Hello! I'm going to be leasing out our 3bed/2bath in Cypress. Any advice you'd give when it comes to potential tenants? Any scams going around currently to look out for? Anything you'd tell your former self when you took on this task? Have done some rentals in Ohio but new to the game in TX.

Edit to say: obviously running background checks, credit reports, all that good stuff.

Thanks all!

the last line from Ryan. live it.

Set parameters for who you want to be a tenant (pets, non smoker, make 3x rent, etc) and stick to it

We interview all renters before hand in person. We talk about communication and try to set our expectations to over communicate so we can plan accordingly. We tell them we want it to feel like their home so we don't do walk throughs or anything as long as they are communicating with us about things. We don't promise to fix everything immediately but the earlier we know something the better we can plan to fix it.

get used to people effing up your property.


i have seen may people lose their freaking minds over normal wear and tear. you own the house, but not the right to determine how often it is vacuumed and what scent of candle they use.


i have been very successful with rentals and my anxiety by realizing this. you'll get it back at the end of their lease.

I just spent 4 hours power-washing the driveway/side walk on one of the houses we are caring for....

The amount of times I went over the oil stain in the driveway after repeatedly applying degreaser and even scrubbing a bit with a brush - still did not remove the oil stain.

I would consider this normal wear-and-tear, but I would also like someone to drive up to the house and say "yeah, that looks like a $300K home" but an obvious oil stain on the driveway does not help purport that image IMO.

Kitty litter supposedly helps....I think

Thanks everyone for your help. I meet our potential tenant on Saturday. Ran all the checks, seems like great potential tenant and can hopefully move forward if everything checks out. Maybe in a year I'll report back!

Hire a property manager