Featured guide
Self-Managed Rental
- Repairs & Maintenance Landlord Reasonable Time to Repair: 24 Hours or 30 Days Six statutes put real hours on the words reasonable time — 24, 48, 72, three days, fourteen. And most of them ask you to start the repair, not finish it.
- Leases & Disclosures Pet Deposit vs Pet Fee vs Pet Rent: Where ESAs Fit in 2026 Three charges, three different statutes, and a HUD memo from May 2026 that moved the line on emotional support animals without touching the Act itself.
- Deposits & Move-Out Security Deposit Itemized List: 14 to 45 Days The deadline runs from termination, surrender, or the tenant's demand — not from the keys. Six states on what the letter must say, and what late costs.
- Applicants & Screening How to Verify Tenant Income and Spot a Fake Pay Stub Two multiplications test a pay stub in about ninety seconds. Three times the rent survives no such test, and Colorado writes a ceiling below three.
- Rent & Numbers Rental Turnover Cost: A Line Item Budget Cleaning, paint, rekeying, photos, screening fees, and the empty days between tenants — three real turnover bills line by line, and the lines your state sets.
- Repairs & Maintenance Repair and Deduct: When a Short Rent Check Is Legal The rent came in $460 short, stapled to a plumber's invoice. Whether that is arrears or a lawful deduction turns on five questions your state statute answers.
- Leases & Disclosures Landlord Required Disclosures: Lead Paint, Mold, State A missing lead pamphlet on a 1962 house carries a $22,263 federal ceiling per instance. Which papers go with the lease, in which states, and for how long.
- Coverage & Risk Requiring Renters Insurance: The Clause and Its Gaps A tenant emails a screenshot of an app screen. That proves nothing. What the clause should say, what document to demand, and where an HO-4 quietly stops.
- Becoming a Landlord Rental Registration Requirements: How to Check Your City Boston bills $300 a month for not registering. Philadelphia switches off your right to collect rent. How to read your own city's code before the lease starts.
- Becoming a Landlord Renting Out Your House: Everyone You Tell First Your mortgage's occupancy covenant has an end date. A homestead exemption does not lapse politely. Six parties to tell before the lease starts, with figures.
- Applicants & Screening Tenant Screening Criteria: Write It Before You List In California, Oregon and Washington the written criteria are what make your application fee lawful in the first place. What belongs on that one page.