rental contract

[Jason Eberhardt]

Hi, I am looking for a good rental contract that is maybe more for Colorado if that's a thing. Something that can cover me as the landlord the best possible. This is my 3 rental and really need to get a better system.  

[Account Closed]

Originally posted by @Jason Eberhardt:

Thank you for the info. And I have not really had any problems at all with the tenants, I am just looking to make sure if something dose go wrong then I am covered.  Do you have any good tools or Web sites for screening ?

 The owner I worked for was a member of the local apartment association and we got a discount with a full-service credit screening/collection company.  The cheapest option they offered was an online tool, where I could run the checks - eviction, criminal, credit.  I also had their inspector come and see that the tenant files were secure in a locking cabinet and that I had a shredder.  If you do this, then you can see the actual credit reports.  I highly recommend this.

I did the other screening myself.  A few things I did was to require a personal check for the application fee, so I could get the address off of it.  Asked to see their ID, and get that address.  Then you check these addresses against the application and see if they lied.  I denied applicants who didn't have personal checking accounts.  If they were new to the country, I had them go get a bank account (techies from China, India or international students, for instance).  Having a personal checking account not only gave me an address to check, but showed me they were able to get and keep an account.

I'd Google their company and get the HR department on the phone to verify employment, rather than the number on their application.  Google addresses they gave me, to see if they were real addresses, Google the applicants to see if anything weird pops up.  Google landlords to see if they were real landlords and not just a friend or ghost.  Look for them on facebook to see if they're lying (pics of them smoking when they say they don't, etc.).

I also would ask them why they're moving when I showed them the unit.  It's amazing how off-guard that can catch people.  "So, why are you moving right now?"  "Uh, my aunt said we can't sleep on her couch anymore."  LOL.  That was a real answer I got.  Anyway, it catches people off guard and you may find something out that helps you decide not to rent to them.

I had criteria that said that if someone wasn't on time to meet me and didn't call me with a great reason they were running late (stuck in bumper to bumper traffic - which I would verify online lol), then they were denied.  If the actual tenant was with their brother/mother/BF/GF etc., and someone other than the tenant, or rather applicant, was doing all the talking, I denied them (unless they just didn't speak English).  Don't want to deal with the overbearing brother.  And don't have to.  If someone was snotty or overly picky or critical or argumentative, I denied them.  

I just learned to recognize problem tenants.  And have solid criteria and check everything.  Once I learned to do that, I hardly had any problems at all.

That was probably way more info than you wanted lol.  I need to go to bed :-)