Need help finding the right tenants but don't know what to look for
Hi guys, Looking for tenants for two apartments has been an eye-opening experience and I now realize that we do not know what to look for either good or bad. I suppose we should know what to avoid, more than anything. How do we steer clear of deadbeats that are familiar with working the system….
Hi guys,
Looking for tenants for two apartments has been an eye-opening experience and I now realize that we do not know what to look for either good or bad.
I suppose we should know what to avoid, more than anything. How do we steer clear of deadbeats that are familiar with working the system. Not concerned with which reports to run (credit, etc) rather what red flags.
Also, what would you guys advise to look FOR in tenants?
Thanks in advance.
Adcvertise here on brownstoner. Seems to be very few listed with no fee.
bobjbkln, why would it make a difference what is rented out? I imagine that in any rental you would want people who pay on time and treat the property and the neighbors with respect.
Agree with DIBS on the credit scores. None of my tenants had good credit and it has never been a problem for me (knock wood). I’m not saying it shouldn’t be an issue, but I would not overlook someone who was honest about hitting a rough patch in the past if they have their act together now.
What is the apartment like? Is it nice enough for quality people to live there? Maybe you need to advertise it and forget your word of mouth. Just take some nice pictures and throw it up there on Craigs.
I’m about to mkt an aptmt for rent and have some early concerns similar to yours and one of the things I am contemplating (if I dont find tenants that I’m very comfortable with) is to not offer them a lease and just go month-month. Am thinking that no lease would make it easier to boot the tenant if it doesnt work out. And rarely does it worth landlord’s while to suit to enforce the lease if tenant decides to leave before term is up.
Credit scores can oftentimes be misleading. When I rented my unit I had my lawyer do the checks. I believe my tenants had a credit score in the 500s and the other might have been sightly higher. My lawyer made the comment that “in that neighborhood” you might not find higher scores and pointed out that the problem was primarily that they were late on student loan payments a few years back.
Job reference was good and they were a nice couple. Since then never had any problem whatsoever and they turned out to be ideal tenants, so mucg so that I cut their rent in the third year.
Word of MOUTH.
It’s been dreadful. We’ve only gone on word of mirth referrals but credit has been bad, under 600.
Is it better to go with a broker to weed out the losers?
We had someone here the other day who has had 3 addresses is 5 months and poor credit? I felt very uneasy about him after he sent application docs even though he was lovely in person.
How has your experience been looking for working people with good credit and good references? Or students with a guarantor?
The first thing to look for, after finances and such, is are those people good fit for you an your family? Another think we always look for in our tenants is are they genuanly nice people? Good-manners count for a lot when you live with these people in the same house and have to provide services to them and they might have their own ideas about what they should get from you. It’s much easier to deal with nice people and good manners take the edge off in many situations.