5 Tips to Help You Find a New Tenant
Picture this: You just spent thousands of dollars on legal fees to remove a troublesome tenant from your rental because they destroyed your property and refused to pay rent. You spent even more money on getting it ready to rent out to a new tenant. Now, you are hesitant to accept just anyone to fill the vacancy.
At this point, finding a decent human to fill a vacancy in your rental property can seem like a daunting task. Fortunately, there are steps that you can take to filter out the problem tenants and fill your rental with an upstanding member of society. Read on for more information.
1. Require Tenant Applications
You should always have your potential tenants fill out an application to be considered for a rental agreement. It gives them the chance to verify their identity, income, and previous renting experiences. The application will also give you an idea of how many people you can expect to be living in the rental (including any pets that the new renters might have).
2. Run Background Checks
In certain states, you can charge an application fee for prospective tenants to submit an application. You can use this money to run a background check and get an idea of who you are dealing with. You can use this glimpse into their background to determine if they are employed as you don’t want to rent to someone who has a job lined up as it might fall through leaving you without a rent check.
You will also want to look into their previous rental history by utilizing a service like https://rentsafe.lease/rental-history-report/. The rental history will tell you if your prospective tenant often paid their rent late and if they’ve ever been evicted from a previous rental property in the past.
3. Have Tenants Sign a Lease
Before accepting a security deposit and the first month’s rent, you should give your tenants a set of ground rules that they must abide by if they want to continue living in your rental.
4. Avoid Renting to Friends and Family
Renting to your loved ones is a great way to put a strain on your relationships. This most likely isn’t something that you want to deal with as a landlord.
You might run into issues with non-payment of rent or a lack of communication between you and them. Any of these problems could result in the dissolution of your relationship and their tenancy.
Looking for a New Tenant?
The key to finding a new tenant that you won’t regret renting to is simply learning a little more about your prospects until you find one without any red flags. Run a background check and compare it to the answers they put on their application. And, most importantly, trust your gut and be wary of any red flags that may pose an issue in the future.
If you’ve found this post to be helpful, be sure to check out our other real estate content.
