Finding The Right Tenants: 4 Screening Tips
As a landlord, assessing your potential tenants is vital. Any issues that may arise later in any lease deal signed can be avoided if this assessment is thorough. If keen attention is not paid to this process, unpleasant and uncooperative tenants will find their way into your properties. Screening your prospective property occupants is not the same as opening an inquiry into their lives. Basic considerations about your tenants will yield obvious warning signs. It is quite a challenge for landlords to adhere to these simple procedures of screening tenants because they feel obliged to find new people for their residential houses as soon as possible. As such, you end up renting houses to people you would have otherwise turned down. The problem will arise once they move in as you will have to tolerate them for nine months or evict them if they cease paying their rent. While it may be impossible to guarantee a straightforward tenant, focused screening measures give you a good opportunity to avoid unruly tenants. Finding The Right Tenants 4 Screening Tips that will help landlords navigate this thorny issue.
Seek Answers In The First Contact
Property owners employ different mechanisms of attracting potential clients to occupy their rental properties. This process should be initiated before the current occupants vacate to allow ample time to find a suitable replacement. Towards the end of a lease period, the landlord is likely to panic hence make a hurried decision in entering into a new deal. It is important to gather as much information as possible about the new tenant in your first exchange. Insist on talking to them over the phone as opposed to sending emails. A phone conversation will enable you collect details about them such as their aims and intentions in life, as well as when they wish to rent the property. During the exchange, they can seek additional information about your property. However, how they respond to your queries will help you gauge if they are the right people. Ask why they are seeking a new rental. The information from the first call may not be enough but from that you are able to decide if you want to contact them again or not.
The Application
If after the initial conversation both sides are interested to move forward, an application should be drafted and it gives you an opportunity to seek clarification and additional information. Some property owners forgo this step after getting an impression that the potential tenant seems to be a nice person. Not many people qualify as pleasant tenants. It is important to draft an application and have all your tenants complete it. The template application should contain details such as the career status of the tenant, previous rental information, current earning, criminal record information, and any other important information. A prospective client who is not okay with completing an application should raise suspicion. It is detrimental to allow a tenant to move in without the vital information sought in the application. Such a move may prove costly later in keeping good relations with tenants.
Validate the Information on the Application
Getting an application completed is not enough. The information given on the pertinent issues listed in the form must be certified as correct. Where possible, contact property owners where the tenant has previously inhabited. This will not only establish the truth about the information given, you will also find out what kind of tenant you are entering into an agreement with. If the landlord is related or a close friend to the client, they might give a biased opinion. It might also help to call the listed employer and ascertain if they actually work there and for how long they have. Seeking to have a credit report printed is also helpful in determining their ability to pay their dues in time. As a prospective future landlord to the particular client, be sure to establish the truth in every entry made on the application. Once the truth is set bare on the table, it becomes easier to make an informed judgement on which tenant to rent your property to.
Showing Them Around
While you take any interested party to see your property, observing their behavior can help you gauge whether they have real interest in the property or not. Since the initial exchanges include photos or videos of the property, a tenant seeking to rent a house should have a good idea of what to expect. Additionally, someone who seems to be in a hurry as you show them the rental property may not be interested. Beware of the kind of inquiries or requests some tenants will put forward. Discard those that want you to compromise or relax some of the rules in place for their benefit. A genuine tenant will want to close the deal in the shortest time possible. If your client is not keen to come into an agreement, please move on to the next one. Find a tenant who is serious about your property, will take care of the house, and will pay rent promptly. These are fundamental issues that should be sought as you show your property to interested persons.
Finally, Finding The Right Tenants 4 Screening Tips should come in handy when faced with the situation of making a choice among possible tenants. Do not stop at the fourth tip, but rather go the extra mile and employ your own screening methods to give you a good chance of having a reliable tenant move into your property.