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what's of you guys it's Graham here so I don't think this topic has really been covered much before on YouTube we've all been focused on buying properties investing in them and then renting them out to tenants as a landlord but what if just hear me out here what if you are the tenant like what if you're renting a home for yourself to live in I think that's a hugely underserved topic here on YouTube so we're gonna change that up today and this video is really meant to be a complete tutorial and guide to everything you need to know when you're renting a home that includes everything you need to know everything you must get in writing all the biggest red flags to look out for when signing a lease agreements and also the best ways and the best techniques to negotiate a very low price and save a ton of money anytime you're renting a home so it's basically everything you need to know and by the way these types of videos always take me forever to plan to film to edit and post up on YouTube so if you wouldn't mind just destroying that like button if you haven't already and we'd be good that's it let's get in the video okay so step one the first thing you must do anytime you're looking for a rental is to make a list of must-haves that you cannot live without for example be totally clear with how many bedrooms you need how many bathrooms you need if you need a yard if you need a pool if you need a car elevator to take your Lamborghini up to the master bedroom and so on these are items that should be non-negotiable that you cannot live without now with this you should really also figure out how much you want to spend on rent every month now my recommendation is that the rental payment should not exceed three times your monthly income so this means if you're making $4,500 a month your rental payment should not exceed $1,500 per month now obviously this is just a rule of thumb some people don't mind paying 50% of their income towards their housing other people wouldn't want that to exceed 20% so it really depends on the individual but my personal recommendation is that the rental payment should not exceed three times your income so step two is to then see as much as you can on the market I don't recommend just getting impatient and going and leasing the first place that you see don't do this I think it's a good idea to see as much as you can on the market get a really good understanding of what else is out there start to see what the going rates are for places and this is also how you end getting the best deal now here in the United States I highly recommend that you look on Craigslist I think it's totally underappreciated you can find some really amazing leases on there and this is probably the best website out there if you want to try to find something that's a really good deal renting below market value and many landlords with Craigslist have absolutely no idea what they're doing they had no idea what their places worth and they use really really really bad pictures that are shot with like the wrong side of their iPhone so if you watch the site very closely you can often snag a pretty good deal now in addition to sites like Craigslist I also recommend using realtor com apartments com Zillow Trulia Redfin my recommendation is probably to use all of them because you'll find that some rentals are on like one site but not another for some reason because landlords have no idea what they're doing so I recommend just watching all of them to try to find the best deal you can now one huge tip I can give you in doing this and this is how you'll end up getting the best deal possible at the lowest price be the first one to call on it and be the first one to see it in person and also when you're the first to see it and you see that it's a really good deal or you can get it under market value and it's the perfect place submit an application immediately do not wait do not try to be like oh well do it tomorrow morning I'm tired tonight no no just get it done immediately so step three is that when it comes time to submit an application make sure you ideally have everything ready ahead of time and as a landlord myself when a tenant has all of yours together it just really sets such a positive tone from the very beginning that they're prepared that they're organized that because of that they're likely to take good care of the house and they're likely to pay the rent on time now in terms of having everything together and everything ready to go I highly recommend you get a credit car my credit report together ahead of time now even though most landlords will probably want to do their own credit check this is totally fine at least if you have this it can give them a bit of a ballpark about where your credit is the second thing is that you should have some proof of income already ready to go this means you could have a w-2 or if you're self-employed maybe a few months bank statements or a tax return showing proof of income a third is I recommend you have two to three months worth of bank statements if the landlord asks them of you I would say maybe 30 to 40 percent of landlords will ever actually ask for sort of bank statements I typically do because I want to make sure that there's nothing weird going on there because I've had bad experiences in the past so just be aware that this might be something that they may want to see and lastly I have a copy of your driver's license ready to go so that way when they ask for it you could just submit it along their way and it's easy the most landlords and property management companies will have their own application that they'll want you to fill out so I recommend as soon as you get it fill it out as quick as possible and send it back to them immediately I can't stand the tenants who love the place they ask for an application immediately but for some reason it takes them like five days to get it back and then when they finally get it back and like sorry someone else took it and they're like but no we really wanted it well if you really want it you submit it back immediately especially when you find a really good place and it's a really good deal time is of the essence now step four is negotiating the rental price and the terms now this is the really fun part here now of course though if they price their place really aggressively to rent it out immediately and it's under market value don't negotiate the deal don't lose it just get it it's more important to get the right place but if it's been sitting on the market a little while or you think