SMARTERLANDLORDING

ADVICE FROM EXPERIENCE

Dealing With Tenants

Tenant Abandonment – Part 2

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You think your tenant has abandoned you.  The utilities to their home have been turned off.  You have not heard from your tenant in a few days after repeated tries to contact them.  Plus, you have entered your tenant’s place and nearly everything is gone.  You have followed all of the steps I outlined in my previous post, Tenant Abandonment and you are 99.9 percent sure they have abandoned you.  You are now ready for Part 2.

Which Way To Go?

You now have a choice to make.  Remember that the property is still legally in the tenant’s possession.  You can go one of two ways.  You can either follow the eviction process or you can follow the legal process for abandonment.

Personally, we try our best to avoid the eviction process.  Eviction is costly and takes time.  You can’t even represent yourself if you hold your properties in an LLC as we do.  Sometimes though, as I will discuss, it may be the way to go.  Whichever way you decide to go, get competent advice for your particular location and situation as laws are going to vary from place to place.  Here in Memphis, Tennessee the abandonment process is pretty simple.  It will get you possession your property faster, without going in front of a judge and much of the time, without all of the expense.

The Tenant Abandonment Route

When going the tenant abandonment route, the first thing you have to do is wait a little.  You have to wait until the tenant is 15 days late with their rent payment.  Then, you post a notice stating that you intend to reclaim possession of the property due to abandonment on their front door.  You also send the same notice to their last known address.  What is their last known address?  It is your property.  I know, I know, your tenant is likely to never see it since they are not picking up the mail anymore but you have to go through the motions because that is what the law requires.

This notice must include three items.  One, your (landlord’s) name, address and telephone number where you can be reached.  Two, A statement indicating that you believe the tenant has abandoned the property and that you intend to retake possession within ten days of posting the notice.  Three, if the tenant does not contact you then everything will be removed from the property and the property will be re-rented.

That’s it.  No courts.  No Lawyers.  No legal fees.  Just a little bit of your time, a few sheets of paper and a stamp.

During this 10 day wait period, you should be advertising the property and lining prospective tenants up.  Can you show the property to these perspective tenants?  Perhaps.  We have a clause in our lease allowing us to do this anyway, but I might tread carefully and ask what an attorney in your area thinks.

Regaining Possession

Once you have waited the required 10 days, you can then go in and remove anything the tenant left behind and prepare your property to be re-rented.

Here is where it might get a bit tricky and push your decision towards the eviction route.  Yes, after 10 days you can go in and remove anything the tenant left behind, but you can’t just throw it away or place it on the curb.  You have to store it for thirty days and allow the tenant to recollect the stuff if they return and want it.  The amount of stuff left and your ability to move and store things (we have a little space to do this) will affect which route you decide to take.  Hopefully, your tenant has only left behind a few broken pieces of easily movable furniture and an old box of cereal or two.  Otherwise you may have to hire some folks to move everything, rent a truck and storage space.  After all of that, it may just make more sense to evict and throw the stuff on the curb.

However, leaving lots of stuff behind, at least in our experience, is not typical.   Most of the time, what is left is just junk and I have never found anything of value as they always take the alcohol and the TV.  Whatever is left and whatever you do, it is best to take a video of your abandonment process in case you need to defend your actions later on.

The Sum Up

That is the process to regain possession after tenant abandonment.  It is fairly quick and simple. Every tenant and every situation is different though, you will have to weigh the costs and your time factor in each case.  But the abandonment procedure is often the way to go.

Tenant Abandonment

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Tenants are the lifeblood of the landlording business and proper tenant screening usually goes a long way towards avoiding most tenant problems.  Notice I said most, not all.  No matter what you do, tenants are going to cause you problems some of the time.  One of those problems is tenant abandonment.

What is tenant abandonment?  Its when your tenant voluntarily leaves your property, without telling you, with no intent to return or fulfill the terms of the lease.  Your tenant just up and goes, often in the middle of the night and often leaving a pile of stuff behind.

