when I had numerous rentals I belonged to San Diego Apartment Assoc (http://www.sdcaa.com/) – they have all the forms you need and can do the background / credit checks needed – not sure it makes sense to join them if you have a single rental
landlord-tenant law in CA favors the tenant – as a landlord you need to be careful
for example, I believe that technically you have already committed to rent to this person by accepting their check – you might be on shaky ground if you turned them down at this point and they decided to force the issue
one of the things I learned about tenants and potential tenants: they will lie through their teeth to the landlord – it seemed to me that most people thought this was an OK thing to do, almost like it was an unwritten rule that the landlord should be lied to at every opportunity – I think part of this is driven by the idea that the landlord is ‘getting rich’ at the tenant’s expense – it didn’t matter much whether it was a $600 apartment or a $2100 house
