When we are renting our property, we should select tenants very carefully. Bad tenant is certainly not a thing that anyone would desire. However, sometimes we get caught in the trap of bad tenants. People do their best to apply for getting a home on rent. Clever people do their best to hide their information that may create doubts in the mind of home owners.
Different property management companies use different screening methods for tenants. It is therefore very important to take personal interest in the screening of tenants. The property management company should also be clarified about the protection that it will provide in case of a bad tenant. The duties of home management companies should be cleared beforehand to avoid any confusion or misunderstanding in future. Along with asking the following questions from the company, you should also seek a copy of rental application that the company uses and try to figure out whether it is a generic document or just a custom tailored document.
You can have an idea about how much protection you will get from the management company by asking following questions from them about their screening process:
1. Will the company hold the property for tenant and take the property off the market before signing of lease? In case, yes, then what will be their fee?
There must be some fee so that you will be secure in case things don’t go well.
2. What are their ways of dealing with rental scams? How they will protect you against such scams? Is there any history of their getting dupes by some party?
The scams are now widespread as well as advanced. The scammers have become more technical and they are devising new methods for duping people. They copy the ad of your home, break into your house and show your house to interested parties to collect security deposit from them. These types of scams are getting common these days.
3. Methods the property management companies use for screening of tenants
The screening of tenants should be comprehensive to avoid any problem in future. The income and employment of the proposed tenants should be verified, their former landlords should also be contacted. It is also important to verify their authenticity information, credit report run, their personal references should be contacted and public notice like eviction, bankruptcy search run should be performed. There are many methods for screening tenants and different companies have their own time-tested formulas. In case, your company is using some third-party tenant screening, you should gather complete information about who is doing it and how they are doing it.
4. Which qualification of a tenant they consider most important? Do they consider a tenant having one qualification and not other?
Generally, people who are serious about their job or studies turn out to be good tenants. People who have less things to lose such as job, career, reputation, family, money personal pride etc, they are less supposed to be a good tenant. One indicator for their tenant screening process is the eviction rate and tenant turnover rate on those properties that they are managing.
5. Do the company provide you information about tenants so that you could approve them?
It seems to be good but it is not so good in actual. Tenant screening is the work of property management companies and you are supposed to pay them for this. If you have to do this work then you don’t need to hire them. You should keep an eye on screening process but the main responsibility is of the property management company.
