Five Ways Our Property Management Team Screens Tenant Applications

Renting your property is a great way to liquefy assets in the short term. By renting your property, you can add thousands of dollars to your monthly income which will pay for all of the bills associated with the house (and more). We see hundreds of tenant applications a month…some are too crazy to believe! With years of experience, CENTURY 21 Property Management has all of the tools to get your property rented with guaranteed satisfaction! Today we bring you the 5 ways we screen your tenant application before they even get to you.

1. First contact for tenant application

We start the screening process by asking a series of questions such as the number of pets if they smoke, the reason for moving, and how long they intend to live there. These are basic questions but they provide a necessary foundation when looking to see if these tenants are the right fit for a particular property. The first contact can be made over the phone, email, and even online. Rarely is first contact made in person, but has been known to happen especially during open houses.

We also want the meetings to be in person, face-to-face with the tenant. During this time we can get to know the tenant in person and truly understand their needs and if they are in line with the properties they are looking at.  How tenants react to certain properties will tell us if they will be a good fit; as much as we want the tenants to be qualified, we are also looking to see if a tenant will mesh well with the property and the type of requirements that a particular owner wants for their property.

2. Check local tax records.

When reviewing a tenant’s application, we make sure to check local tax records to see if all of the information is correct. This step is necessary so that we can better understand their qualifications and if they had any other experiences with other landlords. Lastly, by looking at local tax records, we can see if the name given to us by the “landlord” matches the tax records. We will give the prior landlord a call in order to double-check that the information given to us is accurate.

3. Go through HR.

When verifying the employment and salary of a potential tenant, we will make sure to go through Human Resources. By going through the HR department for their job history, we can make sure that all of the information they provided is accurate.  We are not out to ‘get anyone by doing this, but rather we are just looking to verify the information on their application. HR will be able to give us the correct information to make sure the tenant has the proper funds to pay the rent every month.

4. Be wary of income spikes.

When a tenant shows the income they receive, it must be verified. We look at their income history with a fine tooth comb and double (or triple) check if their income increased significantly in the last month or so (which may indicate a smudge in the numbers). We also ask to see their tax record history to complete this stage. As this process continues, we find that the relationship with the prospective tenants build in a positive direction, but we hold true to our promise to our owners of thorough checking at each stage.

5. Background and credit.

The final step that we take is to run background and credit checks. This stage of the process is crucial to better understand if the tenants are a good fit for the rental they desire. We want to ensure to our owners that the tenants are qualified to pay rent, but also, we want to set the expectations appropriately for our tenants and the properties they are looking at.
The rental process can be time-consuming and very cumbersome. Let CENTURY 21 Northwest Property Management find the right tenants for your property and go through the process in finding qualified tenants. From open market to closing, CENTURY 21 Property Management is there for you. Call today. 623.299.2152