All Forum Posts by: Gina McKee

Welcome to BP! If you have any questions about VB let me know, I have a rental in the area.

Welcome to BP!

@Amy MartinI use a scoring system I developed myself based on criteria I decided upon based on things I had read on BP, and what I personally wanted in a tenant. I use SmartMove to do a credit/background check which factors into their score, eg. do they have credit above 600 - 5 points etc. Then I went through and added up all the items that a tenant had to have to be considered a good tenant for the property, and that was the minimum score required. However, I made it so a tenant with a slightly low score in one area could potentially make it up by having a higher than needed income for example. The rejection worthy items such as evictions I made them very negative so it was impossible to score enough to meet the minimum. Hope this makes sense. 

I got the idea from a BP post however, and then used it as an example to move from.

Good points above. Just be careful you don't disqualify due to the fact that they are unmarried, that is discrimination in FHA eyes. The other questions I would ask are:

1. How long have they been employed (I use 1 year of stable income)?

2. Is their credit report good/clean?

3. Talk to their current landlord and one before that and ask questions about if they were ever late, ever break terms, leave the place nice etc.

I would be very careful of throwing out their application, you need to have very specific criteria and guidelines that you need to follow for every applicant. If they don't meet the criteria then you have documented reasons for denying their application. Generally its safer to process applications first come first served, so make a decision on this couple then move onto others..

This is just my opinion, I have just done my first tenant turnover and it was enlightening. I learnt a lot about being very careful on how you qualify/disqualify applicants by using my criteria (and a scoring system-I think its makes it very clear cut, if they score X then they qualify, if they don't score X you can give the opportunity to score higher with a double deposit for example, except if there is an automatic disqualifier such as past eviction).

@Lisa Doudthank you for your response. It is great to know that there are some respectable PM companies in the HR area. I will definitely check out your company/website. What is your website address? I might have some questions for you. Thanks!

Welcome to BP and congrats on your first property in CO!

I have worked with both RPM and Rose&Womble and unfortunately I couldn't recommend either company. I have not found a good one, and hence manage my own property in VB.

Welcome to BP!

Welcome to the site!

Welcome!