First round of tenant screening

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Ok so we are purchasing a second home and renting out the first one. We have the ads up and applicants are rolling in. We have 5 that have completed prescreening and all are coming to see the house on Saturday... (Yaaaa tomorrow) My thought on this process is: 1. Prescreening for policy(smoking,pets), income and willingness for background, criminal, eviction checks. 2. Show house 3. Complete full application and provide income verification 4. Background, criminal, eviction checks through True Rent My reason for holding off on background check is not wanting to charge people (they pay the company directly) and ding credit with hard pull if they aren't going to qualify, find another place or lose interest in the earlier stages. So on the off handed chance EVERYONE qualifies and is a reasonable choice for tenant.... What is the next step? Create a priority list based on all info, conversations, factors and call the first person and offer it up? Move to the next until someone signs the lease? Thanks for any info! Jesse

[Kelly N.]

Hi Jesse,

Congrats on heading towards becoming a landlord!  It is exciting!

I operate in a similar manner to what you are describing, but my prescreening process is probably not as involved as yours might be.

I show my apartments and answer questions, and use that time (and the time on the phone/ over e mail prior to the appointment) to find out what I can- why are they moving, how long do they want to stay in the next place, do they smoke, have pets, etc.  I give them applications and explain our min. requirements (3x rent in income, no criminal record, no evictions), it is my feeling that a lot of people will take apps even if they know they won't qualify- they are just saving face.  They can meet me to pick up the apps, turn it in right then, or send it to me via text or e mail, then they pay the $30 background check.

I used to run the background checks in the order I received applications (or the group of applications if there is more than one co-tenant).  That was simple to apply, simple for the applicant to understand, but didn't always get me the most qualified tenant.  So with the help of another BP member, I started using a points system to grade prospective tenants on.  I assign a point value to things that are important to me- the length of lease they want, whether they showed up on time to the appointment, reason for leaving current place, proximity to school or work, how long they have had current job, etc.  I have only had to use it once to decide between tenants so far (my busy season is coming up though) and I do use it to grade all applicants even if there isn't someone else interested in the apartment.  I offer the apartment to the top applicant and, depending on the timing, either collect a holding deposit or sign a lease within a specified time- usually one week.

If someone has paid the background check fee but someone else qualified and signed before them, I return the fee.  If the other applicant doesn't give me a deposit in time, I move on to the next person in line.

Hope that helps,

Kelly