Why do tenants abandon their homes?  There are many reasons for abandonment and most of them are reasons that neither you nor your screening process could have seen coming.  They may have lost their job and are too embarrassed to face you.  They may have broken up with their girlfriend and become depressed.  They may have fallen off the wagon and gone on a bender.  Whatever the reason, you are faced with a vacant unit, lost rent, a mess to clean up and you need to get the cash flowing again.

What are the steps a smarter landlord should take?

There are many, too many for just one post actually.  So the next few posts will deal with tenant abandonment.  How you as the landlord should determine if your tenant has actually abandoned you.  What the legal steps are that you must take once a tenant has abandoned you.  And finally, some things you can do to prevent abandonment from happening to you.

How do you determine if your tenant has abandoned you?

First, landlords need to understand that tenant abandonment is a legal issue.  This is because your tenant technically still has legal possession of the property.  Thus, there is a legal process that all landlords have to follow to stay out of hot water.  I’m in Tennessee so I’ll be speaking with regard to the rules in my state.  Your state may be similar, but it may not.  So use this post as a general guide and then seek competent legal advice.

Second, you have to verify and document that your tenant has truly abandoned the property.  In other words, make sure they did not just leave in a hurry to go take care of their ailing mother in another state for an extended period of time.  This process may take a little time and investigation.  Begin to keep a written file of everything you suspect.  Document everything!  It could prove extremely helpful later on.

How do you verify that your tenant is truly gone?  It can be harder than you think and you have to be somewhat of a detective to add up the clues.  This is because some people are (or can become) unkempt, unorganized and perhaps having a rough go.  While conditions can point towards abandonment, they may not completely confirm it.  You have to build your case by putting the clues together to legally protect yourself.

What are the clues to tenant abandonment?

One obvious clue is unpaid rent.  If the first of the month comes and an otherwise timely tenant is late, that is a good sign.  Another clue is the inability to contact them.  If they do not respond to your calls, texts and e-mails, they may be gone.  The utility connection is a major clue.  If the utilities have been turned off, or have been placed back in your name (either way you should be notified by the utility company), your tenant has likely left the building.

However, these clues alone do not prove abandonment.  A bit more investigation is required.  It is time for step three, to grab the keys and go to check out the property.

When you get to the property, look for more clues.  An overflowing mailbox is a pretty good clue no one is there to check it.  Piled up newspapers and packages are also part of the story.  Look for the tenant’s vehicle.  As part of your tenant screening and lease signing process you should have gotten the tenant’s vehicle information.  Is the vehicle on the property?  If the property is a multi-unit property, knock on some of the neighbor’s doors and inquire about the tenant.  Even of your tenant sneaks out in the middle of the night, other tenant’s may have seen or heard them leave or perhaps can tell you that they have not seen them in a long time.

Finally, enter your tenant’s apartment

At this point, it is time to enter you tenant’s apartment.  Do not have any reservations about doing this.  You have tried to contact them and they have not responded.  Every sign you look at is telling you there is something wrong.  Hopefully they have just left, but what if they passed away inside?  You have every right to check and make sure your property is secure.  If you can, take a witness with you and better yet, take a video upon entering with your smart phone.  Protect yourself legally.  You do not have possession, document everything!

Upon entering it should be pretty obvious if your tenant has flown the coop.   Is most of the furniture missing?  If there is still furniture, are the valuable items such as the television gone?  Are the clothes gone?  Check the fridge.  Is there any fresh food in it or is it all rotten?  Is there any sign at all that someone has been coming or going?

If it definitely looks as if your suspicions have been confirmed and your tenant has abandoned you, leave everything alone for now.  Make sure the property is secure and will remain so.  Lock up and head back to the office.  It is time to either file for eviction of begin the legal abandonment procedure.  That tenant abandonment procedure is what I will discuss in my next post.  Stay tuned.

