here are a lot of benefits to renting out your property, but bad tenants aren’t one of them. IT can be difficult to find the right tenants when the lease comes to an end. You want to find a tenant that will be timely with their rent, take good care of the property, and cause as few headaches as possible. Unfortunately this isn’t the easiest process in the world. It can take time and knowledge to choose the right tenants for your property. Keep reading to learn how to make those good choices with tips from property experts Tim Manning.
Understand the Laws
Before even starting your search for a good tenant you have to understand the laws. The Federal Fair Housing Act, for example, forbids discriminating against a potential tenant because of their race, nationality, sex, religion, disability, or familial status. Different states may also have their own laws on the issue. Make sure you read through and understand the housing and renting laws in your area to make your search easier and avoid legal troubles.
Set Criteria
After coming to grips with the laws you should put together a list of criteria to make things easier. Having this set criteria helps you quickly determine if a tenant is a good choice or not. These criteria should line up with the laws while highlighting what you want from a tenant. This could be a particular credit score to deciding if tenants are allowed pets. Finding a good tenant means determining the right kind of person for your property. Think about the income level, employment status, rental history, criminal history, pets, lease length, and credit score you want a tenant to have.
State Your Expectations
Make sure you avoid getting a lot of applications from people that don’t meet your criteria by being clear and upfront about what you expect in your ads, no matter where you post them. When a potential renter reads through the description of your rental property, they should be able to tell if they will be a good fit or not based on the criteria. Stating your criteria clearly helps to avoid renters that wouldn’t be a good match, which will save time and help you find a good tenant.
Show Your Property
Some rental owners choose to show their property before tenants apply. This allows potential renters to get a feel for the property and decide if they should apply or not. Combining a showing with clearly defined criteria ensures only serious tenants that hopefully match the criteria will apply. Talk to potential tenants and learn more about them. Find out if they want a new place, where they currently live, and any other questions you can think of like what they do. This also helps you decide if a tenant is good or not. Don’t forget to watch out for red flags such as tenants not showing up or refusing to allow for a background/credit check.
Select a Tenant
After narrowing down your list of applicants it’s time to think about which one would be a good fit for your rental property. Hopefully you’ve screened potential tenants and set out defined criteria that allow you to reduce the number of potential applications. Choose the tenant that you feel is the best fit, and allow yourself to relax. At least, until it’s time to do all this again!
Summary
A lot of work can go into choosing the right tenant but it’s all worth it in the end. You want someone that matches your needs and criteria and is likely to be a good tenant, but you should avoid discriminating or breaking other laws.