you can get the price down these are some of the techniques that I've used in the past that work extremely well and I say this as both a landlord who's rented out places to tenants and I also say this is a real estate agent who is represented probably over a hundred leases in the past for clients who are renting homes and this is what I do now the first technique is really nothing new it's nothing revolutionary but just offering five to ten percent below what they're asking and see if they go for it now sometimes this could be a little bit aggressive but every now and then you'll get a landlord who just says you know what fine I'll go for it knowing that they won't have to worry about renting it in the future they won't have to keep coming back and showing it and they'll just take a done deal right now even though it might not be at the top price you know what at least they haven't rented especially do this if you're a really good tenant with great income and great credit as a landlord myself I would rather take a lower price for the perfect tenant then get above market price for a tenant that could be risky or could be problematic in the future now secondly if they say no to the first request then see if you can negotiate the price down by all going to move in sooner now from a landlord's perspective every day a unit or a home sits empty is lost income in their pocket so sometimes if you just tell them I'll move in immediately and you're gonna have no more lost rent whatsoever sometimes just mentioning this gets it in their head that wait a second they're actually saving some money by having you move in sooner now third if the landlord just doesn't want to budge whatsoever on their price and they want their number see instead if they'll offer you some free rent now doing this does two things for you this means it a ver ajiz out to be a slightly lower price over the course of a year when you get some free rent and from the landlord's perspective it means they get their asking price for example if the landlord is asking $3,000 per month in rent you could offer two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars but if they say no you can go back to them and say okay I'll give you the three thousand dollars per month if you just give me one month of free rent now over the entire year this averages out to be the exact same thing to you as if you would pay two thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars but from the landlord's perspective they think to themselves who I'm getting my three thousand dollars per month and they're more likely to take it but that's the technique I've used a lot as a real estate agent and I got to tell you it works wonders now a fourth way to negotiate is that you can offer to prepay some of the rent ahead of time and landlords love this for example you can offer to prepay the first three months of your lease or pay your rent in three-month increments and sometimes the strategy works really well with landlords who just want the peace of mind that they're going to be paid on time and finally the last way to negotiate a lower rental price is by signing a long term lease and locking in your rent long term and doing something like this works tremendously well when you know you're gonna be living there long term and you don't want to risk the landlord just like raising the rent and jacking it up a considerable amount the next year to try to get the most amount of money possible so at least you can tackle all of these things ahead of time and lock in the lower rate long term now one more thing I want to throw in here really quickly as just an additional step find out who is going to be managing the property and then see how attentive they are like if it's a management company are they easy to be in contact with are they attentive to any of your questions or concerns or if it's the owner who's renting it out do they live nearby do they live on-site are they going to be him repairs themselves or they going to be outsourcing it to another company that you need to contact no I've noticed that generally speaking management companies tend to be extremely professional and have a lot of business practices already in place by the time you rent but some of the do-it-yourself landlords on the other hands can be an entirely different story you'll find that some landlords absolutely hate being a landlord and they just want to be as hands-off as possible now sometimes this works to your advantage because they're not gonna be on you about anything they just let you do your thing but on the other hand you also get landlords that refuse to get anything repaired they don't want to deal with it you can't reach them things go deferred and it's just a it's a nightmare to deal with before I found you have the exact opposite of that with landlords that are too involved because they have nothing better to do and this is especially common with what I like to call retired landlords that don't really work they have nothing to do and this is their main profession so they sit around all day and they're bored and they just invent problems to keep them busy throughout the day and those people could be nightmares to deal with because they thrive on drama because they have nothing to do so at least ahead of time figure out some background on the landlord if they seem like a good fit and if they seem like the type of landlord you even want to have in the first place all right so now I think we're on step five so assuming you found the right place you negotiated a good deal and you have a good feeling about the landlord or property manager it's time to then review the lease agreement now here is my biggest piece of advice that you must do no matter what in every single situation and that smash the like button kidding but for real though this is actually something that's really really really important and that is get everything in writing no matter what always and it's so sad to say but a verbal agreement in a handshake means absolutely nothing in real estate I have seen it before where landlords have said to the clients face yes this is going to be included let's shake on it there you go and then it's not included and then the landlord says I never said it was included it's not on the rental agreement I didn't agree to that and we're sitting there like you literally agreed to this and you shook the guy's hand and I was a witness of this we all saw it and allowance as well it's not on the rental agreement sorry guys and guess what the landlord is right about it because if it's not on the rental