Why Is Tenant Screening Important?

Landlords rent out their property and earn an income through it. As a landlord, you are under immense pressure to ensure that no one leaves facing a bad experience or lands you in a tough spot. Bad rental experiences can be minimized by following a strict process of screening tenants. However, searching for tenants is not an easy task. Once you post a room for rent online, you have to wait for months for someone to show interest. Sometimes you might experience a surge of requests for the posted room. Amidst all this, choosing the right tenant can be a bit overwhelming and, let’s not forget, time-consuming. 

Nowadays, it is easier to find the best website to list a house for rent online, but tough to get good tenants. However, once you get reliable tenants, you can bear the fruit of all your labor. This is not to say that landlords and tenants will never disagree on any matter. The disagreements could be about the landlord’s behavior or, at any point, regarding the rental agreement. 

However, whether you want to post a room for rent online for the first time or hold an experience, giving out a room for rent never gets easy. But, did you know which is the best solution to tackle this problem? You can start screening and vetting your tenants! Yes, the solution is as simple as this. Nowadays, landlords have a variety of tools at their disposal to help them aid their process of vetting and screening clients. For example, this process would help them decide whether they want to keep a person as a tenant or not.

This article will highlight the importance of tenant screening and vetting and the best methods to follow. Let us begin by defining tenant screening in detail –

Tenant screening- What is It? 

Before conducting interviews with your prospective tenants, you need to understand the exact meaning and procedure. To explain it simply, tenant screening involves determining whether a particular applicant would be an ideal tenant. 

Tenant screening gets a bit complicated and tedious when it comes to practice. As a landlord, you must be prepared to face failures and yet learn to move on to the next step in the plan. You must also be ready to deal with prospective tenants and efficiently judge their behavior.  

Importance of Tenant Screening

Tenant screening is important because, as a landlord, you would rather nip the problem in the bud than deal with it later. To put it simply, tenant screening helps reduce the chances of a tenant-landlord battle in the future. It is always better to avoid having problematic tenants than regret it later. Tenant verification can help you protect your property and neighborhood. However, tenants with a criminal history can pose a threat and increase the risks of violence. You should go through proper background checks to ensure that no loophole is left in the screening and vetting process.

Tenant Screening- The Process

Tenant screening is your ticket to a carefree and relaxed life as a landlord. Listed below are a few steps that you must follow to ensure that your tenant screening process is devoid of any loopholes. Read on to know the entire tenant screening process and avoid making silly errors as a landlord –

• Do a thorough screening of the tenant

Before you allow a tenant to view your room or property, it is always better to learn about them. You can directly ask them for identity proof, including their driver’s license or valid ID proof. Next, you can look for their credit history and other readily available information on the public forum. This step will help you form a general idea about the tenant.

Additionally, you can also seek references from their past landlords. This will highlight their behavior and other characteristics that might not otherwise get highlighted through their public records. References from landlords will help get a clear picture of them as tenants. 

• Tenant Application

You should request your future tenants fill out an application form. An application form helps to get important information from the tenants. You will get information about the tenant’s name, address, employment details, and financial information. 

• Interview them

After you have run your inquiries and are sure of their character and behavior, you can move ahead and schedule interviews with them. This way, you can also invite them to view the rental property. For the interview, you can mentally prepare a set of questions that would help you get a clearer picture of their financial situation. You can include questions about their profession, present and past rental addresses, landlords, etc. This step will help you steer clear of any problematic tenants. It is always better to meet your future tenants in person to avoid the emergence of problems later. 

You can then ask your client some basic questions, such as Details about their job and salary. Here is a quick list of the most common yet relevant questions you can ask your tenants while screening them for your rental house. 

• Smoking habits?
• Whether they have pets or not?
• The period of their previous tenancy and the reason for its ending?
• How do they plan to rent out your place?
• Their expected move-in date?
• The number of people who would move in with them?
• Past references

While performing a background check, you should look into their eviction details and criminal history.

• Rental agreement

Once you have selected a tenant, you should get their signature on the rental agreement. This step also involves negotiating the terms of rent and settling any other issues that the tenant might be facing. 

Conclusion 

As a landlord, you might get complaints regarding your rented property. Unforeseen contingencies can arise, and you should be prepared to deal with them professionally. These situations can occur even after following a rigorous screening and vetting process. However, tenant screening will help you eliminate the majority of problems and help you save time and energy. So, before you post an advertisement for your rental property on the best website to list a house for rent, check for the factors to look for while screening a tenant.