Avoiding Bad Tenants

[David Vaughn]

I am new to Bigger Pockets but not to real estate. I have been in the buy hold game for over 20 years. I can honestly say I have made about every mistake humanly possible in real estate but I have always been good at screening my tenants and managing my properties. IF you can become skilled at these two aspects you can afford a bit more mistakes on the other. If you do not become skilled at these two aspects no matter how well you handle the other it will not work. Just my opinion. 

It is my personal belief that you can do the scientific side of tenant screening but there is still an art to it as well. Maybe some other buy hold guys can chime in and we can discuss and learn from one another. 

[Randy Gutierrez]

Quote from @Steve Tom:

I completely agree. I just started doing this myself without a realtor. Boy, I am getting all kind of applications, but many either are totally no qualified, or did not even read the listing and just blindly applied. 

I am slowly learning what to look for and what to ask potential tenants. 

Of course, in the mean time wife is wanting to lease the property out ASAP. But finding quality tenants and leasing a property out in a short time can hardly mixed.

I typically do a pre-screening and not make the application link publicly available, you will get bombarded with bad applications. Sites such as Zillow allow prospective tenants to apply as much as they want within a 30 day period for a fixed price, so they essentially have nothing to lose by applying limitlessly. I let them reach out via message and ask them directly if they meet requirement x, y, and z- this is usually just a copy and paste. If they do I then send them a link to apply. This will help you hone in on potential good applicants and cuts down the bad ones significantly. You will sort through less useless applications which in turn saves you time and makes your screening more efficient.