How to Find the Perfect Rent-to-Own Tenant in Today's Market

If you talk to any property manager or any landlord who owns dozens of properties, they will tell you that it’s tough to find quality tenants these days. I know several property mangers and they tell me that evictions are up and they now have to screen a lot more people to find the right person for a property.

Obviously, this is no huge surprise given the real estate market.

So how can you make sure that you don’t get stuck with a tenant you’re eventually going to have to evict? How can you find the perfect tenant? Well, here’s how I do it. Recently, I had a tenant move out of one of my properties. And while most people freak out and quickly call the newspaper to begin running classified ads, I do something else.

I simply call one of the property managers who is part of my power team. You see, I sell the majority of my properties on a rent to own basis. And early on I figured out that the best place to find quality tenants would be through property managers. Property managers have tenants who would love to own their own homes and most property managers don’t do lease options and don’t understand how they work.

That’s why when a property manager has a great tenant who is thinking about moving and who wants to own a house, they will give you a call. That’s what happened with my current vacancy. I called up one of the property managers on my list and she has a couple who she thinks would be a perfect fit. The best part is, this property manager has had this couple for a long time, they’ve always paid rent on time and have taken good care of the house.

But you might be thinking, “how do I build these relationships and why would a property manager give me one of their tenants”, right?

When I build these relationships I always help out the other person first. So I will refer these people landlords who need their property management services and I will refer them to other investors. My niche is targeting tired landlords and this is who I buy the majority of my properties from. However, it doesn’t always work out, or maybe they are not motivated enough to sell and that’s when I recommend them to one of the property managers on my team.

After I have referred multiple landlords to the property manager, they want to return the favor and they let me know when they have a tenant who wants to do a rent-to-own. It really is that simple. You help them out first and they will help you out later.

But don’t forget this…

The most important thing to remember is that it will take awhile to find good property managers to be a part of your team. I’ve gone through numerous property managers before I found ones that were good enough where I would refer others to them. Since your reputation is on the line make sure they will take good care of the landlords you refer.

So, if you don’t have a property manager on your team start networking today. I also recommend they be a full time property management company and not just some Realtor that manages a few properties on the side. If you do this, you may never have to worry about finding a quality rent to own tenant again.

Note By BiggerPockets: These are opinions written by the author and do not necessarily represent the opinions of BiggerPockets.