Are Your Properties In An LLC? Evicting A Tenant? Read This First

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Many of us landlords hold their rental properties in a Limited Liability Company (LLC). Doing so can make very good business sense as a landlord can separate their business property (rentals) from their personal property (home, cash, stocks, cars, etc). This separation can significantly reduce a landlord’s personal risk if you get sued by a tenant. Plus it can be a great estate planning tool.

How?

An LLC is legally a separate entity from you. You can actually think of your LLC as separate person from you. It has (or it should) have separate bank accounts, separate credit cards, separate loans and even a separate address. The LLC therefore actually owns your rental properties, you do not. You just control and direct the LLC. Thus, if a tenant or anyone else for that matter falls on a property owned by an LLC you control, they can only sue the LLC, not you. This is what is known as the “corporate shield” between you and the LLC (This shield can get pierced if you are not careful, but that is a post for another day).

Unfortunately, even the best landlords with the best screening techniques will have to evict one of their tenants at some point. Tenants sometimes just go bad for reasons beyond your control. If you happen to hold your rental properties in an LLC, you personally cannot represent your LLC in court during the eviction process. You must have a lawyer represent your LLC during the eviction process.

Why?

It is not because it is difficult or complicated to file an eviction or to go in front of a judge.   In fact, with a little coaching, almost anyone can do it. The problem stems from the fact that the LLC is legally a separate entity from you. It is legally another person. So if you file for eviction and go to court to represent “your” LLC, you are technically representing someone else in court. By representing someone else, you are practicing law without a license.

Judges generally do not like folks in their courtrooms practicing law without a license. When they realize that you are, they will throw your case out. That may have been just an honest mistake on your part, but if you thought you were going to save money you were wrong. You are now actually even deeper in the hole because you have lost even more rent. Plus you have lost time. And as they say, time is money.

I know, I know, all of this may seem like splitting hairs and technicalities. Lawyers are also costly and evictions are generally pretty easy to do. But lawyers live for technicalities and this component of the Lawyer Employment Protection Act is just something you have to follow if you hold your properties in an LLC.

Kevin Perk is the founder and publisher of Smarterlandlording.com.  He is the author of Advice From Experience To New Real Estate Investors.  Contact Kevin here.

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What the Kitchen Faucet Taught Me About How to Keep Great Tenants

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What the kitchen faucet taught me about how to keep great tenants

By John Triplett, NationalREIA

That late-night maintenance call

I got a call last night from Jake – We will call him Jake for purposes of this blog – who handles the majority of the maintenance on my rental properties. My property manager usually just asks Jake to call me when a tenant reports a problem that involves a repair.

I often cringe when Jake calls because I know there is always a cost involved. So the less I hear from Jake, generally the better.

But not always.

Sometimes a call from Jake is an opportunity for me to become a better landlord and treat the tenants more like the customers I want them to be.

So in this case it seems the faucet in the kitchen sink has gone out and needs to be replaced.

Now I don’t know about your house, but at our house the faucet in the kitchen sink is one of the things I touch multiple times per day. It’s a regular, high-use item and darned annoying when it’s not working right.

I imagine the tenants feel the same way. Put yourself in the tenants’ shoes occasionally.

Rather than running to the store just to get a cheap kitchen faucet to replace the cheap one the last owner put in there, Jake asked me a question.

What kind of faucet do the tenants want?

Read the rest here.

What Is A No Fault Eviction?

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The term “No Fault Eviction” has become a rather hot term in the headlines lately. Teachers in San Francisco want protection from them. Across the Country in Boston tenant groups are asking the city to stop landlords from using them.

But what is a “No Fault Eviction?”

How do they work?

And why are people suddenly getting so upset about them?

A so called “No Fault Eviction” is an eviction where the tenant is evicted through no fault of their own. They paid their rent on time. They followed the rules. However, the landlord has decided at the end of the tenant’s lease term that he no longer wishes to rent to that tenant. He has chosen not to renew the lease or let it run on perhaps on a month to month term.

