It's estimated that approximately 90% of tenants are good and only 10% are considered bad tenants. Yet, someone who might seem great on paper and even in person might not be the right choice to fill your rental.
Luckily, tenant screening services can help landlords weed out the bad tenants and avoid major headaches down the road.
To find the right tenants in Beverly Hills, California, follow these tenant screening best practices.
Create Tenant Screening Criteria
The tenant screening process isn't one size fits all. As a landlord, you can choose your own tenant screening criteria such as specific:
- Past rental history
- Income-to-rent ratio
- Employment status
When setting these criteria, it's important to keep the process fair and consistent to stay compliant with the Fair Housing Act.
Your criteria can streamline the tenant screening and application process to better identify tenants who align with your rental requirements.
Verify Proof of Income and Rental History
There are different tenant screening methods, but make sure yours verifies proof of income and rent payment history. This information is essential to figuring out if the tenant can consistently make rent payments on time.
Ask for these documents to help determine a tenant's financial stability:
- Recent pay stubs
- Bank statements
- Tax returns
A prospective tenant with consistent income is less likely to miss payments or make late payments. Consider talking to previous landlords as well to learn the details of someone's rent payment history.
Verify Employment
Verifying proof of income and employment are different, but go hand in hand during the tenant screening process. When you verify employment, you are making sure the employee has kept a steady job.
If a possible renter has had multiple jobs in a short amount of time, it could be cause for concern. This could indicate they have a hard time maintaining employment which could affect their ability to pay rent on time.
You can also opt to reach out to previous employers for references to get a clear understanding of a tenant's employment history. If you hire a property manager, this would be part of their responsibilities.
Run a Tenant Background Check
Run a full tenant background check after the initial screening steps. This process investigates and verifies a person's history and character.
Tenant background checks will validate the information that a tenant provides. An ideal background check uncovers details about a person you can't learn from a paper or from meeting someone for the first time.
A background check could reveal:
- Involvement in renter scams
- Criminal activity
- History of evictions
Of course, not every applicant will have something alarming uncovered, but it's always worth it to check to be sure.
The Best Way to Attract Quality Tenants
It's every landlord's dream to attract quality tenants who take care of the property, pay rent on time, and don't cause disruptions with other tenants. However, it's not so easy to find them.
The best way to know that you are renting to quality tenants is through these tenant screening best practices.
Not sure how to get started? PMI Beverly Hills can help. Our full-service property management company specializes in tenant services that include screening and background checks.
Fill out our form today to get in touch.
