Do the same with any co-signer on the lease, to make sure they’re on the up and up. Put some policies in place as part of your minimum qualification standards. For example, a co-signer should have good—if not great—credit. Maybe you’re thinking this is overkill. That these questions are too in-depth. Too “over the top.” Too unnecessary, too nosy, too, well, stupid. But don’t forget: You’re letting other people— strangers —into your home, 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; someone could cause $20,000 in damages.
SET UP A SCREENING PROCESS FOR YOUR MINIMUM QUALIFICATION STANDARDS
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 to check out these types of issues for you. 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 is a good example—pets 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
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