It goes without saying that you need to thoroughly screen any future tenants. But this cornerstone of a fruitful rental relationship is often overlooked by many property owners. They have the propensity to put their faith in those who initially appear competent and trustworthy without investigating more.
Why is screening important?
Anyone might put up a perfect tenant facade when seeking to rent your house, hoping to persuade the landlord that they will be responsible stewards. You can rest easy knowing that your property will be well-cared for and that rent will be paid on time if you only rent to responsible tenants, which is exactly what you’ll receive if you let them in. However, what if the people you trusted turned out to be careless tenants?
You wouldn’t want your neighbours to be upset and call to complain about the state of your property. It’s in everyone’s best interest to thoroughly screen job candidates before making any hiring decisions. Simply put, tenant screening is the process of checking and reviewing potential renters.
One can hire a property management company to screen the tenants properly. Here is a manual for tenant screening, as well as advice on how to interest the most qualified applicants in your rental properties.
Don’t Forget Your Ideal Tenants
You should consider the ideal tenants’ characteristics before placing a rental listing online. You can determine whether or not you can trust those individuals based on a few important indicators. The following tenant screening questions are provided to assist you in conducting a more thorough evaluation of each application:
– Have you considered the prospects’ ability to make rent payments?
– Are they reliable enough to pay on time?
– Is their employment situation secure enough to guarantee on-time payments going forward?
– Will they be able to maintain the quality of your home?
– Do they come from a family of good morals and have no criminal history on their record?
We all know that perfect people do not actually exist. You can increase the likelihood of a successful and long-term rental by answering these questions before you list your properties for rent.
Write Down Your Needs
When compiling your list, you may start narrowing it down to the best possible leads immediately. Specifying your ideal tenant’s characteristics in the prerequisites section can help you find renters who are a good fit.
Verify your financial standing
Even if a prospective tenant seems completely pleasant, it is still important to perform a background check. The best approach to determining if a prospective tenant is suitable for your rental properties is through a thorough screening process. Obtain a credit report to learn about the applicant’s payment history. You can find out if the tenant has a history of paying rent on time and if they have the financial means to do so currently. Get up-to-date information about potential tenants and confirm their identities, rental histories, employment histories, and creditworthiness.
There are a number of signs in a tenant’s credit record that might help you assess their reliability. To begin, you will have access to any and all collection files, even those for delinquent or closed accounts. That would allow you to learn more about the tenant’s spending and saving patterns. The tenant’s rental or residential history will also reveal any red flags, such as evictions, foreclosures, or bankruptcies. Finally, a credit report lets you see if the applicant is late on any of their current loans or credit cards. That would be useful in situations where a potential customer has a solid credit history but is having money troubles right now.
Conduct background checks
Renting out your properties might be risky if you don’t know the prospective tenants’ criminal history. To reduce that risk, you can request background checks from your tenants-to-be. A candidate’s character and history can be better evaluated with the help of a background check. Usually, the property manager finds out all the necessary information about the tenant, which also includes their background history. Knowing that a potential tenant can afford the rent is important, but you also need assurances that they won’t be using the space for illegal purposes. You can learn about the tenant’s professional qualifications, career history, and any workplace problems or terminations by doing a background check. Having a tenant who causes trouble with the locals is the last thing you need.
Inspect tenant applications thoroughly
One more essential item to add to your tenant screening checklist: do your research on each application. The best tenants will never overlook these crucial features. The following are examples of such phrases:
– A complete given name.
– The address is correct.
– An access code for a phone system
– possession of a valid driver’s license number (if any).
– Contact information for previous landlords as references
– Job history and current employer information
Tenants who are good to work with usually have nothing to conceal. Typically, they will have all the paperwork ready ahead of time to establish their credibility.
Verify the credentials of your top picks
The applicants’ previous landlords’ contact information should be used without hesitation. Current landlords would typically inquire briefly about the tenants’ payment history and whether or not they provided notice before moving out. If you want a more in-depth profile of a potential tenant, though, you’ll need to be more specific. Get in touch with their prior landlords and ask them the following questions:
– Are there any overdue bills?
– Had any buildings been broken into?
– How did the neighbours feel?
– When the tenants left, did they get their security deposit back? In that case, why not?
– Do any of the existing main tenants have significant debts?
– How likely is it that the landlord would rent to these people again?
In addition, you can verify a tenant’s financial stability by getting in touch with their current or potential place of employment. The majority of tenants are fine with potential landlords checking their credit, but some are reluctant to provide their pay history. In this situation, you can confirm the applicant’s employment status by requesting documentation from their present place of employment.
Having a chat with the occupants
Tenant screening is a part of property management and cannot be completed without verifying the applicant’s credit, background, and rental history; speaking with previous landlord references; and confirming the applicant’s employment information. The truth is that during an open house, you are more likely to be thinking about your home than the person you are meeting. Calling your applicants is a great way to learn more about them and their qualifications.
Feel free to ask them about their way of life and preferences, but don’t ask them about their race, religion, sexual orientation, family structure, or physical abilities until you’re ready to have a respectful conversation about these things. If you’d like further information, the House Manage company is where you should look. If you want to learn more about your potential tenants before you rent to them, you can contact us anytime.