Tenant Screening and Lease Agreements in Houston, Texas

Today we are talking about tenant screening and lease agreements here in Houston. This is one of the most critical parts of owning a rental home because you want to screen for a high quality tenant and you want to have a lease in place that protects you and your property during the course of the tenancy.

Always follow your policies and procedures. You cannot make special exceptions for one person during the screening process or let a tenant you like get away with not following the lease. There are a lot of legal fair housing and discrimination laws that need to be paid attention to. You also have to stay on top of the state and local property codes. Compliance is very important when you’re a landlord, and you don’t want to find yourself violating a law or a regulation that you might not even know about. Make sure you’re up to speed and if you’re not, reach out to a property manager who can help you during the screening and leasing process.

Have your rental criteria out and in place. It should be available to anyone who asks for it so you can demonstrate what you look for in a tenant. You want everyone to be aware of those criteria and understand what you’ll be looking at before you allow someone to rent your home. You cannot have different criteria for different people. It’s illegal, and you need to treat everyone fairly and the same.

A lot of times, we see landlords and property owners ignore their criteria or their policies, and they make a decision based on their gut feeling. This is a bad idea because you don’t really know the person who is applying to rent your home. You have to be strict and consistent. If an applicant does not fit your criteria for a perfect tenant because of their lack of income, criminal history or bad credit, just move on. You don’t want to make someone else’s problem tenant your problem tenant. Sometimes property owners are a little too eager to rent to anyone because they don’t want a vacant property. That’s understandable, but if you rent to a bad tenant, you’re going to end up with a vacant property anyway because that tenant probably won’t pay rent.