How Tenant Screening Can Help You

Owning rental property can be one of the most rewarding investment experiences of your life. Of course, that all depends on whether or not you have good tenants. A bad tenant can ruin your experience and your entire view of renting property. That is why screening your tenants thoroughly before you rent to them is essential. You need to know on the front end, exactly what you re getting in to. You need to know if the tenant is going to destroy your property and if they will pay their bills on time. While only a psychic could tell you for sure, a good screening process can give you a good idea of what to expect. So how do you properly screen a tenant and what should you look for?

The first thing that you should do is have them fill out a detailed rental application. Ask them for personal references and past landlords. Get contact information for all of them. Once you get the contact information, actually call them and find out about the potential tenant. Many people are lazy and do not actually follow up with the references that are listed. They go strictly off of a first impression with the tenant and ignore all of the other information presented to them. Most of the time, the references listed on there will only say glowing things about the potential tenant. The tenant isn t going to list someone that will talk badly about them. The references are usually a friend from high school, their cousin, and their grandma. Therefore, you will have to talk to someone that doesn t have a real relationship with them.

The former landlords can really help you out. By talking to a former landlord, they will be able to provide you with unbiased information. They will tell you if their rent payments were continually late or on time. They will let you know how well they took care of the property that they lived in. Did they trash the property when they left? Did they take care of everything and leave it just like they found it? These are all things that you need to know before you should be willing to let someone stay in your rental house. If they can t provide a rental history, you might want to move on to someone that can.

Another popular method of finding out about your prospective tenant is doing a background check. This might include checking their credit report as well. Of course, you will have to obtain their permission if you want to check their credit. Checking their credit report is a good way to see how they handle their money. You will be able to get an idea of whether or not they pay the people that they owe money to. A background check can give you all kinds of valuable information, including whether or not they have a criminal record. Keep all of these things in mind before you let a tenant move into your rental property.