Screening Tenants is Important | What to Look for in Your Rental Tenants

Managing properties is an important responsibility and the wrong approach can have detrimental effects on the tenants that end up moving into your properties.  If you want to be successful, you have to have the right people living in your rental properties. Landlords and real estate agents all have their own style in how we show the rental property. Having that said, we all need to be very aware of certain signs to watch for when evaluating your prospective new tenants, as this will have a major affect in the future of your rental.

Obviously, ideal tenants would be those that will:

• Willingly take on the responsibility of keeping the property in tip-top shape.
• Always pay their rent on time, if not early.
• Are very responsible and care of the property as if they owned it.

Having tenants with these qualities will make your job a whole lot easier. Not to mention your property being in good hands.
Now, if you have less than ideal tenants in your rental units, your job is likely going to be more stressful than it should be. Your bad tenants' tendencies will affect your finances and can start to burden the relationship between you and the tenants; this type of scenario does not usually have a happy ending.

It will not take long for you to realize having bad tenants is never an ideal situation. The best way to avoid this is utilizing a screening process that is thorough in addition to using good ol' common sense.

The Detrimental Effects of Having Bad Tenants

Let's imagine that you have current tenants who are not holding up their end of the agreement. In order to get them out, an eviction would have to take place. Evictions can be costly (average is $3,500 and can run as high as $10,000). What's worse are tenants that ‘skip' out on and cost you big time. According to TransUnion the average cost per ‘skip' tenant is almost $2,000.
These costs can add up quickly and be very disturbing if you manage a lot of units. Taking the time to make sure you are placing great tenants in your units will avoid any headaches in the near future and unexpected expenses on your end.
While you do have to put some money into the screening process to get started, the expense is well worth it if it means having amazing tenants and less stress for you.