.
• Bad credit. Creating a history of on-time rental payments may raise your credit score and help you qualify for a mortgage that may better suit your needs.
• No maintenance. There’s typically no need to worry about repairs – just report the problem to the landlord.  Incidentals. Sometimes utilities such as water, sewage or garbage are included in the rent price. Plus, many rental complexes include their own pool and gym.

Reasons to buy

• Equity. This is the difference between the market value of your home and the amount still owed on the mortgage. As you make your mortgage payments and reduce the loan principal, you may increase your equity in your home.
• Tax deductions. You may be able to deduct mortgage interest as well as property taxes from your income taxes. Talk to your tax professional for more information.
• Creative control. Paint your walls bright orange if you want. Rentals rarely allow redecorating or remodeling.
• Maintenance choices. Do it yourself or call your own contractor. An exception is a condo or homeowners association, where you might have maintenance covered.

Figure out your ‘breakeven horizon’

Determining your “breakeven horizon” can help you to better understand the costs involved before you make your decision. This metric, introduced by Zillow, uses market-by-market data to determine the number of years it would take for buying a home to become more financially advantageous than renting the same home.
“Given how high rents are and how low home values are in many markets, buying may appear to make financial sense even if you’re only going to be there for a couple years,” says Svenja Gudell, director of economic research for Zillow. “But then you have to consider the emotional stress that goes along with buying a home, moving and adjusting to a new neighborhood. It’s not the sort of stress most people want to deal with every 2 years.”

So, should you rent or buy?

Whether it makes more sense to rent or buy a home is something only you can decide, based on your lifestyle, location and personal preferences.

3 ways to set buyer expectations for a smooth offer process

In real estate, anything that can go wrong most certainly will

Trulia Pro Blog Contributor

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Jul 2, 2014

This post was originally published on the Trulia Pro Blog by Geoff Bray for Trulia.com. Follow Trulia Pro on Twitter: @TruliaPro.
In an industry where Murphy’s Law seems to reign supreme, anything that can go wrong most certainly will. Unfortunately, some of the shows on television paint a picture for home purchasers that they will look at three homes, pick the one they want and — “Lights, camera, action!” — they are happily moved into their new home and get it for the price they want. Ah, the magic of Hollywood.

A buyer getting the home they want rarely happens that way, and it’s our job to set their expectations at the first meeting. One of the biggest reasons a consumer never takes the first step towards buying anything — let alone a house — is their fear of the unknown. By setting a buyer’s expectations of what is supposed to happen next, how that event is supposed to happen, as well as what could go wrong, we take care of a lot of the insecurities associated with the purchase. Not to mention we won’t have to deal with the phrase, “But you never said this could happen!”
Here are three major areas to set expectations during the offer process:

1. Competition with other buyers

We’ve all heard the saying, “While you’re sleeping on it, someone else will be sleeping in it.” At no other time during the last eight years of residential real estate could this be more accurate. Nice homes that are priced right and marketed correctly are flying off the shelves. Multiple offers and final sales prices over the listing price are happening more and more.
This might be a surprise for buyers, considering they’ve been told by their parents or colleagues to start their offer at 20 percent below the listing price. This is a crucial item to go over at the buyer consultation meeting. Have the discussion that when they find a home they love, there is a good chance someone else loves it, too. Not only will this set them up to get the home they truly want, but it will make your life easier when it comes time to write a strong offer. A buyer doesn’t just hire us to negotiate; they hire us to get them the house they want.

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2. The “deal”

As mentioned before, buyers’ parents or co-workers who bought a home 10-plus years ago are notorious for giving them better advice than you (of course it’s better, they’ve bought a house, which makes them a real estate expert!). “Start off at least 20 percent lower than what they’re asking … and, of course, everyone is getting their closing costs paid for by the sellers these days.”
Sound familiar?
Our clients deserve to know that many of the “deals” in this market could be good deals at their list price. We are, of course, going to help them determine a fair market value if it’s outside of dual agency, but the notion they can count on getting a huge discount is not always the case. Inventory is low and demand is high. A good deal might be NOT having to pay more than what the house is listed for. They will appreciate you told them this when you first spoke about the offer process so they don’t have to write six offers before they get “the one.”

3. The inspection

Oh boy. Here we go. Many real estate transactions have met their demise during the oh-so-scary home inspection. This is probably one of the most difficult steps to navigate in the sales process for the buyers, sellers and real estate agents. A real estate agent can’t give much advice on items needing repair; a seller never thinks the repair is a big deal; and the buyer just got kicked in the gut.Prior to the inspection, the buyer thinks this is the most perfect and beautiful place to call home. The inspector, however, is able to wreck their world in a matter of hours by informing them of all the imperfections and “could go wrongs” lurking behind the walls of the home.
Let the buyer know when the offer is accepted and they choose to do a home inspection that it’s going to be scary and a little disheartening. This is normal and we will roll with the punches and get through it together.
Letting them know all of these things upfront will keep them — and yourself — prepared during the transaction to glide through any obstacles that come your way. If the buyers know you have their back, they’ll BE back when it’s time to sell.

Rents rise for 18th consecutive quarter amid tight credit and inventory shortage

Jul 2, 2014 

 

The average monthly rent for an apartment has increased for 18 consecutive quarters, as tight mortgage credit, changing preferences among millennials and inventory shortages have combined to continually erode the affordability of units, The Wall Street Journal reports.

Rents rose 3.4 percent nationally for the 12-month period ending in June, even as household income continued to stagnate, WSJ said, citing data released by real estate research firm Reis Inc.
“There’s going to be a very severe housing-shortage problem,” Moody’s Chief Economist Mark Zandi told WSJ. “People are going to be in very difficult situations. This is a problem that’s going to be increasingly severe over the next few years.”

