Help with pre-screening through tenant first phone call

[Joseph Mceneaney]

I have a new listing coming up need some advice questions for pre-screening through first phone call and questions to ask

[Nathan Gesner]

You don't want to spend ten minutes asking a dozen questions, particularly when the answers won't be verified until later during the screening process. Consider the most important qualifiers and focus on those.

Let them know you will be running a credit/criminal background check on every adult. That will scare a good number of people away immediately.

Ask if they have any animals. If you don't allow them at all, that will eliminate a lot of people. If you have restrictions, that could eliminate some people. If you tell them you charge $100 extra per month for a dog, that could eliminate some people.

Are they currently employed or do they have a stable source of income (pension, disability, etc.)? Is it at least 3x the rent?

Again, you don't need to get too detailed. Think about the qualifiers that most applicants fail to meet and then focus on those. Use the pre-screening as a filter to get rid of the most obviously unqualified people.