If the landlord chooses not to renew the lease, he will ask the tenant to vacate the property. Usually this is done by letter at least a month or more before the landlord wants to retake possession of the property. However this time frame could vary depending on state and local laws or the terms of the lease.

Most of the time, the tenant chooses to leave and find a new place to live. But sometimes they do not. They want to stay despite the landlord’s wishes. If that happens, the landlord is them forced to evict the tenant.

Not really a “No Fault” to me. The tenant has violated the landlord’s property rights by not leaving when legally asked to do so. The landlord owns the building, the terms of the lease are up and the landlord should be able to retake possession of the building.

So why are people so upset about this?

It is because of the recent rapid rise in rents.

Rents have been going up all over the country in recent years. Landlords are thus often able to raise the rents at their properties. In some areas, quite significantly, as much as 400%! That simply is too good of a story for some media outlets to pass up.

Incomes have not caught up yet. Thus many renters feel that they will have to leave their longtime neighborhoods. Or worse, might not be able to afford new housing. A concern for sure.

While the recent rent increases have many causes, many choose to blame the landlords and have been petitioning local authorities to enact laws to prohibit or restrict “No Fault Evictions.”

No one likes to go through an eviction. It is just not a pleasant experience for either side. I try to avoid them almost any way I can. Thankfully in my experience, most tenants have agreed to move when I asked them to. Then again, we have not had the significant price increases here in Memphis either.

But what have you experienced in your part of the world? Are your tenants refusing rent increases or refusing to move? Please let me know with your comments.

 

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Inheriting Tenants? Protect Yourself

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When you buy an investment property, sometimes it will come with tenants already in place. These tenants can be a good thing as your new purchase will be immediately generating income. But, these tenants can also be a bad thing because you really have no idea how they were screened, how they have been as tenants or even what the details of their lease are. You can of course review existing written lease agreements, but there are landlords and tenants out there who have nothing more than a verbal agreement. There is no written lease to review.

So what you might ask.

Well, here is the thing with inherited tenants, you are stuck with them. The existing lease, even if verbal, cannot be changed by you just because you have bought the building. Your purchase does not in any way, shape or form alter the lease agreements the tenants currently have in place. You can’t raise the rent. You can’t just evict them. You can’t add rules. You can ask them to sign a new lease. You can offer to pay them to do so, but they do not have to. As I said, you are stuck with them. Stuck with them until the term of their lease is up.

Not a good place to be, especially if you have no idea what unwritten agreements might be hiding out there.

So how do you, as a landlord who wants to add the property to your portfolio, protect yourself? How do you determine what the current lease terms and conditions are?

One way is to ask to review the current leases. But what if there is no written lease? Or, what if the selling landlord is just making stuff up? It happens!

One of the best ways to protect your interests is to use an estoppel agreement. This agreement, which spells out the existing lease terms, is filled out and signed by both the tenant and the selling landlord. An estoppel agreement is a simple one page form that asks some very basic questions regarding a tenant’s living arrangements. Questions such as:

  • What is the term of your lease?
  • Who is listed on the lease?
  • How much is the monthly rent?
  • Do you pay any utilities?
  • How much is your security deposit?
  • Do you own any appliances in the apartment?
  • Are you current on your rent payments?
  • Are there any repairs that need to be made?
  • Do you have any other arrangements with your current landlord?

By getting this form filled out by the tenants you are about to inherit and the landlord you are buying the property from, you will have a legal piece of paper that will offer you some protection going forward.

How?

If a tenant later claims that his verbal lease was for a year and that you can’t ask him to leave you can point to the estoppel agreement that he signed stating that he was on a month to month term.

Or,

If when the tenant moves he claims that his security deposit was $5,000 and that he owns the appliances, you can again refer back to the estoppel agreement to determine if that is indeed the case (If it is the case when you review the agreement before closing you may want to renegotiate the purchase price.)

