Effectively Screening a Tenant as a Landlord

We promised a more detailed post on screening tenants, so here you go!

Make sure you screen your tenants thoroughly and don’t just accept the first person who shows interest in your unit (unless you’re lucky enough to have hit the jackpot early on your tenant search). Remember that you are going to be dealing with these tenants for a long amount of time and you don’t want to deal with them pestering you or not paying on time. Tracking tenants down to pay their rent is a full time job, avoid having to do this at all costs. I hesitate to even mention the E word (eviction), nobody wants to deal with that, so take the appropriate steps right off the bat to avoid this type of future!

After creating the most professional and detailed post you can (which we describe in more detail here), the emails and calls (depending on how you set it up because you can choose one, the other or both) will begin pouring in. A lot of people will ask to see the apartment, so make appointments in 15 minute intervals (I made the mistake of making them in one-hour intervals before; big mistake and waste of your time), but have low expectations on people actually showing up to see the unit (this varies based on price, location, and other factors). The more appointments you make, the higher chance you have of finding the right individual/family/group to rent your unit. It’s a numbers game, right?

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