AgreementsEtc presents DIY hints!

As an added service to our customers we are looking to provide some additional information directly related to our legal agreements.

With the Residential Lease Agreement being one of our most popular we thought we would kick things off with some information on how to promote your rental property.


Residential Advertising - What to do and How to do it!


There are several types of advertising methods to use when renting your property, and the best to use is, well, ALL OF THEM! Using a variety of advertising mediums will allow you to reach the most amount of people with the least amount of money spent on your part. The kind of advertising that will work best depends on a number of factors, including the characteristics of the particular property, its location, your budget, and whether you are in a hurry to rent.

• Rental Signs
  
  The most common method of advertising is using a “For Rent” sign in front of the property or in one of the windows. This method works best when the property is located in a high traffic area with both pedestrians and vehicles. This method also only works well if the actual property is as attractive as the rental unit inside. If you’ve got a diamond in the rough, which neither the neighborhood or the exterior of the building does justice, you’re better off using another method that won’t discourage renters.
  
  
• Neighborhood Flyers
  
  Most neighborhoods have public bulletin boards at grocery stores, laundromats or coffee shops. Consider posting an ad on one or all of these. Include tear-off strips with your phone number. Consider whether your rental ad will appeal to the people visiting these establishments.
  
  
• Online Listings
  
  Online rental services have dramatically increased in recent years with new online companies popping up everywhere. These services range from a national to a regional scope. Finding one in your area is easy by using your search engine to look for residential renting.
  
  
• Newspaper Ads
  
  Newspaper ads are as traditional as rental signs, and now they’re easily accessible online
  
  Many tenants will begin their search with the classified ads, and those who are from out of town will log on to the local paper from afar. Ads work best in papers that have many residential listings.
  
  Try to target your ads to produce the collection of prospective tenants you want. If you rent primarily to college students, your best bet is the campus newspaper or housing office. To be on the safe side, list also in a newspaper of general circulation.
  
  
• Home and Apartment Searching Services
  
  Searching services are very popular since landlords pay to list their properties and just wait for people that are interested to apply.
  
  
• Word of Mouth
  
  Some landlords find that instead of advertising and having to screen many potential tenants in an effort to sort the good from the bad, it makes better sense to market their rentals through word-of-mouth. This is done by telling friends, colleagues, neighbors, and current tenants. After all, people who already live in your property will want decent neighbors. If you know a vacancy is coming up, you might wish to visit or send a note to all tenants whom you or your manager think well of. Ask them to tell friends or relatives about the available property.
  
  
• University Offices and Corporate Housing
  
  If your rental is near a large college or university, consider posting the rental through their offices. Same goes for big employers nearby with employee assistance programs. Most college and corporate housing offices will list your rental for little or no fee. Corporate housing is often a very good bet for landlords, since you know the tenant has a job, and you also know that the tenant has passed many of the same screening tests that you’ll use.
  

Welcome to 2009!

AgreementsEtc would like to thank all of customers for a fantastic 2008. We have a lot of projects in mind for 2009 so stay posted for more updates!

FREE Legal Forms!

Agreements Etc is giving our visitors more great reasons to let us continue to provide them with the best in online legal documents. We are now offering the following Agreements FREE of charge! Check it out today.

Cancel Lease Form

The Cancel Lease Form allows a Landlord and Tenant to mutually cancel a Lease Agreement. A Notary Public statement is also included in the purchased version.

To get your own copy of this agreement please scroll to the bottom of this page.

The Agreements Etc. Library has added even more great forms, check them out today!

Photo Copyright Agreement

Our new copyright document allows a photographer to grant a user a license to display a specific photo. To obtain your own copy of this agreement please visit Agreements Etc. Everyday, Agreements Etc. products are used by hundreds of corporations and professionals around the world. Now you can gain access to the same tools without the need to purchase our full system. Prepare your own customized legal contracts at your leisure, built to your needs.

Storage Agreement

The Storage Agreement allows a Company and Client to outline the terms of storing goods. To obtain a copy of this agreement please scroll to the bottom of this page. Fast, easy to use, and inexpensive, find out why so many people visit our library each day.

Breach of Lease

This Notice of Breach of Lease allows you to inform a Tenant that they have breached the lease agreement and gives them time to correct the issue. To obtain a copy of this agreement please scroll to the bottom of this page.

