Have you ever dealt with a bad tenant?
You’ve seen them. They fail to pay their rent. They disturb your property’s peace and evoke claims from other tenants.
Tenants who are nightmares are detrimental to the profitability of your rental homes. They damage your track record as a property manager. Of course, the key to avoiding the migraine of nightmare tenants is to shun renting to them in the first place.
So, how do you get amazing tenants while turning away prospective nightmares? Before you hand over the lease or rental agreement to sign, you must use efficient tenant screening methods.
Check out these five tips to ensure you’re renting to tenants who will respect your properties and be a pleasure working with them.
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Ask About Their Monthly Income
Besides rent, tenants pay for utilities like water, electricity, and school fees. Sometimes tenants delay paying their rent because they pay those utilities first. By the time they want to pay for rent, they realize they have exhausted their earnings.
If your tenant earns less than the income minimum of $7.25 per hour, they will likely be unable to pay rent. Although it depends on the cost of renting a house, ensure your client earns more than the hourly minimum wage.
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Check Their Credit History
You can get this information from credit bureaus. Credit bureaus will generate a credit score for the tenant you are investigating.
A credit score considers variables such as late rent payment duration and how much unpaid rent they owed. The score ranges between 300 and 850. The higher the score, the likelihood that the tenant will pay rent on time.
As a rule of thumb, go for tenants with a score of at least 670.
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Check Their Criminal History
A criminal as your tenant can greatly hinder your business.
A tenant should not be a danger to other tenants and you. To determine whether or not a tenant has committed a crime before, ask to see their certificate of good conduct. Ensure the document is recent, preferably two years and below.
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Contact Their Previous Landlords
One of the best tenant screening techniques to use is contacting their previous landlords. Landlords interact closely with tenants, so they understand them better. The landlord may choose to talk about a tenant to you on the phone or by drafting positive references.
Some of the questions to ask should include their general behavior around other people, whether they always pay their rent on time, and whether they damaged any property where they lived.
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Ask About Their Family Size
If you are only renting out one-bedroom houses, allowing a family of five is not a good idea. That means some of them may have to sleep on the floor. Therefore, it is a good idea to know exactly how many people will be moving in, so you don’t end up with too many people in one space.
Use This Tenant Screening Guide to Get Good Tenants
Tenant screening helps your rental business boom since you will have tenants who pay rent on time. If you do not know how to screen tenants, you can consult a rental company.
At Florida Long Term Rentals, we help landlords conduct background checks on their tenants. We gather information about them through an online rental application tool. After we gather the information, we then process the report and send it to you.
Contact us if you need help with screening your tenants.
