Broker Rental Agreements: What to watch out for?

A lot of brokers will try and add a clause saying if you sell the unit to the tenant you owe them a commission. And if you object they will tell you it's a "standard agreement".

In terms of tips always take a quality tenant over money.

Tip 2: always meet tenants face to face before signing the lease.

In terms of commission due on sale to tenant, I have crossed out the 6% in the past and changed it to 1% subject to broker facilitating the transaction and no commission to be collected from the buyer.

I put a commission sales clause in my rental agreements. The broker introduced buyer and seller, and there's value in that. (I agree with 300 mercer that it isn't the value of a standard transaction though).

In general (and I have been a landlord for nearly twenty years, even longer than I've been a broker) you want to avoid at all costs a tenant who is "selfish." That can take two forms; one is the kind of tenant who stops paying rent when they have any self-justification whatsoever. It's tough to evict, especially in New York City, and it will cost you thousands of dollars to do so. The other is the kind of tenant who is sort of sloppy about their living situation, and so will tell you about a leak ... five days after it happens.

So my big tip is that it's worth pricing slightly under market so that you have your pick of tenants, and then try to get someone who is responsible, responsible, responsible. That kind of tenant will be a pain for the first six months, as they ask you to fix things you didn't even know were broken, but generally a dream afterwards.

ali r.

One more. Take pictures (floor, Kitchen counter, bathroom etc) before the renter moves in to confirm that nothing is damaged and send to renter and get a confirmation.