Gerry C. Congrats on your property! In my 5+ years of being a leasing agent I have learned some great marketing strategies and qualifications to make sure you place the best tenant you can in your property.
First- it is important to have rental criteria in place. This is your property management Bible! Making sure tenants meet all of your criteria is essential. Make sure they make enough to pay the asking rent. With the property management company I work for we go by 3x the rent gross amount. Also, do a rental verification to see how the tenant was at the last places they resided at. Check their credit, we shoot for 600+ when it comes to credit checks on tenants.
Criminal background check, we do not accept ANYONE whom has any felonies/convictions no matter how long ago the situation occurred. We do not accept pending charges in court.
If the tenant owes another property money we do not accept until the money owed is paid in full and the full payment was made at least a year from the day they are applying.
Know your fair housing laws in Seattle. You want to be sure you are not breaking any fair housing laws. This is usually easy to find online.
Second- marketing! Craigslist is the go to because it is FREE. It has not brought in the best of tenants for the units I lease however. Apartment Guide, ForRent.com, RentPath, Apartment Finder, Apartments.com, your property website, Facebook Ads, Etc are some examples I have implemented to draw in more qualified traffic. This could get pricey however it works!
Third- Ask the tenant quality questions to help you see what you may be getting yourself into. For example: what's making you move? Is this your first time renting? How many occupants will be residing in the home? Do you have any pets? Build the rapport with the future tenant.
The units I lease are pet friendly however tenants will have to pay pet rent and a one time nonrefundable pet fee and submit vet records to the leasing office before any pets can live on site. We also have breed restrictions (no aggressive breeds)
You may not always get the best leads but you can rule out the bad tenants by simply following some of these steps as a start :)
