For more information and showing appointments:
Text or Call Shelly & David at 845-629-4878,
or email us @ HudsonValleyNewYorkHomes.com

FIRST STEPS to prepare to get your rental home

Prove who you are financially...

Your new landlord will want you to provide documentation that supports that you are financially secure and are able to cover your rent and expenses over the time of your lease. In the event that you are under consideration at the same time that another renter is applying for the same house, the supporting documents for each renter will be what the landlord uses to make their tenant choice. This is where the landlord begins to trust you - when you have good and documented financial stability it is a sign that you are capable of the basic caretaking necessary to not mess up his property and also keep your end of the financial bargain. The following list is fairly complete, and you should bring all of these docs together into one file folder NOW so that when you decide on a house to rent - you will be ready to act quickly.

Know that, IF you like the house, regardless of how long it has been on the market, there is a very good chance that someone else will want the same house at the same time that you do. You're not the only one who can tell good value when they see it. Why two renters competing at the same time? Don't ask for an explanation on that, just know that if fits into the reason why there is a "Murphy's Law."

So the best plan is to be ready with all of this stuff BEFORE you find a house to rent. Even if you don't use Shelly & David to help you find a rental house, the "prove yourself" with documentation requirement will be the same for any house you rent, anywhere.

The List:

1. A Rental Application. This is a document where you list all of your current information. Name, address, phone numbers, email addresses, Social Security Number, employer and employment information, etc. Here is the Rental Application we use, in pdf format.
2. A copy of your driver's license or passport to prove who you are.
3. An up to date CREDIT REPORT. Don't use one that you got a year ago, what you'll need is one that is less than a month old. Your Credit Score will provide your new landlord with third-party validation that your ability to pay for your expenses and rent on time is good.
   If you have a great credit score, you do not need to provide the whole report, just the one page that shows the credit score number. When your credit report is not so good, the whole report may have information inside that indicates you have taken care of the problem, and you will want to include the entire report.
   There are many companies who provide these, among them are AnnualCreditReport.com, Experian, Equifax, TransUnion , and then of course the one you are probably most familiar with, complete with the rock band.
   We're not endorsing any of these companies, you could just as easily go to your favorite search engine and search on "credit report" and find many more. But we are suggesting that you make a credit report choice and go to them now and get it done - so you have it ready when you need it.
4. Pay Check Stubs showing your income from the present, and going back over a month or so, for each person who will be contributing to the monthly expenses and rent. If you are self employed, you probably won't have pay check stubs, so you will need to use your tax records, W2s and end-of-year tax filings, to substantiate your earnings history.

Once you have your document list completed and collected together, make at least two copies of everything, collected together in three stacks ( one original and two copies, of items 1 thru 4). Then you'll be able to hand-off a set of documents to your REALTOR when you first meet with them, so they are ready to act quickly on your behalf. The second copy is for just in case Murphy shows up at some point.

You will want to keep the originals together in the event your prospective landlord requests to see any original when you meet to sign the lease. Yes, it is a bit of work to gather all this stuff together, but the payoff will come when you get the house over another person who was not so well prepared to tell their financial story.

Now back to your search for a new home.

One last thing...in case you are renting for the first time, you may want to know what a lease document looks like. There many different lease documents, probably as many as there are attorneys to write them...but here is one we have used in the past.