Renting a home is not always as simple as looking at a home and saying “I’ll take it”, there is a little more involved. Remember, the landlord or property manager does not know you personally. They don’t know who will be a great tenant and who will be a bad tenant. For this reason, the better we prepare and structure our offer, the more likely we are to secure the house we want to rent.
Please remember that real estate agents work on commissions, for this reason we ask that you remain loyal to our Realtors, and they will remain loyal to you. Not just will our agents make sure to protect your best interest, but will work as hard as they can to ensure you find the best rental home to suit your needs.
But let’s discuss some of the step involved in renting a home:
Finding a Rental Home – with OCS Realty you can either search on our Rental Home MLS database which contains all the rental homes listed for rent, or send us your information using our Rental Home Finder service and we will find rental homes for you in the South Florida area.
If you browsed our Rental Home MLS, send us a email with the homes you would like to see and we will schedule the appointments for you.
Once you find a home that you are interesting in renting, we have to prepare a package to send to the property manager or landlord – this containing your offer to rent, rental application, tenant screening, landlord reference letter (or rental verification) and copy of your earnest money deposit – for the property manager or landlord. so let’s go over exactly what these are:
Offer to rent: This is an offer, much like if you were buying a house. The offer to rent contains the amount of rent you are offering to pay, and other terms of the lease (such as who is responsible for the water bill, who pays for what repairs, who is responsible for lawn maintenance…etc.). An offer to rent secures the property from the time it’s executed by both parties until the time a lease has been executed and you have assumed possession of the home.
Rental application: Almost every landlord will require a rental application – it’s best to be better prepared than the competition. You can download a copy of the rental application here. Complete the form with your information and keep it handy until we find a rental home you wish to rent.
Tenant screening: This is a report with information about the person(s) who are going to rent the home. A tenant screening includes a credit rating, background check, and eviction report. Almost every landlord is going to require this – if you were the landlord would you want to know criminal history and eviction history on your tenant? You can purchase this on our tenant screening page.
Our tenant screening does not provide the landlord with a full credit report, but a credit rating – this is to protect you from possible harm while showing the rating, score, and history on your credit. The tenant report includes a criminal history check, and eviction report which shows if the applicant has ever been evicted.
Landlord Reference letter or Rental Verification: To make things easy we have prepared a from you can send your landlord or property manager for them to complete and send to our office. You can download the form on this link – Rental Verification form
Earnest Money Deposit: Just like when buying a home, when renting a home it is common practice to deposit one month’s rent in an escrow account pending the outcome of the rental offer. (read more here)
Securing a Lease: Before you can move in to your new home, we need to secure a lease articulating the terms of the lease. This protects you and the landlord. The lease is a binding contract which states all the terms which govern possession of the property. Your rental Real Estate agent will ensure you understand each term and condition on the lease prior to it’s completion.
Depending on the type of property you are renting, there are several different types of leases. Each is specially designed for a particular property – but we will make sure the correct lease is written.
