In return my tenants treat me and my properties very well, stay longer and refer friends.  

Going to make this into its own post for others to reference in future!

@Vishal ChandanRecommend exploring as many sources as possible to get referrals AND cross-reference them to get as much accurate information as possible.Check out NARPM.com, BP’s Property Manager Finder (BiggerPockets: The Real Estate Investing Social Network), etc.Also, encourage you to learn from the mistakes of others - by reading posts here on BiggerPockets about owners not having their expectations met by their current Property Management Company.

- How long the unit sits vacant for repairs/cleaning, and finding a tenant- City/town/state the unit is inPlease respond with your thoughts, hopefully with the bullet points above as points of reference and stated as such in your reply (I know, I am asking for a lot from you all :) ) But, for example, a Class D property in Milwaukee, WI probably requires less turnover time, lower quality materials, not as precise of a paint job, etc, than perhaps a Class A property in San Francisco, which would require higher quality materials, higher labor costs, longer vacancy since more precise craftsmanship would be required, etc.

Beyond the formal checklists: no evictions, 3-4x income to rent, prior landlord references, employment checks; I would also look at things like responsiveness to communication when we are setting showing, were they on time to showing, did they look me in the eye and shake my hand, did they show up to showing high?

I accepted a prospective tenant's lease and deposit after doing due diligence. The previous leasing company confirmed the resident had paid their rent on time every time. The tenant paid his deposit in cashier's check...

You never know when you’ll need to refer back to these records, especially in case of a dispute.

@Zeeshan S.The funny thing is that the first two companies came recommended and I tried to vet them and talked to references too.

Even though we do run credit and background, I refer to us as private money lenders rather than hard money lenders based primarily on the cost of capital.

Simply do not renew, which I believe Nathen was referring to