Multi-unit landlord, Austin TX
How a 14-unit Austin landlord standardized Texas-compliant leases
14 units. Six neighborhoods. One template that actually knows Texas law.
Customer
Independent residential landlord
Location
Austin, Texas
Industry
Residential real estate (long-term rentals)
Contract types used
Lease agreement, Lease renewal, Roommate addendum
Outcome
14 units, 1 platform
Standardized portfolio-wide
The problem
An independent landlord was operating 14 residential units across six Austin neighborhoods — a mix of single-family rentals, duplexes, and a small four-plex. Every renewal needed a Texas-compliant lease that covered the right disclosures: lead-based paint (for pre-1978 units), tenant's right to repair, parking and bedbug disclosures, and the property code's specific habitability and security-deposit rules. Single-family vs. multi-unit subtly changes which clauses apply.
“Every lease I issue now has the TX-required disclosures. No more late-night Googling whether the late-fee cap is 10% or different for this unit type.”
Portfolio owner
What they tried before
The landlord was using an old PDF lease they had picked up years ago and patching it manually for each renewal. Some units carried disclosure gaps the landlord only learned about when a tenant disputed a security deposit return and a JP-court judge pointed it out. Lawyer review was $250–$400 per lease — fine for a single unit, untenable across 14 renewals a year plus turnover.
What changed with Contract.DIY
- 01
Generated a base Texas Lease Agreement and saved per-property variants for each unit (single-family vs. multi-unit, pre-1978 vs. newer build, parking included vs. street).
- 02
Used the jurisdiction selector to ensure every lease pulled in TX-specific clauses: §92 habitability provisions, late-fee statutory caps, and security-deposit return timing.
- 03
Sent leases to tenants for e-signature, with the lease itself stored as the source of truth — no more PDF version drift.
- 04
Generated lease renewals in under 5 minutes by cloning the prior lease and updating term dates and rent.
“Renewals used to be a Sunday afternoon. Now they're a coffee. I generate the lease, the tenant signs on their phone, we both move on.”
Portfolio owner
The outcome
Every lease the landlord issues now carries the correct Texas disclosures by default. Two years post-adoption, the landlord has not had a deposit dispute go to a JP court. Renewal admin time dropped from a half-day per unit to about 15 minutes. The estimated annual lawyer-fee saving exceeds $4,000.
The landlord still consults a real-estate attorney for evictions, complex commercial conversions, and any situation where habitability is contested. Contract.DIY handles the predictable, high-volume lease work where the rules are settled and the cost of a custom legal draft does not pencil.
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