How to screen good tenants as a first time rental homeowner

[Dan Wei]

I just bought my first rental property and is going to put it on market for rent. Any experienced homeowners have any suggestions on where to put on the rental listing(how about Zillow?) and how to choose a good tenant as a first time rental owner? I am nervous and so afraid that I will come across some terrible tenant due to lacking of experience. Thank you so much for all your ideas!

[John Thedford]

You need to develop a list of qualifications and pass them out at showing. NOTE: do all showings at once instead of spinning your wheels. You want to develop a competition to rent the unit. Some ideas for qualifications include:
1. Monthly income should be at least 3x the monthly rent (that is a guideline)
2. NO SMOKING
3. Minimum credit score
4. No evictions younger than x years old
5. Pet or not pet policy. I allow pets and charge additional rent for pets.
6. Time at current employer (or in the same field)
7. Criminal history.....have guidelines for that. If they killed their last landlord that should be an instant FAIL
8. Get as high of a security deposit as legally possible in your state. I get at least 1.5x the monthly rent.
These are a few ideas. There is always a little apprehension when you first start but it gets easier. DON'T be so anxious to rent it that you get lax on your qualifications. Do that and you very well may end up with a bad tenant. Over the past 7 years I have had about 4 evictions and luckily those went easy....but were still a PITA. I lost money on one tenant because I didn't have enough security deposit.