Oh, by the way, I NEVER did any credit check on my Indian tenant (frankly speaking, I did not do any credit check on any of my tenants, white, black, chinese, amigo, indian, middle east ...etc) because there is NO need. For people who always pay rent on time, and check never bounced, why bother to do credit check?

This is another reason if you use realtor, you may end up exclude all these great tenants, why? they "do not" have "credit record" in the US yet. Like I was an immigrant, when I came to the US, no bank wanted to give me credit card, am I a bad guy? no! In fact, for all these year, my check never bounced.

I would not recommend you or any American to do this, but I never did credit check on any of my tenants for past dozen years, and I never had a bad tenant. When I see a tenant like the condo, I would just rented it to him, and I told them "I trust you". You know, when you trust a person, a person is trustworthy, and they become your good tenants and good friends.

So, most of my tenants will find tenants for me when they have to move. Just place an ads at Sulekha.com for me and show the condo for me has saved me lots of effort and time.

In general, my lease is open end, so I told them, if they have to move due to job relocation or any hardship, just help me find next tenant, and I will not hold them.

Many of my tenants moved out because they bought a condo/townhouse in the neighborhood, and I helped them by trying to align the moving date. Well, they shall align the date with the next tenant much better than myself. And many new tenants will just assume their pse&g, cable, dish ...etc. They also became good friends.

When they suggested that my stove too old or refrig broken, I always authorize them to buy a good new one and reimburse to them. I normally suggest that their wives to choose because wives are the people use those appliance all the time. I tell you, they are fantastic, some of my tenants helped me to save money visit dozen stores like Home Depot, Lowes, Sears, PC Richard ...etc, and end up get me great one with less money.

Not only appliance. When tenants stay with me for many years, their living standard moving and and request a new kitchen floor, carpet, window ...etc, I also let them to do it and reimburse to them. One tenant's wife told me, now she got all the nice color an pattern of her carpet, kitchen floors, she feel home, she asked me NOT to sell the condo, they want to stay for many more years...

Well, maybe I am too talkable, but you hit the right person on the right question, and I got many more tips to share with you. e.g. when my sister's tenant could not pay rent for 3 months, I paid it for her so that my sister thought the tenant is always good, but her tenant paid me back later. She got car accident down in DC many years back. Now she has been with my sister over 9 years ...

If you want to be a successful investor, you need to keep in mind "buy, buy and buy, but NEVER sell". Why? in the long run real estate ALWAYS out perform any investment. But, if you do not treat your tenant like a brother or sister, you may end up sell your condo prematurely.

My mom's grant father is one of the wealthies landlord in Central Taiwan, and he just kept buying lands and real estate, he never sold any, and he treated all his tenants like his family members. So, do you need to do credit check on your brother? or uncle? I do not.

When my Indian tenant came to me after 911 wanted to rent told me that he did not have job for a year and stayed in friend's living room, now he got a 3 month contact with AT&T, I rented it to him with $200 discount. His family has been with me for all these years, even when he got a contact in Pheonix AZ for a year, he fly back and forth, and even the whole family over, his cousons stayed at my condo till he got a contract back to Wall St.

Later he wanted to a unit with built in washer dryer, and I even helped him to rent my neighbor's unit at top floor with washer/dryer when I saw one.

So, I believe if you treat your tenants like your family members, every tenant is good tenant.

So, how about tenant lost job can not pay me rent? very simple, what happen your brother lost job can not pay rent? you cover for him and help them find job, and once they got a job, everything back to normal. In the mean time, you can refer painting jobs or just any odd jobs he can do to him.

So, give me a "bad tenant", and I would show you how to handle it. I will prove to you a bad tenant can become a great tenant, if you treat them like your family member.

Here is the statistics. very small % of tenant did not pay their rent or late, even durinig recession. Home is the highest priorty to everyone, including tenant. No reasonable tenant or family shall risk "eviction". So, if the rent not coming, visit with gift and find out why? and give your tenant a hand.

Ok, I seemed to be the most qualified person to answer your question because I also have condos in Edison for rent, and I also help many of my friends, colleagues and relatives to invest condos in Edison and advise them to be the best landlord in the world to make money, yet make their tenants happy.