Buying a Home? Know ALL Your Options

In a post earlier this week, we suggested that the Millennial generation’s struggles with student debt and the overarching concept of homeownership are not the reasons for so many first time buyers hesitating to move forward with the purchase of their first home. Now there is another firm suggesting the same. The asset management company, Nomura, came out with strong guidance to their investors. According to an article in Housing Wire last week:
“Nomura’s note to clients has a take few have offered: The first time homebuyers are holding out and it’s not student debt, a shift away from homeownership as a choice by Millennials, or any of that.”
Instead, they think it is a lack of a full understanding of the mortgage process. The article explains:
“Analysts say it’s not that Millennials and other potential homebuyers aren’t qualified in terms of their credit scores or in how much they have saved for their down payment. It’s that they think they’re not qualified or they think that they don’t have a big enough down payment.” (emphasis added)

This comes off the heels of a survey by Zelman & Associates that revealed that 38% of those between the ages of 25-29 years old and 42% of those between the ages of 30-34 years old believe that a minimum of 15% is required as a down payment to purchase a home. In actually, a purchaser may be able to put down far less.

The Reality of the Situation

According to Christina Boyle, Freddie Mac’s VP and Head of Single-Family Sales & Relationship Management, in a recent Executive Perspectives piece:

• A person “can get a conforming, conventional mortgage with a down payment of as little as 5 percent (sometimes with as little as 3 percent coming out of their own pockets)”.
• Freddie Mac's purchase of mortgages with down payments under 10 percent more than quadrupled between 2009 and 2013.
• More than one in five borrowers who took out conforming, conventional mortgages in 2014 put down 10 percent or less.
• Qualified borrowers can further reduce the down payment coming out of their own pockets to 3 percent by lining up gifts from family or grants or loans from non-profits or public agencies.

Ms. Boyle goes on to explain:
“Letting more consumers know how down payments are determined could bring more qualified borrowers off the sidelines. Depending on their credit history and other factors, many borrowers can expect to make a down payment of about 5 or 10 percent.”

Bottom Line

If you have considered purchasing a house or moving-up to a new dream home, know all of your options. Reach out to a real estate and/or mortgage professional in your marketplace to get the best, most up-to-date information available. You may be surprised to learn what you and your family are capable of achieving.
Agents: Would powerful visuals showing the opportunities available to buyers (first-time & move-up) help your business? Start your free 14-day trial of Keeping Current Matters today!

Want Your Student To Master Math? Make Sure S/he Has Time To Collaborate And Struggle.

By QWERTY Education Services, Inc. July 25, 2014 at 3:35 pm 0

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A few posts ago, we pondered whether the trend in math we’ve observed with some of our students, i.e. taking more complicated classes at earlier and earlier ages – something we labeled “math push-down” – was a viable choice for most students in improving math mastery as they progress through school.  Two pieces in this past week’s New York Times, one concerning American mathematics pedagogy, and the other, an opinion from a university mathematics professor encouraging parents to turn math into a game and take a “coaching” perspective, have us feeling confident that the position we took, calling the push-down trend into question, was justified.

Our work in tutoring math requires us to regularly assess a student’s understanding of just what it is that s/he is doing, correcting misunderstanding through Socratic instruction and practice, and attempting to provide the student with examples of how the material is used in the “real-world” so that the student can place his/her learning in a broader context and learn how math works.  Sadly, we regularly meet students whose approach to math is so mechanical and procedure-focused that the student is most certainly not assimilating the “big picture” about the material being studied.

In the above-mentioned piece on math pedagogy, one of the main points cited is the professional practice difference between American and Japanese teachers of math.  The gist is that Japanese teachers spend significantly more time honing their craft by way of collaboration about the methods they use in classroom teaching. Japanese teachers discuss, debate and learn from one another as they attempt to refine their in-class methods.  Broadly speaking, spending time thinking about what one is doing, discussing alternative approaches and struggling to improve are all excellent means of mastering a subject and a practice.

This is where we again are compelled to point out the problems we see with “math push-down” and indeed, with one of the structural learning challenges we witness.  The upshot is that time and time again, we meet students that are so pressed for time, so focused on “next,” and so thinly stretched that they simply do not have the ability to spend the necessary time struggling with and discussing math.
Let us be clear here too about the relationship between one’s math grades and “mastery.”  It may come as a surprise to many, but one’s grade in math is not a perfect indicator of one’s mastery.  We’ve met some very resourceful students over the years that have cleverly (and honestly) learned how to achieve good grades in math without necessarily achieving mastery in the subject.  That’s an unfortunate reality that may make some in our achievement-obsessed culture a bit uncomfortable, but the sooner it’s acknowledged, the better.

We believe that the process of struggle is an essential component to developing a big picture view, and thus developing mastery.  Productive struggle requires time.  This is time that we are generally not giving to our students so their response has been to learn to “perform,” without learning deeply.  As we did in our piece on push-down, we must ask, “What is the hurry?”

Live Music at Marina Kitchen

Join us for live music every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in August at Marina Kitchen!

By Jessica Gago July 28, 2014 at 12:25 pm 0

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Join us every weekend for Live Music at the Marina Kitchen Lounge from 8:00pm to Midnight in the San Diego Marriott Marquis & Marina’s South Tower/Lobby Level. For more details call 619-699-8222.

Marina Kitchen’s contemporary design and lounge atmosphere make it the perfect venue for live music. Located in the South tour of the San Diego Marriott Marquis and Marina, Marina Kitchen is quintessential Southern California dining at its best, with a focus on serving modern comfort cuisine. Enjoy a cocktail, craft beer or glass of wine, sit back, relax and enjoy some of San Diego’s best live music!