by Philip Taylor
So you just became a landlord and you want to know how to screen tenants and complete that tenant credit check?
Well, you are in luck. I just became a rental property owner myself and I learned how to properly screen tenants, including the credit check.
One of the great unknowns of becoming a landlord is how to screen tenants so that you can find the right people to live in your rental unit.
Lord knows you don’t want someone skipping out on you or beating up your home after you’ve spent time advertising your rental and fixing it up.
With the technology we have these days, it’s really very easy. But there are some things that can trip you up.
Know Your HOA Rules for Screening Tenants
First and foremost, you need to contact your home owners association and find out what their terms are for allowing tenants in the community. You might be surprised at how strict they are. For instance, my HOA requires that I only take tenants who are able to do a minimum of 12 month on the lease agreement.
Additionally, my HOA requires that I provide a criminal background check on my tenants and that I submit that to them, along with the proposed lease, and an additional information sheet, for their approval. Which can take up to a week. Don’t get me started on how much of a pita that is.
Have an Objective Standard When Screening
Secondly, and probably most importantly when it comes to dealing with prospective tenants, you need to develop an objective standard by which you judge each new tenant/applicant. What I mean is that you need a standard application process that you put each potential renter through that contains a standard scoring system to evaluate each tenant based on their own situation.
Said in another way, you need a checklist. I turned to www.mrlandlord.net to get all the materials I needed to help me screen my tenants, including a checklist. This checklist includes:
- Financial Criteria
- Cooperation/Reliability Criteria
- Rental Stability Criteria
You score each of the points under each of these criteria headings and you come up with a total score. If your potential tenant meets or exceeds that score then they pass your application.
Having an objective standard in place when screening tenants makes your job so much easier and it gives you confidence that you are doing the right thing and finding the right renter.
The reason this is so valuable is that as a new landlord, you have no idea what constitutes a “good” tenant. And if you fear that the first person that comes along might be your only lead, without a standard, you might make a bad decision and end up with a bad tenant.
Use Pre-screening Questions
Finding the right tenant takes time. The last thing you want to do is waste time taking applications from or showing the unit to prospective tenants that aren’t even qualified based on known information.
For instance, I ask my tenants the following questions when they call or email about the unit:
- When is your desired move-in date?
- Can you do a 12 months lease? The HOA requires this.
- Do you have pets or are you a smoker?
- How many adults will be living in the home?
- When is a good time for you to see the home this week? Please list a couple of days/times.
If the tenant says, “oh, I can’t do 12 months” or “I actually have a pet” then you’ve saved yourself anymore time spent dealing with this prospective tenant. On to the next one.
I made the mistake of not asking these questions once and wasted an hour of my time (two 30 min showings of the unit) because the tenant had a dog. I has assumed she read that on the listing. Never assume when your time is involved.
How to Do the Tenant Credit Check
There are lots of places online that will facilitate your tenant credit check. I do all of my tenant credit checks using. It’s a smooth as silk operation. All you do is direct your prospective tenant to the website and give them the email address where you would like the report sent. The tenant handles the rest. They pay a one time fee of $15.95 per applicant. They then complete the application and almost instantly a report is sent to your email.
The report from Renter’s Friend contains a credit check (including score), criminal background check, and legal records check. They source their information from Experian, BackgroundChecks.com, and a database from Legal Record, LLC.
Once I receive the report I plug the information into my prospective tenant checklist. If I need more information, I follow up with the tenant. Then, I’m able to give the tenant a yea or nay.
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There’s so much more I could share about this screening process, but I have to stop somewhere. Being a landlord has been fun so far, but there is no doubt that dealing with screening tenants has been the most challenging part for me. In my next installment I hope to cover agreements, deposits, receiving rent, etc.
This article was written by Philip Taylor and originally published on ptmoney
