Newbie screening tenants, am I doing this right??

[Kelly McMahon]

Hi everyone,

I have gained a ton of wisdom from this website about renting out our first home and wanted to check in again and introduce myself because I know I will have a lot more questions going forward.

My name is Kelly, I live in Tucson, AZ and my husband and I are buying a bigger home to support our growing family and owe way too much money on our first home to be able to sell it, so we are renting it.

We interviewed some potential property managers and it would take years before we would turn a profit from renting with them, so we decided to go at it alone. I'm getting a lot of interest in the property, but so far no one has returned an application in to me.

Since we are still living in the home, we decided to screen people with the application and background check via Smartmove website first, then allow them to see the home once we see they are not a homicidal maniac. However, not surprisingly, no one has returned an application or submitted their info on the Smartmove website yet. Should we just bite the bullet and let people see the house first? We should be out of this house in a few weeks, and then we would be fine with having people see the house first then apply, but this just seemed the safer way to go.

What do you all think?? I appreciate any advice!

Kelly