10 Things Every Landlord Can Do To Find Great Tenants

Finding a good tenant - who is respectful and timely with rent - is paramount in ensuring that your rental portfolio is and remains a sound investment.  Here's 10 things to keep in mind before as you start your search for tenants:

1). Prepare you rental accordingly:

• Price your property appropriately by conducting a thorough comparative market analysis.
• Educate yourself on de-leading laws and landlord responsibilities.
• Make the rental is clean and basic repairs are done, either as a DIY or professional.

2.) Have a coherent advertising campaign:

• Create a webpage for the unit.
• Take good pictures of the unit.
• Drone footage
• Catchy, informative copy
• Use social media

3.) Use a rental application and online system

• This is the document used to collect personal information about the applicant/co-applicants so you can perform background checks.

4.) Background and credit checks

• Red-flags to look out for include evictions, criminal record, bankruptcy.

5.) Employment Verification

• Always speak to someone in HR to verify employment and length of employment.  You may need the applicant to sign a release form for human resources before this information is provided.

6.) Understand the Laws

• Make sure you understand your legal rights as well as incriminating yourself by discriminating based on pregnancy, disability, gender, race and age, among other things.

7.) Check personal references (landlord and personal)

• Talk to at least two of the potential tenant's previous landlords.  If the applicant was a problem tenant, the current landlord may leave out important information in order to get rid of the tenant.

8.) Strong lease and house rules

• spell out everything in detail, it is important to set expectations in the lease to avoid problems later.

9.) Require your renters to have renters insurance

• It covers personal property, liability coverage, and additional living expenses

10.) Hire a great rental agent

• If you have a full-time job or are new to being a landlord, hire an experience agent that knows how to navigate the process and look out for red-flags to ensure you'll have a respectful and financial sound tenant.