What does your tenant screening process look like?
For those managing rentals themselves, what does your tenant screening process look like from application to approval?
I’m curious how people handle income verification, credit, rental history, references, and background checks, especially when one part of the application looks strong but another raises a question.
Do you have a specific set of requirements you use for every property, or do you adjust them depending on the market and type of rental?
Interested in hearing what has actually worked for people managing their own properties.
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@Ali Najjar the thing that made my screening consistent was writing the criteria down before a single application came in, then running each file as pass/fail against that sheet instead of a vibe check.
What's on the sheet:
Income: verifiable and documented, not a screenshot. Two most recent pay stubs plus two months of bank statements, and I check that the net on the stub actually shows up as a deposit on the statement. Self employed gets the prior year return plus statements. For rent by the room I underwrite each person against their own room rent, not a household total.
Credit: I read the report, not the score. The score hides the two things I care about, which are open collections from prior landlords or utilities, and whether the payment history is thin or manufactured.
Rental history: two prior landlords, and I make a point of calling the one before the current one. The current landlord may want them gone. I find the number myself through county records rather than calling whatever is written on the application.
Background and eviction: run it, but read the disposition and the date. A filing that was dismissed or settled is not a judgment, and old is not recent.
On the part you actually asked about, the strong-in-one-place, weak-in-another file. I do not average it out. I decide in advance which criteria are absolute and which have a defined remedy. Income and eviction judgments are absolute for me. Thin credit or short tenure at a new job has a remedy, usually a larger deposit or a cosigner where local law allows it, since deposit caps and cosigner rules vary quite a bit by state. Writing that down ahead of time is also what keeps you defensible, because you are applying one standard to everyone instead of making an exception you would later have to explain.
I keep the same bar across properties. What I adjust is the rent and the marketing, not the criteria.
Which of those is causing most of your declines right now, income documentation or rental history?