Choosing the right tenants

 

 

 

The perfect tenant pays their rent on time, they’re incredibly clean, completely conscientious and handy with a toolkit too.

 

Unfortunately, the perfect tenant is extremely hard to find. More importantly, it’s hard to distinguish this perfect tenant from the tenants that will play havoc with your property. This is where the tips below come in. Make sure you’re always protecting your investment by choosing the right tenant for your property.

Attract

Start your search for the best tenant in the right way and save yourself time and effort by attracting the right people in the first place. Start by thinking about who you want to attract and what those people want from a rental property. This could be anything from young professionals, students or families. Use this knowledge in all your communications from the pictures you post to the language you use to describe the property and what features you highlight.

Pre-vet

The initial communication is very important and could save you time in the long run. When a potential tenant gets in contact with you about a property take this as an opportunity to initially filter out anyone not right for your property before wasting yours and their time by showing the property. This includes asking what sort of property this person is looking for, what their situation is and whether the features of your property match these.

Just be careful about how you ask these questions. Phrase them in a way that doesn’t give the potential tenant a chance to lie or alter their answer.

Meet

Always meet with tenants before accepting their application. As a landlord this is a must and definitely not a step to miss out. Meeting in person allows you a greater insight into who you’re dealing with and lets you get a feel for someone. This is your property and your investment so sometimes listening to your gut is the best thing you can do.

Analysis

Gather information during the application process. Make sure you’re objective with your decision through asking questions consistently across all the applicants. This way you’ll avoid accusations of discrimination as well as having a fair comparison to work with.

References

References can give you a brief overview of what sort of employee your potential tenants are and how previous landlords have fared. There are many companies that make acquiring references from current employers and previous landlords easy. Use these references to make an informed decision and follow up with questions and queries. You should be looking to see whether they can afford the rent payments and if they have been punctual with rent in the past.

Protect yourself

With the perfect tenant found, make sure you continue to protect your investment. Your tenants are only human after all and things could go wrong. With specialist landlord insurance you can protect yourself from many of the things that worry you as a landlord plus so much more that you may not have even thought about. Landlord insurance is tailored to you, protecting against any major damage to your property and loss of rent from tenants who won’t pay.

This way not only your property, but also your livelihood is protected.