Picking Tenants: (Or is That Picking ‘at’ Tenants?)

On the last post, Maria asked, “What made you pick this tenant over the other applicants?”

That’s fairly simple– if 5 tenants apply and all qualify, we pick the first who turned in the application. In this case, our new tenant applied and we continued to show the house and accept applications until the lease was signed. However, I only run one background check/credit report at a time and accept or deny before moving on to the next. In the past, we’ve had folks change their mind after being approved so this gives us a “Next!” (just in case.)

One of our houses is a very hot property and every time the ad goes in the paper, we’re deluged by applicants. When prospective tenants call, I tell them we’ll be taking applications for a week and the best qualified applicant will be accepted. Can’t get away with that for our other properties… folks are liable to find something else in the meantime

A Landlord’s Wishlist

Let’s say up front that I don’t like automatically disqualifying broad categories of people. For instance, responsible pet owners can make great tenants. A blanket declaration of “No Pets” cuts out a tremendous number of applicants. Still, it has to be done our way– no new puppies or kittens, no unneutered pets, nothing over 20 lbs, no breeds with a reputation of aggression or vicious nature, plus additional pet deposit of $250, additional rent of $25/month, and more frequent inspections of the premises.

I’ll have more about what we look for in a tenant later, but for now, here’s the unofficial list of druthers (you know, we’d druther have cornbread than grits.)

Druther #1: We’d rather not rent to someone building a new house– too unpredictable and almost certain to break the lease (or want to stay after giving notice when the contractor tells them it’ll be another 6 weeks.)

Druther #2: We’d rather rent to non-smokers and starting out, we had a policy to that effect. We soon found that everyone who applied was a non-smoker, and yet the house still reeked of nicotine on move-out (amazing how many folks pick up the habit after moving in, isn’t it?) Now, if we approve a smoker, we make it clear they’ll lose the entire deposit if they smoke in the house due to deodorizing cost after move-out and we get to say whether the house smells like smoke.

Druther #3: We’d rather not allow pets, but we do occasionally, on a case-by-case basis.

Druther #4: We’d rather not rent to roommates or those living together. They tend to fight and move out and neither wants to pay the rent.

Druther #5: We’d rather rent to someone with excellent credit scores (BWAHAHAHA)

Almost every applicant violates at least one of these, but its still a way to pick a finalist when you have several equally qualified tenants.

More to come: The Importance of Having Written Criteria

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Tags: landlords, screening criteria, tenants