You already know that screening prospective tenants before renting to them is essential to running a successful business. How do you do that and stay within the laws?
Drew Sygit writing at BiggerPockets has some suggestions: “The tenant screening process needs to start with the end in mind—specifically, what are you willing to accept as a “minimum viable tenant”? There are lots of metrics that people can and do use in order to make that assessment, but we’re not even worried about metrics at this point—we’re talking about the most fundamental attributes here, the really non-negotiable bits.”
Screening Prospective Tenants
- Functionality: This never occurred to me until just now. The prospect must be able to function independently in terms of accomplishing the basic goals of daily life, or they must be applying alongside someone who can do that and trained to help them get by.
- Financially Able: The prospect must be able to show that they have sufficient income to pay rent regularly, or if the candidate doesn’t, they need to submit and get approval for a plan showing how they intend to pay at least the first few months’ rent while they get their feet under them. They must also submit letters of explanation describing why any previous credit issues shouldn’t remove them from consideration.
- Residential History: The prospect must not have been evicted for any ‘dealbreaker’ reason like the destruction of property and must submit an acceptable letter of explanation for any other type of eviction.
- Criminal History: The prospect must not have been convicted of any ‘dealbreaker’ crimes like arson or drug dealing and must submit a letter of explanation for any felony whatsoever.
- Personality: Are they a person who has left behind a trail of former employers & landlords, and other references that have only negative feedback.
Is There Some Way to Automate This Screening Process?
Glad you asked. WorryFreeTenant (WFT) is a tenant screening service that allows landlords to screen and connect with prospective tenants while managing their properties from one easy to use dashboard.
Owned by Delaware Realty Management, WFT provides landlords with thorough tenant screenings that include:
- Personal details (name, age, phone, etc.)
- Income (with pay stubs)
- Credit check with a credit score
- Criminal and civil records
- Eviction history
- Sex offender list
- Terrorist watch list
- Address history
- Employment history
- Driver’s license
- All tenant information is provided in one report so you can easily keep track of everything.
Are You a Prospective Tenant?
For those looking for a place to rent, Let Worry Free Tenant (WFT) ease your struggles. Our tenant screening process is easy. You pay only $40 once and share your rental application with any landlord. WFT allows you to fill out your application and upload all of your documents just one time. Once your report is complete, you can automatically share the report with all WFT landlords you connected to your search, as well as any other landlords you invite to WFT. Your report is active for 60 days.
Delaware Realty Management LLC
2700 Kirkwood Highway
Newark, DE 19711
302-995-2535
Photo by Erik Mclean on Unsplash
