How To Interview Tenants And Know When You’ve Found The Right One

[Greg Raymer]

When interviewing tenants, landlords should follow certain steps in order to determine if a tenant is the right fit for their property. These steps include:

• Reviewing the tenant’s application: Review the tenant’s application, including their credit report, employment history, and rental history. Look for red flags such as past evictions, unpaid debts or any criminal records.
• Conducting an interview: Schedule an in-person or virtual interview with the tenant. Ask questions about their rental history, employment, and reasons for wanting to rent your property. You can also ask for their references.
• Verifying their information: Verify the information provided by the tenant, including their employment, rental history, and references. Check with their previous landlords and employers to confirm the information they’ve provided is accurate.
• Assessing the tenant’s personality: Pay attention to the tenant’s personality during the interview and ask yourself if they seem like a good fit for your property and community.
• When you’ve found the right tenant, you should have a feeling of confidence and security that they will be a responsible and respectful tenant. They will have a good credit score, a stable job, good references and they should have been able to answer all your questions clearly and honestly.

It’s important to keep in mind that, even the most thorough screening process can’t guarantee that a tenant will be problem-free, but it can help you to minimize the risk of having issues with your tenant in the future.