Order of operations for renting

[Aaron Millis]

Hi all,

I am on the verge of being ready to list my property for rent and start the entire renting process. However I was wondering what the order of operations is for renting your property. I have never rented a property myself so that is why I am somewhat clueless. Here is my guess of how it goes..

List the property for rent

handle phone calls from perspective tenants

mini pre screen them over the phone

show them the property- and give them an application

choose from your applicants and have them sign your lease

I feel like it goes something like that i may have messed up the order, or maybe it does not really matter at all and its all personal preference. I would like to know how some of you reading this do it. And also if you can provide insight on how parents co-signing for their college kids works i would appreciate that. I know it is likely i will need that done, and i am not sure how the process for that works. Do i have to run two seperate checks for the tenant and their parent? If the tenant did not meet the credit or income standards then i am guessing i would need to see all of the parents income and credit history?  

Sorry for all the newbie questions

[John Underwood]

@Aaron Millis I agree with @Darrin Gross on all points.

Open House use Zillow and Craigslist. Funnel everyone to a small block of time to minimize wasting your time.

You MUST do background checks, I use residentresearch.com It costs me $26 dollars to run a report and I charge a $40 application fee.

Do not rent to someone who does not have all the move in money up front!

The people who beg you to rent to them do not turnout to be good tenants. They are desperate for a reason.

Charge a larger deposit than 1 months rent. This encourages them to leave your place in good condition and pay last months rent because they want their deposit back.

I do NOT chase rent. I make them use Zelle (backed by the big banks) or deposit into my bank account. The 5 day notice is already in my lease so if they are late they get an eviction notice. 

You have to train your tenants that if they don't pay on time they pay a late fee and if they don't pay in a reasonable time they get evicted. Other wise they will pay everyone else first and if they have anything left then they might pay you.