What is a good tenant? It is someone who will pay their rent on time and take care of your property.
Finding good tenants will depend on your particular market, your marketing strategy and then your screening process. Keeping them will depend upon how you respond to their needs.
First, you as the landlord need to put on your marketing hat and understand how your potential tenants want to communicate and find you. Different segments of the market find their homes in different ways. Some will read print ads, but fewer and fewer do. Some will heavily utilize the internet. Others will have limited access to the internet. Some will drive around looking in particular neighborhoods because of school or family connections so yard signs are a must.
In my market segment, the internet is key. Thus, a website and ads on Craigslist are a must. I hardly ever use yard signs anymore as they just do not generate positive leads. I know others in different markets that have to use yard signs, do not have websites and even hand out fliers at major supermarkets and do very well. You will most likely need to try several techniques before you find the one that best works for you.
Once potential tenants find you and your property, you need to check them out to find the good ones. “Trust but verify” are the key words here. You start this process when they call. Ask questions like “Can I show you the apartment after you get off work?” Or. “This apartment rents for $x, is that something you can afford?” These types of questions are designed to pre-qualify prospective tenants. With such questions you can find out if they have a job and if they can afford the apartment among other items.
Continue the process by having them fill out an application so you can verify all of their information through a credit, criminal and work history check. This is a vital step. Do not take their word. We once had an applicant that looked and dressed professional, had a decent car and said all of the right things. He filled out his application and paid the application fee in cash. When we checked him out, he had the lowest credit score we had ever seen and from what we could tell had never paid a bill in his life. Even the phone company was looking for him. If we had taken his word and not checked him out and let him move him, he would have lived in our place up to six months rent free before we could have evicted him! Another gave us his work info but neglected to tell us he had been fired that morning.
As a matter of fact, simply telling prospective applicants that you will conduct these checks will weed many of the bad ones out, but not all of them. So check them out!
Once your find them and get them in, you want to keep them. One of a landlord’s biggest expenses is tenant turnover. When a tenant moves not only are you not collecting rent, there are expenses as well. Often the apartment will need to be repainted. Minor repairs may need to be made and carpets will have to be cleaned. These items can really add up. So you need to be proactive on the front end and do what you can to keep the good tenants.
How do you keep them? It is simple. You respond to their needs and maintain your properties. You need to spend a little money upfront to avoid spending a lot more on the back end. If they need something fixed, fix it as quickly as possible. If they are concerned about crime, maybe you can offer to put in an alarm system for a few dollars more rent per month. Reward long term tenants with new ceiling fans or other small amenities.
You should also be professional, respectful and fair at all times. That does not mean you do not read tenants the riot act if you need to, but that you do it in a professional and respectful manner. Tenants will appreciate this because so many other landlords can be just plain obnoxious. They have lived under those landlords. A professional and respectful manner will get you referrals and sometimes my tenants move back after leaving.
So in sum how do you find and keep good tenants? Figure out your market and how they want to communicate. Pre-qualify prospective tenants and have them fill out an application. Verify all of their information. Be prompt to requests for repairs or other issues from them and always act in a professional, respectful and fair manner.
Till next time, work smarter not harder!
