— into your property to live there. While you might be tempted to give people the benefit of the doubt and skip out on the minimum qualification standards, this is very risky and potentially disastrous. As I’ve said before, you have the right to know who is going to be living in your home, and you need to be comfortable with your decision. You’re essentially risking your property and your livelihood. Someone could stiff you out of rental payments or cause $20,000 in damages.
Set Up a Screening Process
Once you’ve determined your minimum qualification standards, you need to set up a screening process that checks all of these items for you. For example, if you want to avoid tenants with a criminal record, you can set up a process that looks into criminal backgrounds. There are many types of tenant-screening systems and software that will do most of the work for you. However, while these systems and software will check most of the major issues for you, and help you weed out the “bad apples,” they won’t find everything. Pets are a good example; they don’t normally show up on screening systems. You’ll just have to ask the candidate, flat out, as well as fill out your rental application form. Your rental application form should be thorough and cover areas often missed by screening systems, and all potential applicants should fill out the form. Not sure what to ask? Using minimum qualification standards is a good starting place, but consider putting the following questions on your rental application form: • Have you ever been convicted of a crime? • Do you have any pets? • Will any adults over the age of 18 be living with you?
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