10 Tips Learned From Screening hundreds of Prospective Tenants

Screening tenants is probably one of the most important topics for buy and hold investors who self-manage their portfolios. It really does not matter if you have 5 or 50 units. Screening tenants and choosing the best qualified tenants from the beginning is critically important to the long term success of your rental units and portfolio.

Personally owning close to 200 units and going through hundreds of tenants from all walks of life has taught me tons of hard lessons on tweaking our tenant screening process. Being a landlord, if you don't learn this business, you just can't stay in this business. It is not fun when your tenant is teaching you the Landlord & Tenant rules.

Here are the top 10 tips that I have come up with to systemize your tenant screening process.

1. Have a strong and detailed rental application.

2. Call previous and current landlords. (Previous landlords are better)

3. Call to verify employment

4. Use a third party screening system that runs credit and crimninal checks. Check out  https://www.tenantverification.ca/

5. Once you accept a tenant, get the deposit or last month's rent immediately

6. Get emergency contact info on the Application

7. Have a written rental standard form to avoid any discrimination issues if it arises

8. If no previous landlord, ask for three references

9. Have a scoring system based on written rental standards

10. Call the new tenant a week after move-in to check in with them