I'm renting my place out and moving into a new house. This will be my first time landlord gig. I'm managing myself and will be doing all of the paperwork myself. Best way to learn, right!?

Questions
1) Rental application: thinking about using the Zillow template. Any other suggestions?

2) Rent agreement: I've found some (it's in South Carolina) that are state tailored for their laws and you customize what you want in the agreement. Any advice on the best site to use, or the best agreement forms?

3) managing rent income: wanting an electronic way to auto draft payments. I've heard of using Cozy, are there any others that are easy to use?

Thanks in advance.

I just went through my first experiences with property management, welcome! We now have all three units leased and cash flowed this month! I am really excited and energized for our next deal after all the mistakes and lessons we learned.

I listed with zillow rental manager where it syndicates the listing across three other platforms. I used the Exprian site My Smart Move for background checks. We used EZ Landlord forms for my leases. Finally, I used Cozyfor collecting rent.

All three made life pretty simple for my first time.

Any reason you wouldn't just use the standard TREC rental form?

Use the standard TREC forms. I collect rent through Zelle and its been great. Used to use Chase Quickpay (its now called Quickpay with Zelle). Quite a few other banks have joined Zelle, so if the tenants and you use a Zelle affiliated bank, transfers happen very quickly. Using Venmo for the first time with one of my rentals.

JT05 said:

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Use the standard TREC forms. I collect rent through Zelle and its been great. Used to use Chase Quickpay (its now called Quickpay with Zelle). Quite a few other banks have joined Zelle, so if the tenants and you use a Zelle affiliated bank, transfers happen very quickly. Using Venmo for the first time with one of my rentals.

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So someone with a Chase account can transfer directly to a Wells Fargo account since WF also uses Zelle? Any fee?

CS78 said:

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JT05 said:

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Use the standard TREC forms. I collect rent through Zelle and its been great. Used to use Chase Quickpay (its now called Quickpay with Zelle). Quite a few other banks have joined Zelle, so if the tenants and you use a Zelle affiliated bank, transfers happen very quickly. Using Venmo for the first time with one of my rentals.

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So someone with a Chase account can transfer directly to a Wells Fargo account since WF also uses Zelle? Any fee?

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Yes. No fee. I have a tenant that has a Wells Fargo account and her rent is credited to my account usually same day. Maybe a day wait. A tenant outside of the Zelle Network but using Zelle it usually takes around 5 days.

Is there a fee for Zelle outside of the bank network? A one day turnaround is impressive.

Don't you have to be a licensed realtor to use the actual TREC lease forms?

Brad_97 said:

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Don't you have to be a licensed realtor to use the actual TREC lease forms?

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You would definitely want to remove section 33. G. Otherwise the tenant can void the lease at will.

Realtors like to try to defend the TREC forms as something only they can use. The forms are all published on a public website, individuals have been using them for years, and Ive never heard of TREC going after anyone for it. If you're really concerned, remove all the TREC logos first.

Technically yes, many still do it though. One of my property management mentors is who turned me on to ezlandlordforms.com. It's all uses now and she is a licensed TREC broker.

Nope.

https://www.trec.texas.gov/can-non-license-holder-use-promulgated-contract-forms

I second the recommendation for My Smart Move for background/credit checks. Very easy to set up. It's about 50 bucks and you can make the applicant pay for it.

Where are you at in South Carolina?

Will this be for families or are you targeting college kids? (I only ask because I know a boat load of people in various places in South Carolina who may or may not be looking for somewhere to rent)

histag10 said:

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Where are you at in South Carolina?

Will this be for families or are you targeting college kids? (I only ask because I know a boat load of people in various places in South Carolina who may or may not be looking for somewhere to rent)

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It is in Beaufort (near MCRD Parris Island).

So update:
I just rented it out (sort of).

-Used Zillow to list the place myself and it automatically posted it on Trulia and some other site.
-Also set up a Cozy account, which posted it on Realtor.com and some other site.
-I used a typical application format from Zillow.com and emailed it out to interested tenants.
-a Marine couple with 4 kids and a dog (not preferred due to young kids who can be worse on a home than pets, but whatever, I'm a Marine too and want to help him get settled in) put a cash down payment to reserve it.
-on the Cozy account, a background/credit check combo costs $40 and the tenant pays for it.
-for payments, I can have them set up an auto draft through Cozy. So far, I like the service. And it's no cost to me.

I'm still a month out from their occupation date, so it's nice to sit back and relax until I generate the agreement.