Tenant Screening Tips

If you use the following tenant screening tips you should not have many trouble some tenants. Inexperienced property managers tend to use loose tenant screening criteria because they do not have adequate cash reserves and are desperate to fill a vacancy. So my two most important rules for finding a great tenant are:

• Keep an adequate amount of money in the bank so that when you do have a vacancy, you won't jump at the first warm body that wants to rent your property



• Use a system that provides a financial incentive to get good tenants and keeps you financially whole when you do have a vacancy

The key tenant screening tip would be to use my Rent to Own Strategy . Because there is a large financial upfront requirement to lease-purchase a property you automatically get a higher quality tenant. You also will have a tenant that will take care of your property better.

I use the Evoice Voicemail system with a script that describes the property and the upfront money required before the potential tenant can set foot in the door. This saves me a lot of time as most people are not financially ready to pay the first months rent as well as an option payment. Only the serious leave a message. When I call them back I tell them again about the upfront money required to lease the property and ask them directly whether or not they have the money. Don't waste time showing property to unqualified tenants. (Note that real estate agents follow the same type of protocol by asking potential buyers whether or not they have a loan qualifying letter before showing a property.)

If a prospective tenant expresses interest and ability to raise the cash for the option and first months rent, have them fill out the rental property application form. The linked page highlights many of the do's and don'ts of proper tenant screening.

When using a lease purchase option for letting your house, you are likely to attract renters with poor to marginal credit. A tenant credit check will be needed for you to make a determination as to why their credit is poor. If poor credit scores are the result of one time events (medical, job loss, divorce, etc.) rather then chronic late payments I tend to favor those situations. You can check the tenants credit report to see if the late payments occurred all about the same time or if the prospect is just overloaded with debt. Also look to see if the potential tenant made an attempt to pay off the debts or just stiffed his creditors.

The pattern of the information you receive from the potential lessee about their employment, previous landlord and credit history all should guide you to as to whether this will be a good tenant. A final tenant screening tip is to drive by their previous addresses. If they lived in a dump, they will probably treat your house like one too.

Custom Search