How to Find the Best Tenant for Your Home
While being a landlord, there are many factors that go into choosing the perfect tenant, such as their income, liability, responsibility and more. As a property owner or manager, it is important to take the appropriate steps to ensure that the person you select to reside in your home is the perfect fit. Here are some of the steps we, as a property management company, take to ensure that we get the right tenant every time.
Setting up the Advertisement
Although advertisements are a great way to showcase your property and get potential tenants, you also have to make sure that you supply all the necessary information, such as what utilities are included, parking, how long the desired lease is, when the start date is and if you allow pets. This is crucial information for the potential tenants, that way they can decide whether to pursue this property or not.
Another important step is to make sure that you have photos of the property. We suggest hiring a professional photographer to take these - it makes your space look so much better and inviting to applicants. However, using your personal phone will also work, just make sure that the photos are clear, bright and accurately showcase your space.
Responding to Inquiries
Good job - you have people interested in your space! Although in the step above, we made sure that all of the necessary information needed was supplied, oftentimes you will receive inquiries from people who have not fully read your advertisement and do not have the proper qualifications. Whenever you receive an inquiry, if they do not supply their preferred move-in date or beginning of lease date, ask for it! This will save you a lot of time from going through applications for tenants looking to rent for October 1st when you are actually looking for a tenant for September 1st. A great way to ask the applicant this question is:
“Yes, it is still available! What month were you looking to move in for?”
If they are interested in renting in the appropriate time frame, offer them an application. A good next step is to offer them a viewing time or a virtual tour. The virtual tour can just be a video you’ve taken on your phone and uploaded to Youtube or send via text. This is just another way for the applicant to get a better feel of the unit.
Going Through Applications
At our company, we have a policy that we will only sign a lease with a tenant if they are currently employed in a job where they make the appropriate monthly income to cover the rent amount. This can be from a single person in the home, but also take into consideration that there may be multiple incomes per household. If this is the case, ask for the other household residents to fill out an application and look at them together as one. The first thing we ever look at when an application comes in is to see if:
Are they currently employed in the city (or stated that they are working remotely)
Is their monthly income enough to cover the rent and other expenses (we often add an extra $300 - $400 to the rent to decide this)
If they do not have enough income or employment in the city, we will reach out to them to confirm our findings. If they cannot supply proof of current employment or income, unfortunately we have to decline their application.
Choosing the Right Questions to Ask References
When calling reference, it is important to realize that you are looking to find out who this person is as an individual, employee and most importantly, tenant. By figuring this out, you will be able to make an informed decision on whether or not to rent to this applicant. Below we have a few sample questions, feel free to add as many as you need to help yourself make the most informed decision about the applicant.
Landlords
Were utilities included in their rent?
Did anyone else live with the tenant(s)?
Did the tenant(s) ever receive any legal notices (late rent, noise, unauthorized occupants, notice to vacate, etc.)?
Was the home maintained in good condition (housekeeping, lawn, etc.)?
Did the tenant receive their entire deposit back after vacating?
Employers
Can you confirm that the tenant was/is employed at this company?
What was the date of hire?
What is the tenant’s position in the company?
What are the average hours worked?
How do you like working with the tenant?
Personal
How do you know the tenant? And for how long?
How does the tenant spend their spare time?
Have you spent any time in the tenant’s current or previous home? How would you describe it?
Does the tenant smoke?
Does the tenant have pets?
Describe their overall character.
Credit Check
If the applicant has good references and you have confirmed employment, you can move onto the next step: the credit check. Most landlords skip this step because it is an added cost, but we believe that this is another crucial step to ensure that this is the right tenant for you. We use naborly.com, which is a site that does not require a subscription, but does charge $25 per screening. In some provinces and states you can charge the amount directly to the applicant, but here in Nova Scotia, it is required by law that the landlord pay this fee. The applicant has 48 hours to complete their screening process and then the landlord will receive a detailed report within 24 hours as to whether or not the applicant would be a good tenant. This step can give property owners and managers some security that you have chosen the right candidate for your home.
Final Step
If the applicant has passed the reference checks and the credit check, you are ready to offer them the unit! Always try and receive a security deposit as soon as possible and then sign the lease. Afterwards, all you have to do is schedule a move-in inspection to insure that the property will be kept clean and to your satisfaction during their tenancy. Now you can have the relief knowing that your property will be kept in good condition and can start to receive a steady income. Congratulations!