No Nonsense Tips for Screening Tenants

Read this article on BiggerPockets, thought it was a great source of information.

It doesn’t cover criminal records, but it covers most other factors we look at.

For employment, applicants get full points if they have held their job for over a year. If they have not held any previous job for over year, that is red flag. Many of our tenants leave because they lose their job; we want stable employment. If they have not yet held their current job for 3 months, it is another big red flag. Applicants often jump the gun and look for a place to live as soon as they land a job. They underestimate the lag time until money starts flowing, how much of the paycheck they will be keeping, and underestimate all the costs involved in getting their own place.

For address stability, applicants that have lived at all previous addresses over a year and have lived at any address (other than mom & dad) for five years get high points. Turnover is expensive, we want tenants who are going to stay at least 1-2 years. If they have moved frequently in the past, it is unlikely that they will change their patterns. We ask them in the application how long they intend to stay and use that information too. Applicants earn points if they have lived in this city for 5 years or more, and lose points if they ae moving form more than 30 miles away. We have found that people from outside the area don’t always like it, so having tenants who know what they are getting into are a benefit.

Love the idea of checking in with a tenant after move in as well. We use the move in check list (property condition report) as an excuse to stop by, to provide them a photocopy afterwards.