First time rental advice

[Logan Larochelle]

I’m currently fixing my house up it’s almost done in a week or so. The house is fully paid off. 

The question I have is:

1. How/where do you go about posting your listing for rental

2. How are you screening potential tenants? 

Or is there a guide or something you guys follow step by step in want to learn this process.

[Nathan Gesner]

Quote from @Logan Larochelle:

I’m currently fixing my house up it’s almost done in a week or so. The house is fully paid off. 

The question I have is:

1. How/where do you go about posting your listing for rental

2. How are you screening potential tenants? 

Or is there a guide or something you guys follow step by step in want to learn this process.

Where to market? Depends on your market. In some areas you'll find the most success with Zillow while others get better results with Craigslist or Facebook or Zumper. Educate yourself on the scammers because they are increasingly common! I recommend learning how to watermark your photos to prevent scammers from stealing them.

I also recommend you include some of your key qualification criteria in the advertisement. For example, I mention that every adult must pay a $30 application fee and pass my credit/criminal background, they must make a combined income of 3x the rent, and whether or not the property accepts pets. Use the top three or four discriminators so applicants can kind of screen themselves.

Then you need to have clear screening criteria yourself. What's the lowest credit score you will allow? Do you check Landlord references? Do you verify their income? Do you know how to read the credit/criminal background? What if they have collections or judgments?

Here's a detailed guide on how to screen applicants: https://www.biggerpockets.com/...