There are many moving pieces to consider as you make your next rental agreement.

For starters, you must ensure your lease agreement complies with state landlord-tenant laws, communicates all essential terms, outlines how landlords and tenants handle disputes, sets occupancy rules, explains division of utilities, defines maintenance responsibilities, and more.

If you don’t address this crucial information within your lease, you expose yourself to potential conflicts with renters, habitability standard violations, and legal action from tenants. Thankfully, we’re here to share all the tools you need to make a rock-solid rental contract today.

Keep reading to learn how to use our landlord software to create your next legally sound rental agreement in 15 minutes or less.

Legal note: This guide is for informational purposes only and does not guarantee compliance with current laws. Landlord-tenant regulations change frequently at federal, state, and local levels. TurboTenant does not provide legal advice, and this resource should not be relied upon as a substitute for an attorney.

Navigate the Pre-Lease Agreement Process

Before you ever start making income from investment property, you must perform several vital landlord duties to fill your properties. Here are five simple steps you must execute to land five-star tenants, enter into rental contracts, and generate passive income.

Market your rental property: To showcase your rental to a broad audience, advertise it across multiple listing websites. Be sure to take lots of high-quality photos and dial in your written descriptions—bonus points for landlords who include video walkthroughs or virtual tours.

Make showings easy: When a potential tenant becomes interested in your rental, allow them to schedule showings online to take a walk-through and see if they’re interested. The easier it is to schedule a showing, the more potential tenants you’ll attract.

Send and receive rental applications: Once a hopeful tenant reaches out to rent your property, send them a rental application to collect important information about their income, rental history, employment status, and more.

Pro Tip: Always use landlord software (fact-checked by legal professionals) to ensure your rental applications are 100% non-discriminatory.

Screen potential tenants: Run background, credit, and eviction checks on applicants to paint a clear picture of their criminal, financial, and rental history. Comparing applicant screening reports against each other will help you during the next step.

Choose your next renter(s): After screening all applicants, pick a tenant based on non-discriminatory factors like credit score, employment, and landlord references. After selecting your future tenant, notify them immediately and work towards entering into a rental contract with them as soon as possible.

Understand Your State’s Landlord-Tenant Laws

Though our software will ensure your rental contract abides by all of your state’s landlord-tenant laws, familiarizing yourself with local regulations is always a wise move. Every state governs differently, and understanding the laws you must follow will guide your landlord-tenant relationship.

For example, did you know landlords in Vermont are required to give 48 hours of advance notice before entering a rental unit, whereas Texas landlords can enter whenever they’d like (without prior notice)?

Brushing up on your state’s landlord-tenant laws shouldn’t take long and will ensure you understand all legalities (like required advance notice) within your next rental contract.

And now, without further adieu:

How to Make a Rental Agreement in 2025

Follow these 11 simple steps to create a legally sound rental agreement with property management software.

1. Use Our State-Specific Digital Lease Generator

First things first: Sign up for a free TurboTenant account to begin building your next rental agreement right away. Doing so costs nothing and should take about 30 seconds.

After creating your account, navigate to your landlord dashboard to start building your next state-specific rental contract. After generating your lease agreement, you can preview it, purchase it, or save it for later use.

Required Landlord Disclosures Apply Automatically

State governments mandate that all landlords include required disclosures within every single rental contract they enter into.

Rest assured, our software will automatically include all of your state’s required landlord disclosures within any rental agreement you create, meaning every contract you generate will be legally sound and enforceable in your area.

2. Add a Rental Property to Your Account

Once logged in to your TurboTenant account, navigate to the left sidebar of your dashboard and click the “Properties” tab. After that, click the “Add New Property” button to enter the details of your rental.

Next, select your property’s type, address, number of beds and bathrooms, rent amount, and security deposit amount.

Common property types include:

• Single-family homes: Standalone residences with private yards
• Townhouses: Multi-level homes sharing sidewalls
• Condominiums: Individually owned units with shared common areas
• Small multi-family homes: Duplexes or triplexes with separate units
• Apartment buildings: Multi-unit rental properties under one roof

After you’ve entered all of your property’s essential information, click the “Leases” tab on the left sidebar and then click the “Get a Lease Agreement” button at the top of the page. Select your property from the drag-down menu and click “Continue.”

2. Choose Lease Type and Renewal Terms

Navigate to the “Lease Specifics” section and click the “Start” button.

From here, you’ll confirm your rental property’s address and choose between a fixed-term and month-to-month lease agreement.

• Fixed-term leases have definitive start and end dates and run for a set length, typically 12 months. These rental contracts offer landlords and tenants more stability.
• Month-to-month leases renew automatically each month until ended with proper notice by either party. These rental contracts offer landlords and tenants more flexibility.

After choosing your lease type, you’ll enter the lease’s start and end dates (if fixed-term) and decide between an automatic lease renewal or termination once the contract ends.

3. Set Rent Payment Terms, Security Deposit Amount, Move-in Fees, and More

Enter your property’s monthly base rent amount and due date. Click the “Add Late Fees” button if you wish to assess automatic late fees (in accordance with your state’s laws) to tenants who are tardy on rent.

Continue filling out the form on the rest of the page to address:

• Pet rent: Additional rent paid for pets living in a rental unit
• Prorated rent: Rent adjusted based on move-in or move-out date
• Security deposit amount: Refundable payment to cover damages or unpaid rent
• One-time fees: Non-recurring charges like application or cleaning fees
• Rent collection methods: Methods tenants can pay rent to the landlord

As a reminder, TurboTenant will automatically highlight all state-specific late fee, pet rent, and security deposit laws, so you don’t need to go digging for information.

