Leasing on my Own

[Kent Harris]

In the recent past I have been using Realtors to find Tenants for my properties. The Real Estate agent would have the applicant send over there own information and even though I had told them to use that information to screen the applicant only and run a credit and background once they got approved. The last Tenant that they had approved had falsified the application. The Realtor never ran a background and even admitted to me that they had not. After the Tenant quit paying the rent after 3 months I hired a Private Investigator who found 2 Bankruptcies and 3 evictions. To put salt in the wound I got sued by the Tenants attorney for discrimination which was thrown out in eviction court. I confronted the Realtor and told them they needed to find me a Tenant for free. The Realtor told me they had no recourse and would have to charge me another $1,750 to get a new tenant.

On another Tenant from an earlier time I told the Realtor to look at the prospective tenants Vehicles to make sure the Vehicles were not trashed out which is a good sign the person is a hoarder. I had confronted the Realtor about why they would allow a person with a trashed out Vehicle rent my property. The Realtor said it was profiling and they were not allowed to disqualify an applicant because they kept there Vehicle untidy. The Tenant had told me it took six 30 foot trucks to move into a 1,500 square foot home. (I have a house twice that size and it only took us one truck)! The tenant will not allow me to view the property. Since the person pays the rent on time we have decided that they will probably not do anymore damage then is already done and let them sign another year lease.

I started advertising on my own and using "Transunion Smart Move" to screen my prospective tenants. I had 6 applicants in one week with 4 of them highly qualified to rent the house. Now my problem is picking the right applicant to rent the house. Any ideas on how to do this on my own? I am so done with Realtors. I am very surprised that I am able to find better applicants then the Realtors or is this an exception to the rule?