After you have screened your tenant and have decided that they are okay to live there, the next step is going to be making sure that you are aware of everything that is wrong in the house before the tenant moves in.  That is why taking a picture of the place before anyone moves in is so important.

When you are a landlord, you are responsible for so many things and you definitely want to make sure that if you get taken to court for anything at all – that you are certainly going to be able to proof your tenants wrong.  Always cover your back!

You also want to make sure that you keep track of any of the repairs that you do to the house or any receipts that you think might be useful.

Becoming a landlord is stressful.  You have to be responsible not only for another person it seems like but also for another house and what happens to that particular house.  There are a ton of things that you need to look for when you become a landlord and in the next couple blogs that is exactly what we are going to touch on.

First and foremost, you need to make sure that you screen all of your tenants.  While you do not want to judge a book by its cover, you certainly want to make sure that you make a smart decision when you allow someone to live in a space that you own.

You also want to make sure that you check up on their credit as well as their rental history, as those can be two key points when you are looking at a new tenant.  More in the next post!

While I am not exactly used to this particular style of renting, I think that this is actually a really great idea.  While you get all of the conveniences of a home, I have to say that the outside really looks awesome too.  Personally – I do not like the complex feel or the look of it – everyone is crammed together in one complex and there is no real personality to it.

With the apartment/house, there is a ton of personality and truly … you do get more than what you get with just one apartment.  You get a full feel of a house and even if you have always lived in an apartment – your floor will look any way that you want it to.

Really – this is a better option if you want not to buy a house but want the feel of it.

Make sure to get a home insurance estimate before you buy a house you're interested in. It's always important to know the full financial picture, and home insurance is an important part of that!

Now, when I first started in the real estate area – I had no idea that there were houses that were actually referred to and rented out as apartments.  While I have heard of duplexes, I did not realize that you could take a three story house and make it so it had kitchens on each floor and bathrooms on each floor along with bedrooms – that is what an apartment house really is.

Currently, I am living in Michigan but I am going to be relocating to the Boston area and I have to say that in Michigan – we don’t have these but Boston is full of them!  That is really all they have besides complexes.  To me – this is a fantastic idea!

These house/apartments are fantastic for people that have dogs and cats for if you are on the bottom level – you get the yard.