Posted by David Krulac on April 05, 2003 at 17:53:03:
state law and local custom, as well as market conditions determine security deposit. Here in Pa. you can’t charge more than 2X rent during the 1st year and no more than 1X rent during the second year.
Most places charge 1X rent, but some places are doing $100 or no security as an ad attraction.
most places charge only a nominal fee $10 -$50 per month and/or an additional pet deposit.
again local custom and what the market is used to.
we get 1st month + deposit = 1 month, we stop there.
Does a bear #$%^ in the woods?
nice first name. read the classified to see what your competiton is doing. I talked to a landlord today who’s renting a 3 bedroom house for $495. That’s way under rented probaly $200-$300 per month that the landlord is under market. The tenant is moving out. I want to know what that tenant is thinking leaving a place that is 40% under rented.
Somebody i know was going to China for a year, didn’t give up their NYC rent control apartment since they would never be able to get that rent again, or that apartment again. Paying the year’s rent and NOT using the apartment was cheaper!
I’ll be placing a condo I purchased on the market in a few weeks, however, I’m new to this stuff.
How do I determin a reasonable amount for a security deposit?
I will accept a cat in the unit. What is reasonable for a pet ‘fee’ of some sort?
How do I determin a reasonable amount for a cleaning deposit?
Since not everyone can come up w/first, last month, security, and a cleaning deposit in one shot, how do you portion this out to keep the tenant, but not hoooozzz yourself?
Do you do credit checks on applicants (i.e., use a service)?
For myself I try to get vacancies rented quickly. I usually charge a low deposit and a slightly higher rent to get people in. In my area most folks ask for a deposit equal to one months rent. Seems having to pay that large of a deposit and the first months rent is quite expensive, especially for a condo. The majority of corporate apartment complexes (your compition) only require a couple hundred dollars.
I would see what your compition is doing and go equal or lower.
As a general rule I usually charge around 50% of what a single months rent would be. Or, I charge the amount it took me to clean and fix up the place from the last renter. A small protion of the deposit is non-refundable for cleaning after the new tenant moves.
For pets like a cat I charge a NON-refundable deposit of say $100.
Screen tenants well. Ask for copies of drivers lic., pay check stubs, SS cards. Have them fill out an application. I find many potential tenants will tell me of their bad credit. You can do a credit check, but lets face it, many people to day that are renting have got to have some skelletons in the closet, its just to easy to buy a personal residences with the low rates and all.