Renting out your home can be a lucrative source of added income and all landlords know that the key to successfully renting out a home or an investment property lies in finding the ideal tenants. Secondary home or investment property rentals become feasible income generators only when tenants actually pay their rent on time and fulfill the terms and conditions stated on the lease agreements. While homeowners and landlords dread rental vacancies, there is no bigger anxiety than renting your home to tenants whom you have to chase or play hide-and-seek with just to collect your monthly rent dues.
So how do you get the assurance that your potential tenants are going to pay their rent religiously? How do you discern if they are the type of people who might mess up your place or break a lease? There are actually a number of procedures you may undertake to effectively screen your applicants. Some may cost you a little money, and there are others you may do at absolutely no cost, all from the comfort of your home or office desk.
Rental background searches and tenant screening services are widely available on numerous online websites. In an effort to provide information to their industry associates, there are some free sites where property managers and landlords register their history of erring and undesirable tenants and provide detailed accounts on their horror stories. You can simply enter your tenants name and do a search. The limitation however is, not all landlords take extra effort in reporting instances of rental breaches to these free sites.
More comprehensive and informative background search and screening services are also available online for a minimal annual or one-time fee. Apart from basic information such as previous addresses and credit history, background reports generated from these service websites provide you with data on any liens, suits, eviction and judgments your potential tenant may have had in the past. A criminal records search usually comes with the package for standard tenant screening. Information provided on these background reports give you a fairly accurate character profile on anyone who expresses interest in renting your property.
It is standard procedure to inform potential tenants that you may be pulling information on them to qualify them for the lease. Most applicants usually do not mind having to undergo such procedure and any resistance is a clear giveaway that your potential renter may indeed have something to hide. In fact, the very good ones hold no objection to having the cost of generating a background report charged to their account.
Other screening options you may wish to undertake at no cost should include a review of your applicants rental history. You may request for contact information on their previous landlords so you can get first-hand accounts on rental payment history or adherence to rental contract provisions. Other property managers and landlords also require some proof of income to verify a tenants capacity to pay rent. A copy of your applicants most recent pay stub normally suffices.
Good tenants welcome background searches or screening services. They know this will bring them closer to renting the home of their choice. Landlords, on the other hand, find great value in doing the same. Background searches eliminate a lot of risks and pave the way for more favorable landlord-tenant relations.
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