Thoughts on tenant screening

Things are quiet with the Fischer’s. Bruce did site a stripper pole in the living room of one of our tenants. I’ve been scouring airbnb for someplace interesting to spend a night closer to the next local BP meet-up. Not much news.

So almost a month ago I saw this article by Mark Ainley on BP - 10 Not-So-Obvious Ways to Thoroughly Screen Potential Tenants. 

The tips that we follow:

• Photographing both pets and the drivers licenses. Having seen the ID is an important step to running the application through a screening company, and it can help the police later if a crime is involved.
• We look at tax records to find out as much as we can about prior addresses on both the application and the credit report. I have sent letters to the registered owners asking them to phone or e-mail.
• Ask them why they are moving.
• Attempt to keep the process moving. If they are a marginal candidate we’ll intentionally slow down, but strong and weak candidates find that out fairly quickly.

The tips that we don’t follow:

• We don’t ask to see cleared checks, because most of our applicants don’t use checks, or bank accounts.
• We don’t collect application fees, because we want the biggest applicant base possible, and this is our service to the poor. I often hear about local low income applicants who have wasted hundreds of dollars in screening fees, and that is a real shame.

Enjoyed the article, happy screening!