Doing due diligence on prospective tenants helps you make sure that you are not moving a landlord’s nightmare into one of your most important assets. Tenant screening can be time-consuming and sometimes troublesome, but you can save thousands of dollars over using professional leasing agents or property management companies.

Here are four essential must-do’s to help you find pleasant, responsible tenants:

• Do not be in a hurry to sign a leasewith the first applicant that comes alongsimply to fill a vacancy, unless they fully check out as an excellent prospective tenant. Waiting for the best tenant will be less costly in the long run. Choosing based on speedy occupancy could lead to having a non-paying renter and/or damaged property on your hands,perhaps even an eviction, and thenlooking for tenants again.
• Your lease contract should be solid and hold the tenant accountable if they don’t keep to their end of the deal. Your options as the landlord should be spelled out, including conditions for eviction not only for non-payment or repeated serious late payment, but also for neglect or damage of the property and even repeated neighbor complaints.
• Always, always, always check past landlords, especially from the property they just left. You don’t want to find out too late that, despite the pleasant smiles, they had a track record of:

• late or no payment,
• property damage,
• complaints,
• and even visits from law enforcement to quiet noisy parties or investigate the meth cook lab in the kitchen.

Yes, all this can and has happened even in “good” neighborhoods!And, if you find their current lease still has months to run and their present landlord is unaware they are looking for another place to live, know that they may do the same to you.

• Don’t fail to run the credit check and the criminal background check. You may find problems that you don’t expect to be a concern to you, but you do want to know ahead of time.

The cost of signing a lease without doing the due diligence can be very high when someone who seemed so pleasant and responsible when they filled out the application turns out to be the tenant from hell. These nightmare tenants WILL find a landlord who won’t check their past record of disasters and go through the same drama all over again!  Find out ahead of time and sign the lease only with the best applicants for your rental property.

What do you consider to be the most important question for a prospective tenant?

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