Non-Compete

Prevent an employee from competing with your company with this Non-Compete Agreement, outline terms and timelines. Obtain a copy of this agreement and browse our library today!

Collection Deman Letter

The Collection Demand Letter allows you to ask that an outstanding debt be paid. This can be used if a payment is missed on a Promissory Note, Rental Agreement or other contractual obligation. To obtain a copy of this agreement please scroll to the bottom of this page.

Exclusive Sales RIghts

This Exclusive Sales Rights Contract allows an owner to outline exclusive rights for an agent to sell or resell a product. To obtain a copy of this agreement please scroll to the bottom of this page.

Consultant Agreement

This Consultant Agreement allows the company and consultant to outline a business relationship. This document contains various clauses that may or not be needed. After you purchase the document you will be provided with a downloadable document that can be saved to your computer and edited to meet your specific needs. Visit our library for other agreements too!

Non-Disclosure

Protect your sensative information with this Non-Disclosure Agreement. Outline the length of the agreement and detail provisions for when the Agreement has ended. To obtain a copy of this agreement please scroll to the bottom of this page.

The Mediation Agreement

This Mediation Agreement allows parties to agree to have a mediator settle a dispute. Once the mediator has been chosen, the parties sign a mediation agreement. This agreement generally includes a confidentiality clause and sets the fees for the mediator’s services. It also states the objective of the mediation and provides a framework for the process. Take advantage of our inexpensive and easy to use agreements today!

Commission Agreement

This Commission Agreement allows a Company and an Agent to outline the terms of commission to be paid, the length of the agreement and more! Inexpensive, easy, and secure, you can find many more agreements in our library now.

Notice of Rent Increase

Complete a Notice of Rent Increase form to let your tenants know that you are increasing the rent. Some states mandate that you give a 60-day notice of rent increase. But, even if your state doesn't, it's a good idea to give your tenants at least 60 days notice before increasing the rent. This and many other Landlord/Tenant agreements can be found at Agreements Etc.

NEW: Booth Rental Agreement

Our Booth Rental Agreement allows a Landlord to outline conditions for a Tenant to rent a booth or space for commercial use. Please visit the agreements site for more information.

To use our online forms, like rental agreements, lease agreement, power of attorney, bill of sale, sales agreements and many more, just click on the links or go to our library page. Remember that you can choose between Canadian regulated agreements and American contracts on selected online agreements.

Internet Consumer Report 2007

The Internet Consumer Report is an independent body that provides unbiased detailed reports and expert opinions about commercial websites. For our valuable consumers, we will advise them about the service quality experiences we have had and will, as well, give an official ranking depending on that experience following our guidlines.

To help make it easier to understand the guidelines Internet Consumer Report (ICR) uses when ranking websites, our experts have decided to outline the four major variables. These guidelines detail information on Customer Service, Security, Usability, and Website Design. All categories ranked by ICR, are ranked slightly different and have two additional variables depending on the category in which they are being reviewed.

Websites that achieve a rank are entitled to display our numbered Seal of Approval on their website. Consumers that recognize the Seal , can use it as a link to our database to confirm authenticity that the site has been rated and approved.

Check it out!

Parking Agreement

The Parking Agreement allows a landlord to outline parking conditions for a Tenant including, but not limited to, the payment schedule, liability issues, emergency situations, and late charges.

Informative, easy to understand, and designed to give you top security and flexibility with you in mind. You can edit, customize and preview your document before buying anything!

To obtain a copy of this agreement please visit AgreementsEtc.

The Separation Agreement

To help settle your seperation easily and affordably, our Separation Agreement is designed to give you maximum protection without giving up the flexibility to include your specific needs. After answering some straight forward questions you can preview your document instantly online!

The current version is focused on Marriage with Children, please check back for other agreement types coming soon.

The Downloadable Rental/ Lease Agreement

Most websites offer generic, fill-in-the-blank, documents that are not customized for your specific situation. When purchasing those documents, you are not shown what they contain. With Agreements Etc you are able to see exactly what your document will look like before you buy it.

In our standard version of our lease and rental agreement the preview allows you to see what the document contains before you decide to purchase a copy of it. If you elect to purchase a copy, you will be able to download it in various formats, including editable Word format for your convenience.

