1st Time Landlord needs help

[Wes Shaw]

Hey guys, looking for some advice. I just closed on my first rental last week. The sellers move out in 3 days. My wife and I went ahead and posted the house on the community facebook page a few hours ago and got tons of responses back. I have already set up 3 showings and probably feel like I can set up another 4 or 5. My question is how do you fairly choose your tenants? I understand that the background check, etc.... may cull out a few of them, but all things being equal do you guys go by feel or priority based on the order they contacted you? Would love to hear any advice. Thanks in advance.

[John Thedford]

1. Make sure you are familiar with Fed/state laws on discrimination. Document everything. If you pass over someone that makes an accusation, you will have your documentation to prove how you arrived at your choice.

2. I suggest having a tenant requirement paper you can pass out to all at your showings. I have one I made which talks about credit history/scores, pets, smoking, evictions, criminal history, income requirements, etc. Passing these out can help weed out those that cannot be accepted.

3. I charge a hefty non-refundable fee of $75 per applicant. I take all their checks at the same time. When I choose the 1st applicant to run, I deposit that check. If they are approved I return the other checks. This fee will help weed out people that think they can deceive you until you run your checks.

4. I don't like to accept more than 3-4 applications. Once I have that many I usually tell people I have several apps and that they can call me in a day or two to see if one was accepted.