Interviewing Tenants

[Michael Fundaro]

Hi All,

My girlfriend and I just bought our first duplex and are about to rent out a unit (we are house-hacking). Our realtor pre-screened a bunch of applicants, and she finally sent one to us that met the criteria.  Income is 3x rent, no evictions, good credit.  After looking at the BP ultimate guide to screening tenants flowchart our next steps are:

Criminal record search

Calling previous landlords

Calling places of work to verify employment

So my question is, how would we go about setting up an in-person meeting? I'm just going to call my realtor and tell her we want to set it up.

Another concern we have is that on the application, they listed one of their boyfriends as an additional person living in the apartment, but the only information we got was his name. Should we request his income and reference information as well? Or would just a background check suffice, since the other two applicants qualify on their own.

Thanks!