The estoppel agreement is a very important piece of paper to get completed when buying any property that has existing tenants. Use it every time and make the completion of this agreement a part of your purchase and sale contract. In fact, I think this document is so important I want to make it easy for you to use. So please follow this link to my Smarter Resources Page to download the estoppel agreement form that I use and protect your future buying interests.

 

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7 Things Bad Landlords Don’t Do

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Being a landlord is a tough and varied job. It requires the wearing of many different hats. A landlord has to be an accountant, a contractor, a guidance counselor and much, much more in order to be successful. Most landlords do a pretty good job at juggling all of these responsibilities.

Unfortunately, there are a few bad landlords out that that make this already tough job even more difficult. These bad landlords get the courts involved in our business. They get code enforcement involved in our business. They get legislatures involved in our business. They get reporters to dish out a fair share of bad press about us. The term “slumlord” starts to get applied to all landlords, no matter how they run their business. They just generally make it harder for the rest of us because of their bad actions.

Over the years I have found that many bad landlords are not necessarily bad people. Instead they just do not understand or know how to run their landlord business. They fail to do several key things that all landlords must know or do in order to make things run smoothly.

So what are the things that bad landlords don’t do?

  1. Bad Landlords Don’t Screen Their Tenants – There are bad tenants out there that prey on these bad landlords. They smooth talk you into letting them rent your place. They flash a lot of cash upfront. They lie, lie and tell more lies. If you fall for the talk, the cash or the lies you are going to learn a hard lesson. You will likely spend thousands trying to evict them and they can turn a great property into a problem child in a matter of months. Proper screening is perhaps the most important thing a landlord can do to prevent a lot of the other problems we encounter.
  2. Bad Landlords Don’t Understand Cashflow – Cashflow is king in the rental property business. If you bet on anything else, like appreciation, you are setting yourself up for failure. If you are not bringing in enough cash to cover all of your expenses, the bills will creep up on you over time until it is just too much for you to handle and your property goes into a death spiral downward.
  3. Bad Landlords Don’t Fix Things – Not fixing things when they break often leads to a death spiral for a property. How? Something breaks, then tenants complain, things remain unrepaired, then tenants start to leave. This spiral does not happen overnight, but rather slowly. Good tenants are simply not going to put up with a lack of service and repairs. These landlords may think they are saving money. But in the long run they are shooting themselves in the foot.
  4. Bad Landlords Don’t Do Preventive Maintenance – Speaking of things breaking, some things will break if you do not do a little preventive maintenance. These landlords again think they are saving money, but they are not. Condensers simply need cleaning, filters need changing, walls need painting, etc, etc. I hate spending the money as well but I have come to learn that if I do not spend it now I will end up spending a lot more later on.
  5. Bad Landlords Don’t Have House Rules – House rules are a very important part of your lease (You are at least using a lease right?). House rules spell out when people should be quiet, when and how long guests can stay, where trash should be placed, if you can use candles (Nope!), and whatever else you feel you need to include to maintain a desirable property. We go over our house rules word for word with our tenants during the move in process to be sure they are understood. It shows tenants we care about our properties and it helps insure that there are no misunderstandings later on.
  6. Bad Landlords Don’t Train Their Tenants – No, I do not mean train like a dog on a leash. What I mean is if you do not set out the rules from the start and enforce them (see above), your tenants will learn to take advantage of you. So, you must train them early on that you are not one to be taken advantage of. If they are late on the rent, charge the late fee. Otherwise they will learn it is ok to be late. If there are complaints from other tenants, give a warning notice, quickly. Otherwise they will learn that their behavior will be tolerated and that it is useless to complain. You have to be very proactive with your tenants. The old saying is true, if you give some of them an inch, they will take a mile.
  7. Bad Landlords Don’t Keep Learning – Every day is a new day that brings new people and new experiences. You cannot just keep dealing with these new experiences the same old way. You have to keep learning and keep adapting your business or you will simply get left behind. This is one reason that I find my local REIA so important. The education and networking opportunities that are available just cannot be found anywhere else.

 

Don’t be a bad landlord. Do the seven items listed above. You will be amazed how much smoother your business, and your life, will be.

