Prospective Tenant Screening

[Rick L.]

I just went through the process of finding a new tenant my rental property. I learned a few things a long the way about attracting and screening potential tenants. I'm attempting to streamline the whole process upon reflecting on everything that occurred.

I created an add via Postlets, posted on Craigslist, and put a for rent sign in the front yard. I received interest from all though avenues, but in the end the old tenant referred the new tenant to me!

I received tons a phone calls from the for rent sign. Most were price shopping, looking to improve their living situation and decrease their rent. I felt most caller weren't interested in committing. I scheduled four showing from the for rent signs and two were no shows.

I received a steady flow of emails from both the craigslist and postlets ads. I found most of the interested people were college kids or young professionals. It was difficult to decipher between legit people and spammers.

I think during my next tenant turnaround, I will ask//email a list of pre-screening questions to be answered before I schedule a viewing of the apartment. Here's a list of questions:

[i][b]Hello,
I have a few pre-qualification questions I ask before I show the apartment:
Who will live in unit??
Will you get a good reference from your current landlord??
How long have you been at your job? ?
How is your credit? What is your FICO score?
Do you have an issue with submitting to a background check?
Smoke??
Have pets?
Thank you in advance for your answers

Hopefully this simple step helps narrow my pool of prospective tenants and eliminates me wasting my time showing the apartment to unqualified individuals.