Trust but Verify * Even if your gut tells you a tenant prospect is OK!!!

I think this happens a lot to people who have only one rental property. They think they can go by their gut and a "letter" from a former landlord...who could be anyone.

You just can't be too careful with tenant screening!  A friend of mine thought he could really "read" people and let an unscreened tenant move in.  Took a lawer + 4 1/2 months to get him out, and the house was wrecked in the mean time.  Turns out, this tenant was a professional squatter - a dis-barred attorney would knew every trick in the book to stay in a house the maximum length of time.  He was evicted 4 times during a 2 year period!!!

Being diligent with an incoming tenant is an absolute necessity. A lesson learned the extremely hardway as a bad tenant can be a huge financial and mental problem.

Evictions are not good ... and BAD tenants tend to seek out properties for rent that are NOT professionally managed by a management company.  They want to tell their sob story to someone, like the florist. 

Great reminder post. I'm also with Mathew... I have a rigorous screening process that weeds out the riff-raff. I have gotten exceptional tenants that way.

Here is my technique... I price the room/house just below rental market rates to get a good buzz and get lots of calls. I schedule a 1 day Open house and set aside 15 min. appointments for tenants to show up. (None of this can I come by now to see the room/ house on their time.) If you are late, you don't get to come in. I also require an application I have sent them online to be completely filled out before the appointment, no form, no further conversation. Bye-Bye now! If they jump through those 2 hoops I give them a quick tour and talk to them. I ask personal questions, family history questions... it gives me insight into who they are as people. I will only rent to people I feel comfortable with. Trust your gut! By then the 15 min are up, I tell them I will be checking their references and get back to them in 2 days. Typically I have 2-3 people that have made it through every hoop out of 10 and I make my choice. It has been very useful especially in a college town with a huge damand for great rentals.

Our gut feeling is rarely wrong, but abslolutely we still check. We get a lot of business form Owners who let people in with little deposit and no checks, and then come to us to get them out and take over.

This is very true.  I have had this burn me a few times.  Now I have strick guidelines I rent by.  It is unfortunate for people who truly need a second change.

Aaron

Yes... the good people have it so bad when these bad apples do these things.. and soon you can't trust anyone

Wallace:

Yep, no matter how charming and sweet the prospective tenants may be my husband always obtains a credit report and calls references and past landlords.  My husband always thinks the worst of people.  I think people are truthful.  I'm like Sandi Nichols, I couldn't lie convincingly to save my life.

I just had a young man contact me about a rental.  He was leaving the military and had just secured a civilian job.  He said he had "no credit issues at all Mam."  As my son is also military I almost waived the credit check (already offered reduced movein costs) but used my gut...I'm glad I did.  He probably is a nice young man...but I need a tenant who is nice AND has a history of decent credit.

Wallace - when they hesitate to pay the application fee, that's red flag!  I did allow someone to write me a check and that is the last time I will ever make that mistake.  Great post and best of success to you!

Absolutely essential!  My wife has been a property manager for 16 years; and, although I do not practice property management myself, we live in a very small town and information is readily available from other management firms, as well as private homeowners who rent out their properties.  I honestly could not begin to count the number of times I have heard horror stories of improperly verified tenants and the problems they cause.  While properly screening a prospective tenant is in now way a guarantee that things will go well down the road; it is a necessary step in providing some amount of safety and usually pays off well!  Sound advice Wallace!

Great advice,  only trust what you verify.  I have been  burned a few times and in looking back there were always Red Flags.  I agree better No tenant than a BAD tenant.

Verification is critical.  Mortgage companies do it every day so why wouldn't a landlord?

Wallace, who rents to people with scores in the 500s? We just started doing rentals this year and there are some very sad cases where people have done bk due to medical bills, job loss with short sale or foreclosure, etc. We couldn't recommend them to the owners and the owners didn't want them. But where do they go? I would think everyone would screen but guess not.

Sharon

Wisdom from the Property Management Maven - Wallace Gibson

Traci sounds like she's got it down pat! Regardless, varification is essential. You only have to get burned once to realize that!

We, too, have experienced a "bad" tenant in a house we owned before. What a pain! We had to hire an attorney to get her out, which turned into legal fees, plus we had a lot of repairs to make after she was finally gone. Always check references!

Gretchen

Great Post.  You tend to learn your lesson after the first time but it was probably your advice that he remembered which helped him.