Filtering Tenants, Selecting and Executing Lease

[Matt Brown]

I'm a first time home owner but relocating due to my job. I've never rented it out before but I'm looking to do so.

So just to see what type of interest I would get I posted an ad on craigslist. I have had several interested tenants. Although the place is not available for a month or so, what do I need to do now as far as filtering my tenants? A few of my solid questions are...

- Am I required to have a formal application? What should be on it? (I've never rented a home myself)

- What about credit checks? Who can run those for me? What is an acceptable amount of risk in regards to their credit?

- Once I've selected a tenant, do I just have them sign the lease agreement? I plan on using an attorney to draft that just to be legit and official, but once signed they just move in and live?

These may seem very basic, but when I read through everyone else's posts it all seems specific to their situation.