Advertising a rental property

[Marc Belisle]

Hello fellow landlords. I would like to know how you make it known when advertising or screening tenants that the applicants must make three times the rent in monthly income. From reading over this site I have noticed this seems to be a general rule of thumb in order to weed out applicants who probably don't make enough to safely afford the rent. 

We just started renting our second home a year ago, and the first time we used a property management company -- this time we intend to try on our own. Also what is the BEST way to verify income? 

Thank you

[Alan Russell]

@Marc Belisle,

I used cozy and Zillow Rental manager to list and advertise the properties that I rent.  once I have a potential tenant then I send them a link from Zillow Smartmove and they can apply, this runs their credit and a criminal check on them.  Then you will need to contact their employee to verify their income,  I have found that with most employers you will need to ask the correct questions to get a satisfactory answer.  I will typically tell them I am calling to verify employment because the applicant listed them as their employer and they will answer "yes or no".  Then I will tell them that they applicant listed their income as $XXX and ask that they verify that is correct.  Most of the time they will tell me yes but sometimes they say company policy prohibits them from answering that question.

in that case I look a the credit report and it will usually have their gross pay listed and if it is close to what the application says then I am ok with that.

If the company will not verify their income (happens more often every day) then I do ask them to provide me with their last 2 paycheck stubs which will list their gross pay and you can just do the math from there, or you could ask for a copy of last year W2 or tax return.