4 Tips on How to Find the Best Tenant: Pittsburg Housing Provider Education
Today we are sharing an educational piece on how to find the best tenants. There are more than four tips we can give you, but these four are simple and often overlooked recommendations because many housing providers don’t have the time or the resources to follow them. The largest mistake housing providers make is not screening tenants properly. Either they feel like they can’t do it, or they’re afraid of violating fair housing laws, so they avoid thorough screening and just keep their fingers crossed, hoping to get a great tenant. These are things you want to do not because they’re legally required, but because you want to protect your investment.
Credit Checks
Criminal Checks
Housing Provider References
Speak to the tenant’s past and current housing provider. It used to be easy to do these references; people would put housing provider information on the application and everyone was honest. These days, you don’t know if an applicant is using a friend’s name and someone is pretending to be a housing provider. You need to verify that the housing provider’s name on the application matches the owner of the property.
Employment References
There are a couple of red flags to look for. For example, be wary of tenants who move around a lot or come to you with some kind of story explaining an eviction or complaining their previous housing provider was a jerk. Investigate, because these claims are not necessarily untrue, but you want to find out. Speak to the housing provider if the applicant claims he is moving because the previous property had a number of problems that were never fixed. You also want to guard against a high debt to income ratio.
Tenant screening never gives you a 100 percent guarantee, and there’s always a risk. But a Pittsburg property management company can take that burden away from you and allow you to have more time to do things that are important to you. To learn more about how to find a great tenant, please contact us at Bruce Croskey Real Estate, and we’d be happy to help you.
