Becoming a landlord? Start here, not with a YouTube guru.
Nine honest guides to the parts of rental ownership nobody explains well the first time — screening, leases, rent, maintenance, taxes, the law, evictions, and scaling. Written by a working owner, reader-supported, no affiliate links.
Nine guides · All U.S.-focused
What would you like to understand first?
Each guide is self-contained. Read in any order.
Rental Property Basics
Single-family, duplex, or small multi-family? Long-term lease or short-term rental? We lay out the four common strategies for new landlords and where each one tends to win or hurt.
Read the guide → 02 / 09Tenant Screening
Credit pulls, income verification, rental history, and the federal fair-housing rules that constrain how you can actually compare applicants. A practical screening workflow we trust.
Read the guide → 03 / 09Lease Agreements
The clauses that matter, the clauses that don't, and the ones that are outright illegal in half the states. What a lease is for, and what it can't actually do.
Read the guide → 04 / 09Setting Rent
How to price a unit without underwriting yourself into a loss — comps, seasonality, the vacancy math that ruins a "top-of-market" strategy, and when a small price cut pays for itself.
Read the guide → 05 / 09Maintenance & Repairs
Make-ready, emergency response, vendor rosters, and the budgeting rule of thumb that keeps cash flow from going negative the first time the water heater dies.
Read the guide → 06 / 09Landlord-Tenant Law & Fair Housing
Federal fair-housing rules, the state-by-state mosaic of notice periods and security-deposit limits, and the standard of care that actually protects you in court.
Read the guide → 07 / 09Taxes & Bookkeeping
Schedule E, depreciation, the repair-vs-improvement line, mileage logs, and the simplest bookkeeping setup that survives an IRS letter five years out.
Read the guide → 08 / 09Evictions
The notice-cure-file-hearing cascade, what judges actually look for, and the self-inflicted wounds — illegal lockouts, utility shutoffs — that turn a winnable case into a countersuit.
Read the guide → 09 / 09Scaling a Portfolio
The step-ups from one door to five, from five to twenty, and the operational shifts — LLC structures, property management, bookkeeping software — that each step usually triggers.
Read the guide →Written by a working owner, not an affiliate funnel.
Every page on this site was written from the perspective of actually owning and managing rentals — not to rank a keyword, not to sell a course, not to push a tool. Reader-supported means I answer your email, and there's no paid tier waiting at the bottom of the page.
Ask Jay anything about your rental.
Screening questions, lease weirdness, a specific state's rules, the deal you're looking at — it all goes in the same inbox and gets a real reply.