If your condo can walk to train station, congratulations! you can always get a great tenant thru Indian Global Website Sulekha.com http://www.sulekha.com/ free. Michael of Raspberry Ct Edison, walk to Edison Train told me he just placed a rental ads for $1,375 for 1br 1ba condo, and came out over 50 people want to rent because Edison/Blueberry Village rented out till May!!! In fact, I heard Edison Hollow South http://raspberryct.blogspot.com/ just sold out, so is the neighboorhood Edison Manor townhouse http://newjersey.craigslist.org/rfs/565714648.html because many IT professionals from India working at Wall St flood into the area. and Sulekha.com help you to find them, or help them to find you while they are still in India, so you can plan.

For example, when my friend buying a condo in Edison, he is advised to place an ads in Sulekha.com first and get the ball rolling. So, he knows how much to pay. Hey! one of my friend got a tenant working in Wall St willing to pay $1,700 for 2br 2ba condo at Woodhaven http://woodhavenatedison.blogspot.com/ that also walk to Edison Train, so he buys it to rent without missing a day by aligning the closing date and moving date.

Walking to train station (within 2 miles, every one minute walk 0.1 mile, he closer the better) is gold investment in Edison due to the fact Edison train stations has direct line to NYC for only 40 minutes, and most IT professionals from India working at Wall St making 6 digit started with NO car, so walk to train is a MUST requirement.

Also, many IT professionals start with 3 month or 6 months contract, so "forceing them to sign one year lease" like almost all realtor listing does NOT work here. So, the first mistake you could make is to find a realtor to list for you. You shall find your wonderful unit vacant on market for months and your realtor eventually cut your rent down to a few hundreds below the market (well, the MLS rental market is below TRUE rental market here due to this "one year lease" requirement. So, hey! if I were American tenant and can sign one year lease, I would call realtor in Edison, great deal!)

But, do not panic, once 3 or 6 month IT contract expiring, they normally get extended to another year, and, believe or not, many eventually get their Green Card, so they shall stay with your condo at Edison for many years to come. So, keep in mind that 3 to 6 month lease to start with may almost 100% leads to many years long lease. This is another reason you do not want to use realtor if you can handle, why? they shall charge you one month rent EVERY YEAR!!!!

But, why people use realtors, well, if you can not handle by yourself, say, relocate out of state, or you are millionaires, investing on dozens of them like my friend Tech he just bought 3 more 2br 2ba condos at Maple Woods http://maplewoodsatpiscataway.blogspot.com/ and one just rented to a Johnson and Johnson employee relocated here for $1,900. Realtors tend to have huge relocation network.

As to property management, you really do NOT need one, why? If you found an IT professional working at Wall St to rent your condo, they will take care the condo for you, and management is very simple. e.g. they shall just click to wire rent to your bank account every month, always ON TIME! Can you believe? I never heard of any of Indian tenants not paying rent nor late. My brother-in-law told me in India, if your personal check bounced, you got to go to jail. So, I guess maybe we should have that in the US. :-)

Other than collecting rent (nothing to collect, it comes in your bank each month on time), when there is a repair, you need to do is email your tenant a repair person to contact, and many condo community has the community yahoo group like Ajay Patil's EHS group http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EdisonHollowSouthCommunity/ that you can invite your tenant to join, so are you, and they will make friends and neighbors quick, and find help by themselves. e.g. one day my tenant called his car die, could not start, then he found neighbor to charge. Someone going to condo meeting even share the meeting minutes, and board members may be in the group too. So, really nothing to manage.

Like my sister in CA own a condo in Edison for so many years, never changed a tenant, and tenant always sent her 12 post dated checks each year when renew, so she just deduct each check every month. By the way, ask your tenant to get PSE&G Worry Free http://pseg.com/customer/home/install/protect/contracts.jsp and any problem tell your tenant to call PSE&G. My sister gave her tenant $50 credit a month on that.

What else? Oh, remember to send a small gift to your tenant at Xmas time...

You do have a choice of hiring a Property Manager or going it alone. I will discuss both options here:

When hiring a Property Manager, keep in mind that most do charge you a leasing success fee and that virtually all will charge a monthly management fee. These fees are negotiated between you and the individual manager. They may also ask you to pay marketing costs.

