Proper Tenant Screening Techniques Can Be Simple

There are as many ways to screen a tenant as there are landlords and management companies, so what is the best way to assure that you are doing due diligence when you screen an applicant for a rental?

In 13 years working in the residential rental management service industry I’ve found a few simple techniques bring in good renters 99.9% of the time: credit checks and calling landlord references. A credit check is one way to determine whether the applicant has been responsible with money.

However keep I mind that credit scores can be misleading in the case of younger people who have not yet established credit or in the case of people who mostly use cash. And there are many people who are responsible with money but who haven’t used loans, credit cards and the like enough to get a decent credit score. Thus, using credit as a gauge for a person’s reliability in rent payments is just one way to find a good renter.

When a person doesn’t have enough good credit I ask for higher deposit or a co-signer.  I try to soften the news that a person’s credit is not sufficient to rent without a co-signer or a higher deposit compassionately and using intelligent explanations.

Good landlord references are essential in the rental management service business. In my rental management service business in Boulder property management I never accept an application if I can’t speak directly with rental references. In addition, I don’t farm out the calling of references, as is common among many larger Boulder property management and rental management service companies. I do the calls in my office so I can be sure I get full information. If a person gets a bad reference I do not rent to her or him.

There are several large companies among Boulder property management businesses who manage thousands of units in town. The three biggest companies do not seem to make rental reference calls: in my many years providing rental management service in this town I have never once gotten a request for a rental reference from any of these three companies.

The bottom line is that no screening method is a guarantee that an applicant is going to be a great tenant, but these methods have worked for me for many years and I think they’re golden.

For more information please visit:  Boulder Property Management