Over the course of the year, I get complaints by landlords about how their tenants are not paying rent or how something has gone wrong in the landlord-tenant relationship. Although you can never eliminate all potential problems in a landlord-tenant relationship, you can set up your relationship for success if you, the landlord, conduct proper tenant screening.
Many landlords have told me that tenant screening is a lot of work and it’s not worth the effort. I would agree that taking the time to screen prospective tenants is hard work. However, screening generally saves you time and headache overall versus taking the approach of renting to the first person who is willing to pay you your desired rent and required security deposit. The landlord that does the latter usually ends up in my office looking to start an eviction.
Some recommendations I have implemented in the past include showing your property in an open house format. I personally have done this, especially when the rental property is located in another city.
Showing a home in an open house format saves you time over making individual appointments with prospects that might not show up or like your property. This format also allows you to schedule the open house at a time when you are available and allows for maximum exposure of the property.
The advantages of showing the property this way allows you to gauge the desirability of your property and can also show you who is seriously looking for a new place to live. You can also see how your prospective tenants interact with you and others, which can give you key insights into your future relationship with them.
Something else I recommend is creating some sort of qualification criteria for becoming a tenant of your property. At a minimum, you should establish an income-based qualification for the property you are renting. Many professionals suggest that a tenant who wants to rent a specific property should be earning at least 2-1/2 to 3 times the monthly rent of the property. So if your rental is advertised at $1,000.00 per month, your prospective tenant should be making at least $2,500.00 to $3,000.00 a month.
Remember, federal and California State laws prohibit landlords from making policies denying prospective tenants housing based on race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, national origin, ancestry, source of income, age, disability, medical condition, or disability.
These recommendations are just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to conducting tenant screening. A whole book could be written on the subject. My recommendation is that if you are new to the rental business or don’t have the time to conduct screening yourself, hire a professional property manager or company to assist you. You could be saving yourself thousands of dollars and a lot of stress. Being a landlord can be rewarding, but it can be very demanding at the same time!