 

What else do you think bad landlords fail to do? Let me know what I left off my list with your comments.

Do You Now Have To Rent To Felons?

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HUD recently announced some new guidelines that have been causing quite a stir in the landlording world.   You might think the stir was all caused by the catchy title, “Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate Related Transactions.”  Instead the stir was caused by the misconception that HUD was telling landlords they could no longer discriminate against those with felony convictions. That those with murder, rape or child pornography convictions could no longer be denied housing on that basis alone.

That would certainly cause quite a stir, but it is not the case.

However, these new guidelines from HUD do mean that landlords will have to rethink and retool their rental standards.

Vena Jones-Cox over at regoddess.com did a nice job of explaining the new guidelines and what they mean to us landlords. With permission, I reprint her analysis below.

“So Now I Have to Rent to FELONS?” What the new HUD rule actually says about applicants with criminal records

On April 4th, HUD released a statement entitled “Guidance on Application of Fair Housing Standards to the Use of Criminal Records by Providers of Housing and Real Estate Related Transactions” that immediately set the landlording world abuzz with the news that we could no longer “discriminate” against felons.

Like most incursions by the government into our private property rights, this one spawned a great deal of wrath, and a lot of angry speculation and half-truths regarding what the statement actually “means”.

First, to be clear, this is NOT a new “law”.

It’s what is euphemistically called “guidance” by HUD, which, in this case, is acting as the arbiter and policing force behind fair housing law. So while no actual change to federal law has occurred, we can assume that, going forward, this “guidance” has the force of law, at least insofar as fair housing testing and enforcement is concerned.

In other words, while congress has made no law, and the courts have made no decision in regards to this new policy, it IS one that HUD will use to prosecute housing providers that “break” it.

Second, in order to understand why HUD thinks that whether or not you rent to felons is a discrimination issue AT ALL, it’s important to understand the “Doctrine of Disparate Impact”.

Back in 1968, when the Civil Rights Act defined housing discrimination as the “refusal to sell or rent a dwelling to any person because of his race, color, religion, or national origin” (other categories of “protected classes” were added later in both the Federal and State and Local laws), discrimination was understood to be an intentional, if not overt, act.

It was widely recognized that housing providers, sellers, agents, and lenders who intended to keep members of certain classes out of housing didn’t always just say “No Chinese Allowed”—instead, they engaged in subtle behaviors like “steering” (“I think you’d be happier in this neighborhood over here than in the one you said you wanted”), claiming units were rented when members of one class called but available when others did, and other discriminatory conduct.

What these had in common with more run-of-the-mill “We don’t rent to your kind”  acts was that they were all intentional efforts to keep certain people out of certain neighborhoods or properties based on their membership in a protected class. As such, they clearly fit into the definition of “discrimination”, and thus were violations of the law.

However, as time passed (and both overt and covert real discrimination lessened in the U.S.), fair housing “thinking” began to evolve to include the idea that even completely unintentional acts, if the effects of those acts served to limit the housing choices of protected classes, could be discriminatory, illegal, and punishable by law.

One of the early situations to which the disparate impact doctrine was applied was in occupancy limits. Landlords who created policies that limited the number of people allowed in a unit—for instance, “I won’t rent my 2 bedroom apartment to more than 3 people”, were accused of discriminating against families with children because, obviously, such families would be more impacted by such a policy than families without children

The fact that the reason behind these policies has to do with the economics of owning rentals (more occupants use more utilities and do more damage) does not stop them, under the Doctrine of Disparate Impact, from being illegal.

While the idea that you can be prosecuted for unknowingly and unintentionally discriminating might seem dangerous and unfair, the Supreme Court did uphold it in a 2015 decision, saying that the Civil Rights Act does govern any and all policies that create “artificial, arbitrary, and unnecessary barriers” to housing based on “statistical disparities”.

So what has disparate impact and statistical disparities got to do with felons?

Please read the rest here.