4. Add Tenants to the Lease

Click the “Enter New Tenant” button to enter the name, email address, and/or phone number of the tenant who will be on your lease. To add more tenants, simply click the “Enter New Tenant” button again.

If they exist, you can add additional occupants (usually children or dependents) who will live at the property but aren’t responsible for upholding the lease terms. Enter each additional occupant’s name, age, and relationship to the signee.

Note: TurboTenant will automatically invite all renters to join the tenant portal through an email or text message.

5. Share Landlord Contact Information

Directly after entering tenant information, share the landlord’s name, contact information, and address (or that of your property management company if you utilize one).

Sharing landlord contact information is mandatory in many states and will ensure tenants can reach you for pressing matters like maintenance requests, questions about rent, and clarification on lease terms.

If your property has multiple landlords, you can add them by clicking the “Add Another Landlord” button. You must also provide the property owner’s legal name.

At the bottom of this section, you can also provide alternative tenant addresses and add co-signers or additional signers, if applicable.

6. Set Property Rules (Pets, Smoking, etc.)

Next, you’ll address whether you allow pets on the lease. If so, you can fill in the type, breed, weight, and age of all tenant pets who will live within your rental property.

Legal note: Emotional support animals (ESAs) and service animals are protected by federal law, meaning landlords in all 50 states must make reasonable accommodations for them, even if they’re renting out a “no-pet” property.

After handling pets, you will determine whether or not tenants are allowed to smoke at the rental property and add any applicable parking rules. In this section, you can assign tenants a designated space and customize your parking policy.

Lastly, you’ll address whether or not you require your tenants to obtain renters insurance. If so, we will automatically ask your tenants to upload their insurance policy information or refer them to our preferred rental insurance partner, Sure.

7. Detail Utilities, Services, and Keys

Next, you will navigate through a list of utilities and address whether landlords or tenants are responsible for paying them. If a service does not apply to your rental unit, select “N/A.”

Common utilities include:

• Electricity
• Internet
• Cable
• Gas
• Water
• Sewer/Septic
• Trash
• Lawn Care
• Snow Removal
• HOA Fees

After covering utilities, you will account for the property’s keys, key fobs, garage door openers, and other entry devices a tenant will receive. As a default, TurboTenant leases state that tenant(s) are responsible for the full cost of rekeying if they lose any keys.

8. Identify Warrant of Hability and Maintenance Responsibilities

Once you’ve covered the property’s utilities, services, and keys, you’ll need to decide the preferred method(s) for tenants to notify landlords of any pressing maintenance needs.

We recommend that landlords select TurboTenant’s built-in maintenance request system that allows tenants to submit requests (with photos, videos, and written descriptions) and coordinate repairs within the TurboTenant portal for free.

For an extra monthly fee, you can upgrade to Maintenance Plus, which outsources all maintenance requests to Lula, who will handle everything on your behalf, 24/7/365.

Legal note: Landlords in all 50 states must abide by habitability standards, which require them to provide tenants with a safe premise for human habitation at all times. Tenants have legal rights to request timely repairs from the landlord to fix structural, electrical, plumbing, pest, lock/window, lead paint issues, and more.

9. Add Provisions and Additional Terms

Next, you can add clauses and provisions to the lease agreement if necessary. To do so, you can customize the terms under the “Early Termination Clause” or the “Additional Terms” sections in the portal.

We might ask a few yes or no questions about lead paint, radon, and other relevant topics regarding your state’s required landlord disclosures section, which we will automatically include at the end of the lease.

You can also upload any relevant attachments that you would like to appear in the lease. And, though doing so may not be required where you live, we recommend adding a property condition report to document the state of the rental unit in detail before a tenant moves in.

10. Review the Rental Agreement & Choose How to Pay

After you’ve added provisions and additional terms and uploaded any documents, give your rental agreement the once over to ensure everything is as you wish. Scroll through and read the entire rental agreement draft closely to ensure that we got it right.

Lastly, ensure that any attachments you uploaded are present in the lease and appear in the correct order.

If you wish to make changes to the rental contract or add any additional attachments, click the “Go Back” button to visit the rental property’s main lease agreement screen. From there, you can choose which section you would like to edit.

Once your lease meets your standards, click the “Finalize” button to decide how you will pay for it. Single a-la-carte leases cost $59 apiece, but you can create unlimited rental agreements for just $119 or $149 a year if you sign up for a TurboTenant Pro or Premium subscription.

11. Sign the Agreement and Collect Tenant Signatures

After you’ve paid for your rental agreement, the last step is to sign the document and request e-signatures from your tenant(s). Our easy-to-use software will walk you through the step-by-step e-signing process with just a few clicks.

Once you and your tenant have signed the lease agreement, congratulations are in order! You’ve officially locked down your renter with an iron-clad state-specific rental contract and taken a big step towards growing your investment property portfolio.

Simplify Rental Agreements with TurboTenant

Thank you for sticking around as we walked you through the simple 11-step process of making your next rental agreement with TurboTenant.

If you haven’t yet, sign up for a free TurboTenant account today to build a lease agreement in 15 minutes or less. You won’t pay a penny until you are 100% satisfied with the final product.

In addition to generating rental agreements, we help over 700,000 landlords advertise rental properties, send and receive rental applications, collect rent for free, and more.

Want to join our rapidly growing community of motivated landlords who streamline their property management duties? Click here to get started today.

FAQs: Creating a Rental Agreement