New investors or investors who self manage there own properties

[Bradley Lewis]

Hello BP,

I am still new to investing and have been reading through all the forums to gain more knowledge about the tenant screening process. It seems to me from tons of reading that the tenant screening process is scattered. I have not found a process that covers the steps to creating a process that seems sound for screening tenants. Does anyone know of a service that creates a step-by-step instructions as to setting up a process for screening and do you pay for that service? 

Example of what I am looking for(these steps would give a template on how to set it up and then the user can customize based on own criteria):

1) Create a pre-approval form that gets put on the listing for tenants to fill out (save time from taking phone calls from people not serious)

2) Form gets submitted and an automated email is sent to them with approval or not (saw something about writing some code to customize the email based on form)

3) If the applicant is approved, then they get calendar invite for a showing

4) Etc.

Everything in this process would be automated to save time. Only thing I would need to do is show the property to pre-approved applicants and then verify there application. My time would be cut down significantly.

Example time decrease:

- Lets say there is no automation and I field all phone calls

1) 100 people are interested in property. I spend 5-10 min per applicant on the phone. That would be 500-1000mins(8-16hours) on the phone. More applicants might be accepted to see the property based on phone call.

- Lets say there is an automation

1) 100 people interested. 0 min on the phone. More people would get denied based on pre-approval form. Free up more time to do whatever instead of sit on the phone all day. 

Let me know if there is such a thing out there that exists. I know I could probably create all this on my own but that would take a lot of time to get all setup and learn every little thing. I want to take the lazy way and follow the steps to set this up properly in half the time. I am ok with paying for a service if I need to. 

[Jeff Schemmel]

@Bradley Lewis it sounds like, after reading your post, you're a little nervous about this process having never done it before.  Don't take this the wrong way, but from the perspective of someone who's done this a few times you're making it out to be a bigger deal than it is.  An example of what I mean is you won't talk to 100 applicants for 5 minutes each.  more than half won't even respond to a text let alone agree to a phone call :)

I recommend to keep it super simple.  Here's what I do...

1.) I list through apartments.com, which I also use to collect rent and manage tenancy/docs, etc as well as zillow.  I've learned to skip facebook & craigslist as the lead quality is exceptionally bad - this is where you'd waste a lot of your time.  sticking to these two will dramatically limit your inquiries, but should increase the average quality of them.
2.) I keep the application button turned OFF, until I can speak to an applicant and hear their story.  You can certainly use those pre-screening questionnaires, just make sure you're not asking questions that violate fair housing laws.  Here are some questions I ask:

-why are you moving?

-what's your ideal moving date?

-how long have you been working where you are? - try to ask feeler questions to see how happy with their job they are.

I'm going to pause for a minute and explain something I think is important.  You should self-manage this process, and you should be willing to do a lot of this screening up front and be less worried about automation - unless you have like a dozen units don't worry about it.  Eventually, you will want to hire a property manager and you need to intimately understand what it takes to get quality tenants to make sure they're doing that for you when you're paying for it later.  If you haven't done this and aren't experienced with it, how will you know whether you'd hired a quality PM?  

3.) if you speak to a potential tenant, and you think they could be a match you can have them apply and schedule a showing.  You can decide which order you want to do this in.  Most people want to see the place before they pay the application fee, and your pre-screening can help make sure they didn't just outright lie about their qualifications.  MN requires tenants to be allowed to see the unit before paying any money.

4.) once the background check and credit check are done check them thoroughly and call ALL the references.  I always ask for the 2nd prior landlord so I'm not calling the one they currently have.  that is super important.

5.) if everything checks out just let them know they're approved and have them sign the lease follow your state/local regs around that) and let them know how to send the security deposit and first month's rent and by what time.  Do not give them keys or access until the payment is settled and lease is signed.