​Tenant Listing: What, Why, and Who?

I hate it when I get behind on my paperwork. I’m a really disciplined and organized person, but once I miss a few recent updates, things seem to snowball.

Today, I was bound and determined to get my tenant listing up to date.

This is a list of who is and has lived at each address, for how long, when the last time we stepped foot inside, deposit amounts, amounts owing after move out, birthdays, and whether we would rent to them again. I use the list to schedule maintenance inspections, send birthday Starbucks cards, calculate tenancy durations, and as a quick source of overall impressions and info when/if other landlords call for references.

There is also a tab on the spreadsheet to list all the applicants and the short answer of why they were accepted or denied. So far I have only used that info to search when I come across a name that seems familiar.

In getting my list up to date, I logged our 100th applicant. Years ago, when we first started, we were only waiting for 1 or 2 and no more than 5 applications before accepting a tenant; we weren’t picky enough. In the last few years our average has increased to 6 applications per vacancy and we are willing to wait until an applicant scores high enough on our criteria.

We currently have one tenant who has been renting from us for 4 ½ years, two are at the two year mark, and the other five are pretty new. We have thirty four prior tenants, and the average tenancy is 13 months. That’s 12 under 6 months to bring down the average that far.

My tenant listing is back up to date again. Until the next musical chairs with tenant turnover…