Found a Tenant... Now what?

[Anthony Terrones]

Hi BP! I recently purchased my first rental property and am about to lease it out beginning October 5th. I just finished screening a great tenant who actually is going to pay more than I originally had marketed the property for (very hot market). We're excited to get going but I'm trying to avoid making as many newbie mistakes as possible. Outside of having the tenant sign the lease contract what else should I be working on or providing?

[Anthony Terrones]

Originally posted by @John Teachout:

I'm curious about the part where they're paying "more" than what you marketed the property for? Did they offer more or did you change your ad and raise the price?

If the tenant offered to pay more, this could be a warning sign that they're trying to cause you to overlook something.

Hey John, this is a great question. Here's the story... My wife and I wanted to purchase a property in the Boise, ID area to move into in about a year but rent for the time being. We found a fantastic place we could call home that would also rent well. We are Clear to Close at this point and signing final docs on the 24th (this Thursday). Our realtor was sharing our home with a small network of other agents (since we haven't closed yet we weren't planning to market it until then). We got 4-5 interested families and we started the pre-screening process with a couple of them, informing them of our situation. Not sure if you're aware, but the market is extremely hot in Boise and that goes for rentals as well. The feedback we were getting was that folks were willing to double the down or increase the monthly slightly to have a competitive edge against other prospective tenants. The one couple who went through the application process told me in advance their story and why they didn't have perfect credit and offered to pay significantly more than asking to get in. They seemed very honest but of course I couldn't trust their word alone. I did about as thorough of a check I could on them - background, credit, income verification, bank statements, referrals, previous 3 landlords... the works. Besides their actual credit scores they were perfect candidates. We decided to move forward with them at $500/mo over our original asking price.