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Posted over 6 years ago

Tenant Screening Like a Pro Series-Intro

I always give this story when I speak to landlords about their real estate assets. It's a simple one but I feel it is very true in the minds of most landlords: 

So imagine you just bought a new Aston Martin Vantage S Roadster for $130k, parked it at home, to have all of your friends come see it. All while you bask in the glory of your accomplishment.  A very nice stranger walks up and ask politely to take the car for a spin to their aunt's house so that they may show them how it looks. Now they can't afford to buy this car on their own but it's always been there dream to show up to a family member's house in a very nice car. To show just how sincere they are they even offer to give you their insurance information just "incase" something happened while they had the car. Now I know most people in that situation I hope will politely tell them no. It's something that you put a lot of work into getting so why would you give your keys to your $150k car to some person you just met off the street?  The same goes for your new real estate purchase. Why give keys to a property you just bought, to someone that you hardly know, that was able to charm you with their story? The sad thing about this story is that it is way easier to get your car keys back then it would be to get your house keys. 

So how do you protect your asset from the guys looking to take you for a ride? It starts with a strong defense. Having screening in place to weed out the worst tenants. Understanding what to look for when talking to tenants and what questions to ask to further understand what kind of situation your tenant is in. Now will a great screening system forecast the future for you? Will it offer 100% on time paying tenants that never cause issues? No it won't, but it will do a really good job of keeping the times you have to go to a court house on the low side.  I will go over the general things to look for while screening tenants since every state has different laws. Things that might be legal in Florida where I work might be illegal in your state. So make sure that when putting together your screening process you take into account your state's laws. 

Over the next few days I will go over the different general steps during a screening process.  The amount of steps that you incorporate will depend on you. We set up 20 proprietary steps for our screening system. This might be overkill for your current level but we will go over the major ones that should in my opinion be included. 

The steps will be: 

  • 1. Advertising 
  • 2. The Phone call 
  • 3. The Application  
  • 4.  The Analysis
  • 5. The check up
  • 6. Closure  

If there are any specific areas that you want me to go over please don't hesitate to ask I will make sure to add it into one of the sections while going through them. 



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