CARLSTON PROPERTIES
Monthly Rent
HOW MUCH RENT SHOULD YOU PAY?
There’s a popular rule of thumb that states your monthly rent shouldn’t be more than one-third of your net monthly income, and we follow this rule when renting to a tenant. For example if the net monthly income is $3,000.00, then you can qualify for a rental unit that costs $1,000.00 a month. The reasoning behind capping your rent payment at 30% of your income, you’ll still have plenty of money left to cover other living expenses and to work towards your financial goals.
We always collect money in advance before we let a tenant move in. The funds a tenant has to pay before they move in often include lease initiation fee, prorated rent, first months rent, last month’s rent, and security deposit. The rental agreement has to be signed before we accept the first monthly payment. The first month’s check has to be paid with guaranteed funds such as a money order, cashier’s check, deposit of cash at the bank, or online payment service.
We charge a $200.00 lease initiation fee to finalize the tenant to rent a unit.
Let’s assume a home rents for $1,500.00 per-month. The lease is signed on June 10th with a lease start date of June 15th and there are 30 days of the month. The prorated amount paid per-day is $50.00 times 15 days is $750.00 paid in prorated rent. If a prorated rent amount is not paid the tenant is not able to move in until the first, no exceptions.
The tenant would pay first month’s rent $1,500.00 plus the prorated amount $750.00 and the tenants next monthly payment would be August 1st. We also have a tenant pay last month’s rent of $1,500.00 and a security deposit $1,500.00 equal to the monthly rent amount.
Example Numbers:
$200.00 Lease Initiation Fee
$750.00 Prorate Rent
$1,500.00 Monthly Rent
$1,500.00 Last Month’s Rent
$1,500.00 Security Deposit
The total cost to move in is $4,450.00
It’s very expensive to move in to rent a property. Make sure you fully understand our rental agreement before you pay the first month’s rent. If a tenant signs our rental agreement and pays the first month rent and wants to move in 30 days right after that. Last month’s rent and the security deposit will be refunded 25 days after the tenant has moved out. Be sure to read more about our security deposit.
PAY RENT IN 24 HOURS
If rent is not paid after the first of the month. On the 2nd of the month we could remind you to pay rent in 24 hours before the grace period is up.
GRACE PERIOD
Our grace period is five days, meaning a tenant has 5 days before we charge a late fee. We charge a $100.00 late payment fee if rent is paid after the 5th of each month and received on the 6th. And a $25.00 late payment processing fee. So, it’s very important that rent is paid on-time or at least before the grace period is over. On the 7th of the month if rent is not paid in full. We will give the tenant a “3 day notice to move” or be evicted. We charge a $50.00 fee to issue a 3 day notice to move. If rent is not paid in full by the end of 9th of the month we will file an eviction with the courts. Once an eviction is filed with the courts a tenant has to move.
RAISING RENTS
The state of Idaho doesn’t have any state-level rent control laws restricting landlords. As a result, Idaho landlords may freely raise the monthly rent without the need to justify the particular raise amount to their tenant.
When landlords raise the rent, they need to provide written notice to their tenants 15 days in advance before the month that sees an increased rent payment. There are no statutes that would limit late rent payment fees. However, each fee must be spelled out in the Idaho rental agreement to hold legal strength.