Landlord Training

 

 

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Brownsville, Haywood County

 

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Video Transcript

Chuck Denney
In a perfect society, we’d all be homeowners - owning outright the places where we live. But not everyone has the financial standing to buy or own a home. For them, a roof overhead must be rented. Roughly one-third of all Tennesseans are renters. And with this many renters, somebody has to play the role of landlord

Walter Battle
"How to evict. You hate to do that, but sometimes you must."

Chuck Denney
UT Extension agent Walter Battle teaches this class in Brownsville that prepares landlords for many of the issues they may face.

Chuck Denney
In the class, there’s information on a number of topics including taxes and the depreciation of property.  Mainly though a good landlord needs to know the law.

Walter Battle
“I hope the get a real good understanding of the legal issues involved in being a landlord, tenant’s rights, the things they can and cannot do, how to properly write legal contracts.”

Chuck Denney
Being a landlord in modern times is not an easy business. The days of doing little more than collecting a monthly rent check are over.  If you’re thinking about becoming a landlord, know that the extra income might be nice, but the hassle factor is high. Daneil Thornton has been a landlord in the past, and today works with many of them in his real estate business.

Daniel Thornton
“What’s it like to be a landlord? You get that 3 o’clock in the morning phone call, the pipe is busted or something’s happened, the roof has caved in, storm damage, that kind of thing.”

Chuck Denney
Carol Gish from West Tennessee Legal Services helped teach the class. She says given the foreclosure crisis facing the country - with an estimated three million foreclosures the past two years - there are going to be a lot more renters soon.

Carol Gish
“A number of people are really in danger of losing their homes, and that population - they’re going to have to live somewhere.  They’ll probably become renters.”

Chuck Denney
Certainly it’s good for a local economy to have affordable housing for all people. For that to happen, some property must be rented - and it should be properly managed as well.

END

NOTE: This program is a “Sustainable Tennessee” project that is partially funded by the USDA Rural Business-Cooperative Service grant - which promotes the development of local businesses.