Although any Real Estate Agent is able to manage your rental for you, most only "dabble" in management while others are highly skilled and manage properties primarily. This is the person that you want to hire. Look for an extremely strong lease (not one from an office supply store) which will protect you and your investment. Ask for references, when your proceeds will be sent to you, how they handle evictions, what they charge for their services, and what their cancellation policy is.

If you choose to go it alone, you will need to be committed to keeping on top of repairs and rent collection. Marketing can be done for free on craigslist, which I have found to be the best source of renter leads. Another good place to post is Rentals.com. They do charge $39.00/month and up, but I have found their site well worth the money spent. Newspapers ads are a waste of money. You will most likely purchase your lease from an office supply store, but check out other leases so that you can write your own provisions in the blank spaced provided.

Your prospective tenant should have a criminal background check, credit check (FICO of 650 and up is good), and eviction check. You should also call their employer to verify income (or require current paystubs) and call their former landlord to ask if they were good tenants.

The choice is yours to make, however, I would recommend finding a great Property Manager. Of course, I am biased because that is how I make my living. Although the professional Property Manager will cost you money, they can recommend the best rental price for the Property and can often fetch a higher price than you can on your own. They are also skilled at marketing your Property, so it should rent more quickly. The other benefits are that you are not bothered with 3am plumbing issues, rent collection, bookkeeping, and trying to find the vendors and services that you will need. You will also be better protected by the company's lease, and if you have to evict, you will want a management company who can take care of this for you.

A Realtor can help you find a tenant, but very few Realtors are involved w/ property management and collecting the rent, fixing repairs, etc.

The fee for a Realtor to find a tenant may be paid by either the landlord or the tenant. You will have a better selection of possible tenants if you pay the fee. If you elect to have a Realtor assist you in the search for a tenant, you will miss out on some potential renters who will find a property without paying.

Craigslist.com is free, and a great place to start. If you don't find a tenant there, you can try paid advertising, or hiring a Realtor. Expect to pay the Realtor a one time fee, if you elect to hire and pay the Realtor for services. (You can also list it for rent with the fee being the responsiblity of the tenant....but expect fewer potential tenants to express interest.)

If you want full service property management, they can help you find a tenant, manage property maintenance and repairs, and collect rent. Expect to pay monthly fees to the property management company for this service. This fee would remain your responsibility.

You can google for property management companies. I don't have any particular company that I recommend for Edison.

Hello Malik , I live in Edison myself which complex? I agree with suggestions below you can hire an agent in "most" cases the tenant pays commission..I emphasis most because depending on monthly rent if it is on the higher end and it Edison it very well can be....sometimes the landlord will opt to pay half or all in effort to get unit rented quicker. The commission is equivilent to one months rent.

A big plus that agents bring forth when we are hired to assist is that we pre screen "everyone" for the credit worthyness a key factor and we aid in the "exposure" of the rental resulting in a smooth transaction to you. The property management company is a another route and or course yourself.

The choice is always yours. If you have the time yourself you will be successful....if not we are here to help. If you have additional questions feel free to ask me

Have a great day.....I hope this helped

weanona@weanona.com

Well a real estate agent can help you locate a tenant. You should always get a credit report for a tenant that is interested in renting from you. Another thing to keep in mind with rental and working with a real estate agent. In my experience if the rental is below $800 per month I might be better off on your own. A lot of agents just believe that the money they receive from a rental below that number is just not worth the time that is put in to get the rental done. Post on different websites your rental such as craigslist and remember to get a credit report before you sign a rental agreement with a tenant. Good luck

Scott Lauri, Broker/Owner
ERA Absolute Realty
View my blog at http://HomesOFNJ.com

Mali, try posting your ad on craigslist. It's free and you can screen people via email. You can also contact RE agents to help you; they can do credit check on potential tenants and it won't cost anything to you because it is the tenants who have to pay commission. I hope, this helps

If you are looking for help, I would look into a property management company. They do a credit check and screen all applicants, the collect the rent etc. You pay them a small fee off of each months rent. They will usually have a bigger applicant pool to choose from. Good Luck! If you want to know about property management, research your area on line, and ask some agents if they would recommend one for you.