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The Landlord Life Cycle encompasses every aspect of the rental process, from creating a listing and marketing your rental for the first time, accepting applications and screening reports, creating lease agreements and forms for signatures, setting up charges and collecting payments, and moving out your tenant.
This process is cyclical, meaning, that as long as you have your rental property, you'll experience this process as each lease ends and new tenants move in. If you have multiple rental properties, you may even experience yourself in several of these stages at the same time. The amazing part of this process is that you can jump in at any point in the rental process and continue to manage your rental.
Luckily, with TurboTenant, you can put your mind at ease and stay organized throughout the entire process.
TurboTip! You can upgrade your free TurboTenant account to the annual Premium Plan subscription to save on costs associated with each step!
To get started with this, check out the Premium Plan benefits!
Rentals & Marketing
Step One
This is the first step in the Landlord Life Cycle!
To get started, you'll first want to create your property in your account. To do this, go to the Properties page of your account and select Add New.
It will then ask you a series of questions related to the property that you're creating.
TurboTip - You can now easily create eye-catching property listings and titles by utilizing the AI feature that creates your listing for you with the information you've included about your rental.
Once you've included all relative information about your property, you'll create a listing page. This process includes adding information about the property and the amenities it includes.
After completing these steps the platform will ask you if you would like to turn on marketing for your property. As a note, the initial marketing period is 30 days, after which time you can extend marketing if you haven't found your ideal tenant yet. When you're property is marketing, it will be available for interested parties to view on our listing affiliate sites. This process can take up to 48 hours for the websites to update their rental lists.
It will be available on TurboTenant immediately, meaning that you can send out the listing page link and have folks start applying!
Screening & Applications
Step Two
Once your rental is marketed, you'll start to receive leads in your profile. You can invite them to submit an application and complete a screening report. The screening report contains information about a renter's credit history, criminal background information, and eviction records.
The application gathers information about a tenant including their contact information, previous and current home addresses, and employer information, as well as allowing the applicant to upload documents such as ID and paystubs.
Both of these processes contain a wealth of information to help you make an informed decision on whether you'd like to progress forward with a particular applicant and move them in as a tenant.
TurboTip- If you have pre-existing tenants you can add them to the platform on the Tenant page of your account. You'll need to include their name, email, and phone number.
Leases & Addendums
Step Three
Lease agreements are incredibly useful and important for both Landlords and Tenants as they clearly explain in detail the terms of the lease as well spells out conditions of the agreement.
Leases contain the rental term, move-in and move-out dates, security deposit information, Tenant and Landlord contact information, additional occupant details, and so much more!
TurboTip - If you are adding or removing a tenant to a lease, you'll want to start a new lease profile and lease agreement. This will ensure that the new tenant will be able to sign all available documents see charges.
Before finalizing the lease agreement, you'll want to review the information to make sure it is correct and covers important circumstances like pets, late fees, and co-signers. Luckily, we also have the Ultimate Landlord Form Pack, including 32 most frequently used documents. You can include these in the lease agreement itself or send them out as separate e-sign documents.
Whether you're extending a lease term or changing information in the lease agreement, you'll want to utilize the Addendum. This type of document amends the original agreement information. You can send these out separately or include them in the lease agreement as well.
TurboTip - If you have your own lease agreement, you can select 'Request Electronic Signature' at the bottom of the lease profile. This will allow you to upload your own document and place the e-sign spaces on your own document.
Charges & Rent Payments
Step Four
Now that you've selected your Tenant and created a lease agreement, you're ready to start creating charges and collecting payments from them. To get started, go to the payment section of the lease profile and select, Create Charge.
There are two different types of payments that you can create, one-time charges and recurring rent charges.
One-time charges are perfect for security deposits and utilize charges while recurring rent charges allow you to create a single charge and have it go out automatically 15 days before the due date each month.
Move Out
Step Five
Are your renters moving? Don't worry, we have a process for that.
When a renter decides to move, whether at the end of the lease or in the middle of a lease term, there are several things in your account to make this process easier.
If the lease ends as scheduled on a particular date, you'll want to double-check the date on the lease profile as well as any charges you've created to make sure these end at the same time. Once the term is over and the tenants have moved, the lease profile should close and will be moved to the Past Lease section of your account. The tenants will also be located in the Past Tenant section of your portal.
If your tenants are moving out in the middle of their lease term, you'll want to set up a lease addendum that states that the lease is ending on a particular date as well as address any updates to payments and charges.
Congrats! You've officially completed the Landlord Life Cycle, commonly known as the Rental Cycle. You're ready for a new renter!
Still have questions? Reach out to our Support Team via chat or by email at [email protected]