Practical guides for self-managing owners.
Written for owners of 1-50 single-family rentals. Straight answers, no fluff, no software pitch.
How to price a single-family rental in 20 minutes
A repeatable process using three data sources to land on a rent that fills fast.
The 12 photos every rental listing needs
The shots that drive inquiries and the ones that quietly kill your listing.
Writing a listing description that filters for quality applicants
Copy patterns that attract long-term tenants and repel the wrong ones.
Building a legally defensible screening rubric
A scoring model that protects you from bad tenants and fair-housing claims.
Fair Housing for landlords: the 60-minute primer
The federal protections you must know, plus the state-level surprises.
The application scorecard we use across 10,000+ applicants
Credit, income, history, and character, weighted, not vibes-based.
Move-in day: the 27-item checklist
Deposits, inspection, keys, utilities. Miss one and you will regret it in month six.
Anatomy of a modern residential lease
Section by section, what to keep, what to cut, what your state actually requires.
Security deposits without lawsuits
Withhold correctly. Document everything. Return on time. A simple framework.
The renewal conversation that keeps good tenants
A three-message sequence that renews at market without losing the relationship.
Why your rental sits vacant (and how to fix it in 72 hours)
A diagnostic: price, photos, listing, or process. Fix the actual cause.
State-by-state landlord guides
Timelines, notices, and forms, organized by state and updated for 2026.