If you are an experienced landlord you know all too well how difficult it is to find tenants who pay their rent in full and on time, take good care of the rental unit, and get along amicably with both you and other tenants. Despite your best efforts it is more likely that you will have a number of tenants who look to take advantage of you at every opportunity. They violate the terms of the lease, anything from bringing pets, damaging the property through ill use, playing music at high volume at late hours, or calling you at all hours to complain that repairs are not being made. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Although you would like to see them gone from the apartment, you cannot simply evict them on these grounds. Fair housing laws are designed to protect the tenants from discrimination and unlawful eviction. The eviction laws themselves are quite particular regarding procedures that you must follow; your failure to do so could nullify the proceedings and make you liable. Another unpleasant problem is if you unwittingly rent your unit to someone with a criminal background, and you have grounds for eviction, he or she may not take too kindly to your action.
Our advice is that you take these steps in order to improve your chances of finding an excellent tenant. First, never be in a rush to fill a vacant unit. We know this is a difficult lesson—each day the unit remains empty you are losing money, so the inclination might be to rush through the rental process when you find the first seemingly reasonable candidate. Time and again this will prove to be a great mistake. It’s always far better for you to lose money up-front than to have a disastrous tenant who causes you great financial loss later.
This is why a complete Tenant Background Screening, as made available to you from TenantAlert.com, is a must for several reasons. First, you can rely on the accuracy and thoroughness of the reports. Second, it saves you or your staff countless hours in acquiring all the necessary information. When you factor in all the costs associated with these tasks, our tenant reports will save you a good deal of money.
Experienced landlords will tell you that they have found better tenants by using professional screening services. The reports you receive from Tenant Credit Screening are highly confidential and guarantee no breach of privacy or information. A quick glance at the results will help you to eliminate the undesirable rental candidates. It is thus wise to include a clause in your rental agreement stating that a tenant background screening will be carried out and that the tenant must cooperate fully for this.
The days of simply renting an apartment to the first agreeable person who walked through the door are gone. Too much is at risk; too many of your assets are in peril; too much hardship and ruin can arise from a cursory examination of your rental applicants. In this manner it is much like hiring an employee for a suitable role in a company. Would you hire someone without first thoroughly checking the candidate’s education, employment history, and opinions of previous bosses? All the work of a tenant background screening is best placed in the hands of professionals who are adept at pouring over records to uncover all the potential problems of the rental applicant.
