As a landlord, one of the most important things for the betterment of your real estate business is to screen the tenant properly. There is a lot of information available in the web regarding how to screen the tenants but almost every piece of information focuses on screening through papers. The screening of tenants by analyzing their character is what most of the landlords miss here. For this purpose, you may need to run some non-conventional analytical measures.
Cleared past rent checks
One of the most mentioned things when it comes to screen the tenants is thought to be to contact the previous landlords. Unfortunately, most of the bad tenants get this aspect covered by coming up with the contact information about the landlords who would give you wrong information about the tenants. Well, there is another way to screen the tenants. You can ask the potential tenants to bring with them the cleared past rent checks of at least 3 most recent previous months.
Tax records
You will need to check the tax records in order to verify records of landlord which are provided by tenants. However, it should raise some red flags for you if the tenants say that they have been writing checks.
The eviction report
One of the best ways to screen the tenants is to obtain the eviction record. There are screening companies which can provide you with these records upon request. This way, you can check if an applicant has ever been filed for eviction in the past. Looking at the record, you can make sure that you are going for the good tenants only.
Get pictures of pets
Although landlords have been quite strict about pet policies in the past, there is now observed a bit leniency because pets have become family members for most of the families. In this scenario, you will need to ask for the pictures of pets. This is to ensure that your potential tenants bring with them the same small pet which had been shown in the picture they had provided you.
Driver’s license
You should also get a copy of driver’s license of the applicant. This copy will help you verify the address of your applicant. Make sure that address on the license matches with the address mentioned on other documents.
Online search
While some orthodox people may not believe on the credibility of social media, it is the fact that checking social media profiles of your applicants can actually help you analyze them in pretty effective manner. If you want to do the character analysis of those people, you can check their social media timelines.
Understand the their reasons to move
You will have to know the reasons your potential tenants want to move to your apartment or home. The most common reasons of moving involve size of the home and distance from work. You will have to make sure that your property offers them sufficient place to live and their work location is at the less distance from your property. If you property is not fulfilling their needs, you may end up seeing your property getting emptied after just a few months.
Steven Cook 