In addition, we offer an interactive, customized version of a lease agreement. It is more detailed and tailored to your needs and is perfect for a situation when you have enough time to update the details prior to meeting with the tenant.

http://www.agreementsetc.com/rental-lease

Mastering the Landlord-Tenant Relationship

One of the most important duties of a Landlord is to find and keep good tenants. After all, they provide the flow of lifeblood for developed properties - rent, income, filled units. A no-vacancy building might not always be a profitable one, but it's a good start. So how do you keep a steady stream of eager and reliable tenants, ready to beat a path to your front door?

There are three main points to remember:

First - Take the time to find the best tenants. Don't let the first person in line walk away witht the keys without doing some homework.

Second - Be cooperative and helpful to promote a good relationship with your tenant. One good long-term tenant is worth two transitory ones.

Third - Be specific and stringent about the requirements for tenancy in your building.

Justin Ford has a lot of good ideas about finding and developing good relationships with tenants.
"I've dealt a lot with tenants," he says. "I've found that there are two categories: Those you 'inherit' when you buy the building, and those you lease yourself. Your hands are tied a little bit with the tenants you inherit. They may or may not be responsible people. But when you buy property under market value, you know that's a possibility. As in all businesses, rain is going to come. You don't freak out about it ... you plan for it."

That's why Justin has a 10 percent vacancy allowance in his budget for every property he buys. By the time the bad apples leave or get edged out, he is never at more than 10 percent vacancy for the year. In fact, overall, he averages less than five percent vacancy a year.

The best way to make sure you get good tenants is to choose them yourself. As Justin says, "Choose your tenants as carefully as you choose your properties." And he has a few tricks of the trade:

-Get as much as your market allows in prepaid rent and security. If your market permits first, last, and a full month's security deposit, get that. But don't just settle for the first warm body with a month's rent and a few hundred dollars deposit. Be choosy about your tenants. At the very least, you want people who are responsible enough to have some savings.

-Make sure your property is very clean and all is in working order. Then put rebates in your lease so it might come out a few dollars cheaper than the competition for timely payers. If you're asking for more in security than the competition upfront, it's OK to net a few dollars less than comps on a monthly basis if your tenants are paying on time. The idea is to have responsible potential tenants competing for your property ... people who will take care of the property, pay on time, and won't constantly be taking up your time. These are things that can be far more valuable than an extra $10 or $20 a month.

-Get a full application upfront and check references. If your would-be tenant has been evicted in the past, you'll almost certainly want to pass (unless there was an extraordinary reason for it, like a legitimate illness).

-Run a legal background check for all prospective tenants. (That will tell you if, for example, they have a criminal record.) You can find out a lot for free on your county's website. And companies like LexisNexis have inexpensive services for background checks.

"Once you've qualified them financially and checked refs and you have a good feeling about them," Justin says, "you can go ahead and lease to them. If things come apart, it will likely be due to extenuating circumstances, and you should be able to work things out - a payment plan or a gradual exit that doesn't leave you with too many out-of-pocket expenses."

Portions of this article were written by Michael Masterson of Early to Rise.

[Early to Rise Copyright ETR, LLC, 2004]

If you'd like to subscribe to Early to Rise or suggest it to a friend,
Please visit: http://www.earlytorise.com/SuccessPartnership.htm

Storing your e-documents

Although you'd hardly know it by looking at your desk, we are already living in a paperless age. More than ever it's likely that a digital document will cross your virtual path, rather than an interloping paper document cluttering up your office, your newspaper basket, your mailbox, or your junk drawer. They often go unnoticed, but their presence, or more accurately, their absence won't go unnoticed for very long, especially if they're critical documents, like life insurance forms, medical forms, or legal forms.

This raises an issue when your computer starts to fill up, or heavens to mergatroid, disaster strikes, and an errant static charge erases your hard drive. E-document storage is a big issue, and big business.

Some websites like docassist.com offer document storage services where you can print, fax, capture, and store any document in your company. Storing the document on a hard drive instead of your office provides a trade-off in security and convenience over the paper format. Doubling up - keeping a paper copy in your safe, and a virtual copy online is probably the most secure, but also somewhat redundant, and it might create a headache when dealing with many similar documents.

One advantage of purchasing a corporate or site license with AgreementsEtc. is that your document stays in our system, within your account, for the entire year. That means that as long as the document is active, with changes that you make being added to new versions, you won't have to worry about where you put the most recent copy of your agreement. It's in your AgreementsEtc. account. And it's fireproof.