Help me lower my eviction ratio

[Scott Ficek]

I have had a rash of evictions lately for non-payment and it has caused me to look introspectively at what I am doing or not doing when screening these tenants, that may result in me allowing bad tenants to slip through my screening process.

Although I own lots of investment property, I wonder if I can't see the forest through the trees. I am looking for some practical advice.

Background: Most of my properties are 2-4 unit buildings in Minneapolis. I own in many parts of the city, but have 95% of my evictions in the lower income (but not bullets flying) areas. I do full credit, criminal, and rental history checks through an agency.

Here are some questions (please tell me the way you really do it and not the pie in the sky hard-*** landlord canned reply):
[list] Do you have an income to rent ratio the tenant must pass? If so, what is the ratio?
Do you allow any evictions or collections on their record? If so, how old does it have to be for your to excuse it?
If it was 2 weeks before your apartment was vacant, would you (Or do you) lower your standards instead of losing a month's rent?
Have you also found some correlation between your bad tenants and something on their background check?
To stay honest with yourself and your rules, do you use a point system for each applicant?
Do you have buildings or units that you are willing to lower your standards on because they are more difficult to fill or some other reason?[/list:u]

Thanks in advance.