Why is tenant screening such an important tool for anyone dealing with rental properties? Tenant screening can save you a lot of money and headaches as well. A reputable background check company can screen your tenants for you, and the results can help you decide whether or not to rent to the tenants they have applied for.
What is a good tenant check? You should request and receive the following information from any prospective tenant: the addresses and telephone numbers of your current and former landlords, your Social Security number, current address and telephone number, the reason for your move, your place of residence, job, a bank reference, and at least two character references. Also, have the person sign a statement agreeing to a background check, references, and credit check. All this information can be collected in a complete application form that you will provide. Be sure to include any questions on this application that you feel are necessary to verify prospective tenants. This is necessary so that the company you choose to do a tenant screening can have enough information to do a thorough investigation.
Ideally, all information on the application should be verified, and this is where a tenant screening can save you a lot of time. If for some reason the company doing the assessment can’t verify some of the information, this should send up a red flag as far as that tenant is concerned. You’d be surprised how often people get creative with a rental application! They obviously have no idea how it can be through a background check, and that their lies will be found out.
The selection of tenants is absolutely mandatory. Bad tenants usually realize that they might have trouble finding a decent place to rent, so they use various tactics to make themselves look better. You want to rent your property to someone who will pay rent on time and try to take care of your property, follow the rules you have set, and are generally decent people.
A good tenant screening service can prevent you from renting to unsavory people who could damage your property or leave town without paying the rent they owe. When you consider the amount of information a tenant screening service will provide you quickly, the small fee they charge will be well worth it! Additionally, many landlords pass this fee on to their prospective tenants by indicating on the application they use that there is a fee for the background check. So it can be essentially free for you to get this vital information.
These background check professionals have access to huge databases of information that are not available to anyone who is not in the investigative business. It would take you a long time to collect all this information yourself. A selection of tenants can make renting out your property a breeze, with less fear of renting to the wrong person. Don’t risk losing income on your property by agreeing to rent to someone unless you’ve thoroughly checked your background! Tenants move from property to property these days, and it can be quite difficult to keep up with them without the use of professional methods.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know that your tenants won’t pay their rent with a bad check, or move out of your property in the middle of the night right before their rent is due? By taking advantage of a reputable tenant screening service, your worries will be few when it comes to finding tenants you can trust.