An Open Letter From A Landlord To (a few) Tenants

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By Jeff Wallach

Hate mail? Really? That’s what it’s come to?

Despite what you think, I’m not your enemy. Yes, I own rental property that you’d like to live in, and yes, rents are high — not as high as in many cities, but certainly high for Portland, given its population of folks like you who make art and save honeybees and wish to live well in a hip metropolis full of bicycling nonprofit workers.

For the record, I am also an artist, and I actually save honeybees and support nonprofits, too! And I ride a bicycle!

But additionally, I have worked seven days per week for more than 25 years — and assumed great financial risk — to afford the property that you are so angry about.  

Whatever your politics, we’re still residing in a capitalist society. And just as you hope to make a few dollars on the reggae hats you’ve been knitting to sell at the farmers market, rent is the way I get paid for all my time and effort and money spent taking a nearly ruined 100-year-old building — the kind of house that makes Portland unique and that you rail against demolishing — and repairing all the neglect that the truly bad landlords allowed, rather than knocking it down and making scads more money than I ever could by lovingly restoring this century-old landmark.

And just for the record, I’ve had hundreds of renters who would tell you that I’m actually a tenant advocate — that I let them slide on late rent (even the third time and despite the fact that I still have to pay my full mortgage. I’ve even reversed a rent raise because the tenants couldn’t afford it.)

 

Click here to continue to read Brother Wallach preach on.

Stuff Nobody Tells You About Getting An Apartment

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There is some good info in here. A good read for anyone getting ready to look for their first apartment.

 

STUFF NOBODY TELLS YOU ABOUT GETTING AN APARTMENT

This’ll cover the basics, such as financial expectation, rental history, what to bring for the application process, etc.

This information is based on renting in an apartment owned/managed by a commercial property owner in the USA. That being said, much of this can be applied to any first-time renter.

FIRST PLACE?: Don’t sweat it. What’s likely is you’ll have a higher deposit, or need lots of references, or have a longer lease. You may have to deal with being rejected because they assume with you being young that you’re not mature, or that you tend to party. This is a stereotype that, unfortunately, you can’t really fight. Keep looking, don’t give up. Come prepared with reference letters from employers, non-family friends you’ve known at least a year, volunteer mentors. This will make you look awesome.

If you can get out on your own without any hitches, you should do it. If you’re in the process of getting booted out by family because they don’t want to support you anymore, or you’ve had enough and are deciding to save up the smallest amount possible to get out fast (see “how much should I save?”), as long as you follow the rest of the steps below, all should be well.

Sometimes (not always; just sometimes) when you live in an area where the rent is just not in your price range at all and you don’t want to move away from a place you know, it helps to have a friend who’s been apartment renting a while and becoming roommates. You essentially ride in on their rental history and in doing so, you build up some cred yourself. Plus, then you have not only your future manager’s reference, but a personal/roommate reference. Everyone should have a couple roommates in their life, so they can figure out how to co-habitate. Family doesn’t count, and be careful housing with close friends because it might test your friendship. You might be saying “Oh, no! We’re best friends! If I can’t live with my best friend—” but trust me: long-term friendships have ended because of roommate situations. After doing this, then you can live completely on your own. Keep in mind with regard to moving in with someone who is already in an apartment: you need to be put on the lease. Some properties have very strict rules regarding this — it’s called subletting, and it can put you in major trouble down the line.

If you don’t have a credit card, consider getting one. Buy little things on credit you know you can afford; pay them off within the first two weeks of purchasing them. What this does is increase your credit score, which looks good on your background check. Do this early and often, and you’ll look awesome. Don’t trust credit cards? Check if your bank will let you take out a personal loan. Make it smallish, ranging $350-$500. Go on a mini-vacation, or buy yourself a video game console, or a couple new outfits that are in fashion. Pay it back monthly in double the minimum payment, and pay on time. Having credit is essential if you want an apartment. Also, having this little cache of… cash… will help you with your moving costs.

Read the rest here.