So, you\’re a renter tied to a lease agreement for another year, but you want to take a month off this summer to backpack across southern Spain. You\’re on a shoestring budget as it is, and you don\’t think you can afford both your rent and the cost of the trip.

Fortunately for you, you don\’t have to pay both; sign a sub-lease agreement on your rental, and go enjoy a nice rioja!

In some cases, renters can charge even more to sub-leasers than they pay themselves, and net a small profit for their trouble. In the Little Italy neighborhood of Baltimore, Robert Reneson needed to sub-lease the second bedroom of his apartment after his initial roommate failed to pan out, but because he was getting such a good deal on rent, the measly $450 he was asking for the room was attracting some less-than-savory roommate rental applications. Eventually it occurred to him to ask $650, and suddenly the quality of the rental applications improved dramatically, and his new roommate is now a friend – and Robert now pays $250 in rent every month. Be careful here though – greed is often what causes sub-leasing to fail.

There are plenty of websites where landlords and tenants alike can post for short-term renters, ranging from Craigslist.org to VacationRentals.com to Sublet.com, and terms can range from a weekend up through indefinite monthly lease agreement terms.

That said, there are some issues that would be sub-leasers should be aware of. First of all, your lease agreement may prohibit sub-leasing, as many landlords want to be able to screen anyone who\’s living in their investment property to make sure they don\’t have a history of violence or damaging their dwellings.

Even if your lease agreement allows sub-leasing, bear in mind that you are the one responsible for any damage that the sub-lessee inflicts on the rental property, and ultimately you’re the one responsible for making sure the rent gets to the landlord. So how can you protect yourself?

First of all, collect a signed rental application from each prospective tenant. Make sure to meet each one in person, and ask them face-to-face about their employment, their income, the credit, and their financial stability; most people can be read quite easily simply by looking into their eyes as they answer these questions. Call their employers, verify their employment history and income, and if possible, stop by the applicants’ homes and walk through it with them to see how they live. Next, do a credit check, and a criminal background check and/or eviction history report, as this hard data does not lie.

If you’re looking for a roommate to sub-lease part of your home, make sure to ask about how important a clean living space is to them. Ask this question as neutrally as possible, as most people will tell you what you want to hear if you lead them (e.g. “Are you dirty?” or “Are you uptight?”). Ask them about their sleeping habits (maybe they stay up late making noise when you want to be sleeping), and ask them about their social lives (do they spend most of their time hanging around the house, or are they out most of the time?). These are the sorts of questions that won’t appear on the rental application, but which are important lifestyle compatibility questions nonetheless before signing a lease agreement with a roommate.

If it sounds like a lot of work, that’s because it is. But a few hours’ worth of work can yield substantial sums in savings; if your rent is $1,500/month, and you can secure a sub-tenant for the month you’re spending in Spain, then the few hours you’ll spend collecting the rental application, running the credit check, and signing the sub-lease agreement will be worth every second.

Author Bio: Brian is a real estate investor, landlord, real estate writer, and contributor to EZ Landlord Forms, an online resource offering a free lease agreement, free rental application, and other free rental forms.

Category: Real Estate
Keywords: lease agreement, rental application, sub-lease, sub-let, sub-lease agreement, credit check