Getting Ready: How do you do background check on tenants?

[Vy Mai]

I'm getting ahead of myself, but I would like to have things prepared before I buy my first investment.  Like what do people do for background check on tenants? 

[Nicole A.]

They must provide a copy of the social security card and ID/license. They must also provide 3 months of income stubs. They should be making 3 times the amount of the rent you're charging per month before taxes. They must fully complete my application questionnaire. Until I receive ALL of this, I do not process it. 

Once I receive it, I also see if I can find their FB profile and look up online any court cases against them. I also pull up the property address of where they currently live and see if the owner of that property matches the name of the landlord they gave (unless it might be a property management company).