Renting your properties to other people need not be a terrifying experience for you. It should be rewarding since you are now reaping the interests of your investments. But, with all these news about burglary and vandalism, it’s understandable for you to have apprehensions. There are ways to avoid this dilemma, though. The answer is tenant screening. It is very important that you have screened tenants before renting your properties to them because this will give you an idea on what kind of people they are and whether they have the capacity to pay the rent.
As with most tenant screening tips that you’d find online, it is advisable to use rental application forms.These forms will help will help you gather the basic information that you need from possible tenants. However, you should be realistic that some of the information may not be true and that you need to dig deeper. This is where processing of said data come in and that includes tenant background check.
Why is it important to go through these lengths if your tenants are only going to stay for a few months, you ask? Well, because no matter how short they are going to stay, it’s still better to filter out bad tenants. It will save you a lot of headaches and lost income.
Why Background Check is Important for Screening Tenants?
You have to understand that no matter how kind and mellow someone may look, it’s not a guarantee that he/she will be a good tenant. And no matter how comprehensive your tenant screening documents is, you can’t be 100% sure that your tenant will always be paying the rent on time.
Let’s say someone wants to rent one of your apartments and wants to do so in a rush. Don’t be fooled by their fashion sense or articulateness, instead ask them why they are in a rush. The reason could be legitimate of course. But, what if they are in a rush to move in because of pending eviction from former landlord?
When you do tenant background check, you’d be able to track their tenancy history. From eviction histories alone, you’d be able to tell if a prospective tenant is going to be an asset or a liability. But, you also have to be aware that laws restricting what you can and cannot do when doing background check differ from state to state. Also, there are federal laws prohibiting landlords or landowners against discrimination. Thus, you cannot disqualify an applicant because of his/her religion, sex, nationality or age.
Another reason to do a tenant background checks during tenant screening is that you’d be able to avoid the woes of bad tenants – from those who don’t pay to those who can do extensive damage to the property. If you are thinking how tedious it would be to do a check on one person alone, then think of how tedious it would be to replenish destroyed or vandalized furniture or to remodel the entire property.
A single background check will also help you know whether a future tenant has a good tenancy history. Can he/she pay the rent regularly? You have a red flag when records show that a person have a lot of charge offs and late payments from former landlord or even other credit facilities.
This article originally appeared on ctcredit
