Your FREE Member Education

Whether you have dozens of paid staff or just the occasional contractor or family member helping out, everyone contacting tenants on your behalf needs basic training—this includes you as the owner as well! There is a reason why so many court settlements require training. Most illegal actions by housing providers and their representatives are taken out of ignorance, not contempt. Violations of the Federal Fair Housing Act and other laws can also result in direct fines starting in the range of tens of thousands of dollars.

RHAWA offers many ways to gain knowledge and ask questions, but if you’re looking for basic housing provider education, our ONDEMAND Platform is the place to start. Every dues-paying member along with their benefit inheriting family or employees, has free access to several hours of quality instruction on state and local landlord-tenant laws, fair housing, and best practices for operating rental housing in Washington.

How to Access your FREE Education

• Like all of our other exclusive member benefits, it starts with logging into our website at RHAwa.org.

• Go to the Education + Events menu and choose Education Overview.

• On the side navigation select ONDEMAND Education.

• Click on the red Proceed to ONDEMAND Platform button.

At this point, a single-sign-on process will check your membership type and assign the appropriate classes based on whether you are a property owner, a property manager, or a manufactured housing community owner. Sometimes there is a delay in this process, especially with a slower internet connection. If you do not see any classes, just wait a few minutes, close the window, and then try going in again. Following is a breakdown of the education you will receive based on your member type. All course series are freshly reproduced on an annual basis.

Individual Property Owner Courses 

These courses are designed to get an individual property owner who is responsible for setting their own policies and procedures, up and running quickly. Start with the RHAWA tools demonstration and then based on where your properties are located, complete one or both of the housing provider workshops.

BASIC LAWS AND BEST PRACTICES EDUCATION

Washington Housing Provider Workshop (4 hours): An attorney and experienced property management professional team up to explain all state laws and known local government laws at a high level. Throughout the materials, you will find handy tables showing various rent increase notice periods and other rules from city to city.

Renting Your Property with RHAWA Tools (1.5 hours): Denise Myers demonstrates how to use tools from the RHAWA website to start renting a property.

Selection and Use of Leasing Forms (2 hours): In this class, Attorney Chris Benis reviews the new selection of RHAWA rental agreement and term lease forms and explains how to select various options to reflect the specifics of your property and operating preferences. He will also review required and optional lease-signing addenda and those that can be used to update your agreement throughout the tenancy.

LOCAL LAW CLASSES

Expansion of Local Rental Laws (1.5 hours): Chris Benis provides a history of local rental regulations in WA State starting with Seattle in the 1980’s up to today. Which city introduced each new law concept, when other cities followed suit, and how different variations have added to the complexity of managing a rental housing business in Washington.

Seattle Rental Regulations (3 hours): Comprehensive overview of Seattle rental laws, and best practices. Seattle attorney, Christopher Cutting will cover everything including getting ready to rent and working with tenants from leasing to move-out.

Tacoma Rental Regulations (1.5 hours): Chris Benis covers the entire Tacoma Rental Housing code from its’ origination in 2019, to city council revisions and a voter initiative in 2023. New unique laws and changes that have been mirrored from other cities will be discussed.

Spokane Rental Regulations (1 hour): Attorney Eric Steven reviews all Spokane rental regulations and provides resources to enable a smooth transition to new operating procedures.

Property Management Company Courses

The 12-part Property Manager Series is designed for the property management employee. It includes basic onboarding must-haves for all employee training programs, in addition to a comprehensive education in fair housing, communications, marketing, and sales. Attorney-led classes cover basic landlord-tenant law required for managing residential rental properties in WA State. Variations on local law are covered within each topic area. All following classes are one hour long.

MANUFACTURED HOUSING COMMUNITY COURSES

For those few members who own or manage manufactured housing communities, we offer a special attorney-led course covering the manufactured housing landlord-tenant act in addition to our demonstration on using RHAWA tools.

Renting Your Property with RHAWA Tools (1.5 hours)

Manufactured Housing Landlord-Tenant Act (3 hours)

ADDITIONAL EDUCATION AT LOW MEMBER PRICES 

ONDEMAND Library Subscriptions for $25/month or $120/year. Access over 100 recorded classes anytime, day or night throughout your subscription period.

Over 100 courses are offered within three basic areas:

• Managing Your Business: Various financial professionals discuss different aspects of owning and operating rental housing such as bookkeeping, taxes, buying and selling strategies, estate planning, etc. 

• Managing Your Rentals: Seasoned property management professionals share best practices for marketing, tenant selection, working with tenants, and maintaining the property. 

• Understanding the Law: Attorneys explain all aspects of fair housing, landlord-tenant law, and other rental housing regulations. Many specialized topics such as hoarding, service animals, death of a tenant, or offered.

Attend Live Weekly Zoom Classes for $30/each or $250/year.

For a deeper dive into any subject related to owning and managing rental housing, attend live weekly Zoom classes or subscribe to our ONDEMAND Library, where courses are updated every one or two years, depending on the nature of the topic.

If you have special training needs for your staff, we can help you create a custom employee training program for your organization. Set training goals for new employees, and encourage ongoing refresher training with your own staff training leader board and achievement awards. You can even include your own content like company policies and disclosures, complete with signature tracking for each employee. Contact Denise Myers at dmyers@RHAwa.org if you have any questions or need assistance setting up a training program for your company staff members