01
Under-screening on first move
A bad tenant costs 3–6 months of rent plus repair. Application, credit, income (3x rent rule of thumb), and prior-landlord references aren’t optional. We verify the documents, not just collect them.
Lease & landlord
List your rental, screen tenants, protect the asset.
Landlord representation for HK-background owners. Lease-up, tenant screening, lease terms in plain Cantonese. The kind of careful work clients have publicly recommended me for.
What I do on a lease-up
From vacancy to signed lease.
- Rent comp + market read.Recent leased comps within the school zone, adjusted for finish, bed/bath count, and amenities. A defensible asking rent, not a wishful number.
- Listing + marketing.MLS, HAR.com, and Houston rental syndication. Photo prep, listing copy, and showing coordination.
- Tenant screening.Application review, income verification, credit, background, prior-landlord references. I walk you through what we’re looking for, not just a green-light yes/no.
- Lease drafting.Texas REALTORS® Residential Lease, addenda, HOA acknowledgments, security deposit terms. Walked through in Cantonese before signing.
- Move-in coordination.Walk-through, deposit handling, utility transfer, keys, and a written move-in inventory the tenant signs. Sets up the move-out conversation 12 months later.
- Renewal & advisory.Lease renewal at term-end, rent escalation strategy, and a referral to a property manager if you’d rather not manage day-to-day.
What landlords get wrong
Three mistakes that cost HK landlords money.
02
Skipping the written inventory
Move-in inventory with photos and tenant signature is what makes the security-deposit conversation possible at move-out. Without it, you have no defensible position when something’s damaged.
03
Lease terms that don’t match the home
Pet policy, HOA rules, lawn-care responsibility, and pool maintenance — if the lease doesn’t spell these out, you eat the cost. Every Texas REALTORS® lease can be tightened with the right addenda.
Landlord questions
What landlord clients ask first.
Once the property is rent-ready and listed, 2–6 weeks is typical for Greater Houston in normal market conditions, faster in high-demand neighborhoods near TMC and master-planned communities. Off-season (Dec–Feb) is slower, peak season (May–Aug) is fastest.
Next step
Get your rental listed properly.
Send me the address. I’ll send back a comp set, a target rent, and a lease-up plan. Cantonese walk-through standard.