agreement verbal agreements mean nothing so I think this goes without saying if there's anything that's ever agreed to when you shake the other person's hand you say okay well here's the rental agreement let's just write this in and we'll initial right next to it because that's what you need to do now in addition to that you're also going to need to read through the rental agreement word by word to make sure there's nothing unusual in there now here are some specific things that I like to pay attention to the first one is when does the lease start and end the second is what is the security deposit the third is what is the late fee and when is the late fee applied also you want to find out if there's any parking included and whether or not there is storage included you also want to find out who is responsible for gardening and whether or not any pets are allowed and if there are pets allowed if there are any pet restrictions you also want to find out if smoking is allowed which by the way is a really nasty habit you shouldn't smoke so don't do that but if you are a smoker find out if that's allowed you also didn't want to clarify which appliances are included in the lease and if they are included if they come with or without a warranty you'll also want to find out which utilities are included if any and whether or not the owner is okay with subletting and most importantly like I had mentioned before all of these need to be explicitly clarified and written in the lease agreement with no exceptions to this even if the landlord seems like the nicest person in the entire world and just says you know trust me we don't need to put in here just trust me on it you can trust me don't don't trust them okay so with that out of the way I don't need to be a Debbie Downer with that one but number six before you move in make sure you take pictures of everything and this is really to document the condition of the home prior to your move in so that way you aren't held responsible for anything that was pre-existing like they say a picture is worth a thousand words so make sure you document everything with photographs prior to your move in and you get any close-ups of any defects cracks damage or anything else that's noticeable then you'll send all of this to the owner and you guessed it have them verify receipt of that email in writing so just take the 20 minutes it takes to photograph everything just before you move in so that way it'll help you out tremendously by the time you leave know step 7 when it comes to doing this is make sure you get renters insurance now this is separate insurance that covers you and your belongings in the event of any damage and many tenants seem to think that the landlord's insurance policy should cover their couch in the event there's a leak and it ruins their amazing leather couch no no it doesn't instead you'll need your own renter's insurance policy for anything that might come up and this is insanely cheap I've seen most renters insurance policies between $100 and $200 per year that can cover you between 20 thousand up to a hundred 150 thousand dollars worth of damage seriously just always do this no matter what because it's so cheap and I write in all of my lease agreements that the renter is to carry renters insurance at all times throughout the duration of their lease just to protect me and I want to make sure that all of their stuff is protected and there's no confusion about if something happens who's covering what number eight and this is something I didn't plan but I just thought of it and I thought it was so important to put it in this video because a lot of people will eventually at some point come across this and these are rental scams now what a lot of these scam artists do is they take real homes that are actually available for rent or for sale and then they post them up on Craigslist or apartments calm or anything else where they can input it themselves then what they do is they price the rental under what it should be renting for so a lot of people go and see this great deal and then inquire about it and then typically they'll say I'm not any area right now I want to rent it to a really good family and almost always they say they're in the military because they feel like people will trust them more if they're like serving for the country so what they'll end up doing is saying I'm I'm out of the country but if you just put down a thousand dollar deposit I'll have the key you know sent to you really quick or something like this they just want to deposit they just want anywhere between five hundred bucks and sometimes two thousand dollars to hold this property and then they can move in then what happens is that they often ask for something like crypto currency a Western Union or sometimes even like a random wire transfer sometimes even over sieze because that's where they're located and then what happens is once you wire the money you never hear back from them now some of the ways to protect yourself with this is always meet and see someone in person at the property typically these scam artists will never actually have access to the property so if you don't see the home in person do not rent it do not rent a home remotely and do not ever send any sort of deposit or anything like this until you have a signed lease agreement and also of course I think it goes without saying that if a deal sounds way too good to be true it's probably a scam but now with all of that said assuming now you rented a place that's that's not a scam because don't don't get scammed that's it and those are some of the best techniques as a tenant to go and get a great deal on a rental property long term that you're gonna be really happy with and this is basically my specialty that got me started in real estate to begin with is with leases and this is everything that I've learned from A to Z that helps tremendously well from a tenants perspective so with that said you guys thank you so much for watching I really appreciate it if you guys enjoy videos like this make sure to smash that subscribe button destroy that notification bells YouTube notifies you any time I upload a video and you could be a part of the notification squad also feel free to add me on snapchat and Instagram I post there pretty much daily so if you want to be a part of it there add me on there then finally I have a private Facebook group for anyone who's interested in real estate real estate investing real estate in anything real estate add yourself to that group links in the description thank you again for watching and until next time