One of the most important things a landlord does is screen tenants. Yes, finding properties, keeping up with the books and property maintenance are also important. But, fail at screening and let a problem tenant in one of your properties and the troubles can mount quickly.
Problem tenants will not only cost you money, they will also create loads of tenant drama for you. Not only might you not get the rent you are owed, numerous other issues come with problem tenants. Problem tenants damage property, generate endless phone calls and complaints, cause your good tenants to leave, bring trash, filth and who knows who and what else with them. As a landlord, your best bet is to avoid these problem tenants all together. And you do that with good tenant screening.
Tenant screening begins at that very first point of contact with a prospective tenant. During that first phone call, not only do you have the job of selling your property and services, but you must also be on the look out for red flags signaling you that the person on the other end of the line is a potential problem. Asking the right questions will help you do a good job of screening.
What to ask then? Here are 5 questions you must ask every applicant in order to help you see the red flags and screen out potential problem tenants.
- Why are you moving? – This open ended question asks the prospective tenant to describe what is going on their life. Why do you want to know? Because whatever is going on will move in to your place. Think about what the following two answers to this question can tell you. First answer. “I have taken a new job in your city.” Second answer. “I hate my current landlord.” The first answer tells you your perspective tenant needs to move for a legitimate reason. It tells you they also have a job. The second answer is much different and raises red flags. Perhaps they have a legitimate reason to move, but perhaps also their current landlord is just as happy to get rid of them. Each answer needs verification, but the second one is going to cause me to be more cautious.
- When do you need to move? – Most people do not and should not have to move tomorrow. Most people are reasonable, understand when their lease is up and begin looking for a new place to live in a adequate amount of time. If you get an answer from your prospective tenant that they have to move tomorrow or even next week, then you may want to cut things off right there. Unless there was a fire, there is really no good reason someone has to move tomorrow. On the flip side, you are also wasting your time if someone is looking six months out. Will you hold that vacant apartment for six months? Not likely. Tell the person who has to move tomorrow that there is no way they can get through your screening process that quickly. Ask the person looking six months in advance to get back in touch a couple of months away from when they are ready to move.
- Who will be living with you? – Who will be living in the property? You need to know and keep track of this because every adult living in your property absolutely must go through your screening process. Believe me when I say that people will try and hide the fact that other people, such as boyfriends, girlfriends, roommates, relatives, etc., will be living with them. Why do they trying to hide this? What have these folks done? Find out before it moves in to your property.
- Are the properties I have available in your price range? – This question is designed to let your prospective tenant decide if what you have available fits them and thus screen themselves. You should always tell every person who calls about everything you have available, even if they called about one specific property. DO NOT TRY TO STEER THEM TOWARDS ONE PLACE OVER ANOTHER. DO NOT LEAVE ANY PROPETY OUT OF YOUR CONVERSATION. Let the prospective tenant decide what property and rent fits their budget and needs. Then go from there. In this way, you can avoid being accused of discriminatory practices.
- Have you or anyone you will be living with been evicted or filed for bankruptcy? – This question is essential. Most landlords will not rent to someone who has recently been evicted or filed for bankruptcy. You probably should not either. So you might as well get this question out of the way as soon as possible. If the answer to this question is “No,” a background check will likely prove if they are lying or not (People will and do lie about this). If the answer is “Yes,” dig deeper. Ask about circumstances. Depending on your market and rental standards, “Yes” may not necessarily mean a “No” from you. But you will surly want to find out more.
Being lax with your tenant screening is something is a high risk action when you are a landlord. It sounds terrible, but you just cannot trust anyone to tell you the truth and you have to develop a keen sense for seeing the red flags. Asking both direct and open ended questions designed to elicit information from your prospective tenant, such as those outlined above, will go a long way towards screening out the problems right from the beginning.
