Wisconsin Steps Up to Make Tenant Screening Easier

Tenant screening is a critical step toward a landlord’s successful relationship with a tenant. Recognizing this, the Wisconsin legislature is making it easier for tenant screening information to make into the hands of landlords who need it most.

In the past, local ordinances and laws have made it difficult for landlords to have access to important information regarding a tenant’s previous rental history, credit information, criminal history and other details. But a new statewide law makes it illegal for any city, town, village or county to enforce such ordinances that keep necessary tenant screening information under cover.

The law makes it clear that landlords are free to obtain and use any of the following information with respect to a tenant or prospective tenant: Monthly household income; employment information; rental history; credit report; court records related to criminal history, including arrest and conviction records, to which there is public access; and identifying information such as a Social Security number.

Those in the Wisconsin legislature clearly understand that landlords are not trying to violate a person’s privacy rights by obtaining this information. On the contrary, they’re just trying to protect their own assets and make the most intelligent decision for their business interests (without unlawfully discriminating against anyone, of course). Hopefully more states will follow suit.

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Ignoring Necessary Repairs Could Lead to Injury and Liability

A New Haven, CT, landlord was arrested recently after one of her tenants fell off a second-story porch when a railing broke. According to an Associated Press story, the landlord had failed to address 28 code violations that were brought to her attention during inspections at the three-family home she owned in 2009. The tenant was seriously injured in the fall.

Such a story is tragic and completely preventable. The failure to fix problems that were two years old amounts to negligence on the part of the landlord. A landlord’s duties go far beyond tenant screening for qualified renters and collecting monthly rental payments. A landlord is responsible for property maintenance so that it remains not just an aesthetically appealing home but a safe one as well. Necessary repairs should be made promptly upon hearing about anything that is broken or has not been properly maintained.

To make this an easy part of the job, the landlord should stay in frequent contact with the tenant, taking complaints seriously and asking frequently whether everything in the home is in good working condition. And to avoid liability and other legal trouble, the landlord should always promptly address any issues that arise, either through the tenant or through the various codes and other rules governing properties in the area.

No decent landlord wants to be on the wrong side of the law or cause harm to a tenant. Common sense and a good handyman on call can help landlords avoid such tragedy.

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Renting During a Recession Means Making Concessions

Every landlord hopes for a dream tenant to walk through the door, someone who’s friendly and clean with excellent credit, solid employment, good references and no criminal record. While these tenants do exist, it’s getting harder to find renters with spotless credit reports and an unblemished employment history. These last few years of layoffs and pay cuts have wreaked havoc on families across the country, and plenty of upstanding citizens, many who’ve owned their own home before, are facing hard times.

Landlords can’t become bleeding hearts, opening their doors to every victim of the recession. It’s still important to do a thorough tenant screening on applicants and think long and hard about the risks associated with allowing someone to sign a lease. But if the potential tenants you’ve been screening have lower credit scores than what you’re used to accepting, consider a few things:

1. Don’t make a foreclosure a deal breaker. The number of people who have a mortgage in foreclosure or mortgage payments significantly past due is rising. While those people couldn’t hang onto their homes, they more than likely are good prospects for renting because they’re used to caring for and maintaining a home, and they’re determined to improve their financial situation, which means they’ll pay their rent on time.
2. Reduce the security deposit but make it nonrefundable. Reducing the security deposit gives a break to those who will probably be good tenants but don’t have a lot of cash lying around to drop all at once. And making the security deposit non-refundable helps alleviate some of your risk in renting to someone with a lower credit rating.

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Try Partnering With Tenant to Make Eco-friendly Changes

Have your heard about how Internet giant Google is partnering with its landlord, McKinley Inc., to make several eco-friendly renovations to the building it leases in Ann Arbor, Mich.? According to reports, they’re also collaborating to build a huge outdoor rooftop deck, among other things. Representatives for McKinley, which is based in Ann Arbor, say they hope the partnership can stand as an example of what can be done between landlords and tenants to adopt renewable energy technology to enhance the workplace.

It’s an idea that makes sense from a business perspective and an environmental perspective, and it’s one that can be translated on a simpler level to smaller businesses and even residential buildings as well. If you’ve thought about making sustainable changes to your properties, why not talk to your tenant about them and see if splitting the cost is an option. The tenant has a right to refuse, of course, but if they see themselves staying put for the long term, they might jump at the chance to make a few changes that could substantially cut their utility bills and help the environment as well.

Even if tenants don’t go for such a partnership, it’s a good idea to make a list of what changes you could make to your property that would enhance its sustainability and save tenants — and you — money in the long run. Then methodically knock things off your list, starting with the least expensive and moving up toward the bigger projects. Eco-friendly changes will give your property great appeal to future tenants, and could make you eligible for special tax credits as well.

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Not everybody wants a one-year lease

A yearlong lease is a pretty standard length of time for a rental property that is a tenant’s primary residence. But sometimes a tenant will ask to do a longer lease or a shorter lease. Landlords should consider the pros and cons to both when deciding whether to grant a special request for the least term. First and foremost, perform a thorough background check, credit report and rental history on the applicant as part of the tenant screening process. This will give you a clear indication of what type of lease will suit both of you best.

Two-year lease. If a tenant applicant requests a lease term that is longer than the standard one-year lease, and they have excellent credit, references and employment history, don’t be scared to sign them up for the long haul. Not all tenants wish to be nomads, moving every year to a different place. Sometimes really qualified, respectful renters just want the stability of knowing they can stay put for awhile in a home they love. If you find these folks, count your blessings.

Six-month lease. If a tenant wants a six-month lease and they pass the tenant screening process with flying colors, talk to them about the reasons behind the shorter lease. Will they be going on an extended trip? Will they be moving for their job, or getting married? Are they in the military and might be deployed or transferred to a different base? Get to the bottom of the half-year request, and if you feel comfortable with possibly having to find new tenants twice in one year, go for it.

Month-to-month lease. If you find a tenant who is interested in a month-to-month lease, beware — especially if they don’t have a good credit score or employment history. However, if you just want someone in the property for as long as you both can make the situation work, it might be worth it. The benefit is you can easily kick out the tenant at the end of the month if they aren’t paying rent. And if they do pay the rent on time, then you bought yourselves one more month of a mutually beneficial arrangement.

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Thinking about Property Management? Do Your Research First

Are you considering trying your hand at the business of property management? There’s a lot that goes into property management besides coordinating tenant screening reports  and collecting rent. You have to know what property owners in your area expect from a property manager, you have to know what your strengths are, and you have to know how much to charge to stay competitive.

First, decide what kinds of services you’ll offer, and what you’ll need in terms of staff, equipment and other resources in order to effectively offer those services. Then decide which types of properties you want to manage. Commercial properties or residential? Single-family homes or multi-family housing units? Then do some research to figure out what services are most important to those property owners and those types of properties.

Then you have to study the marketplace and figure out what is being offered and at what rates. When you find the clients you want, sell them on your ability to give them better service or more for their money than they were previously getting. Help them to understand the benefit of unloading the more stressful aspects of property ownership to a professional property manager.

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Know the Laws — and Hazards — Regarding Lead Paint

Most homes built before 1978 have some lead paint, and homes built before 1960 have the most lead paint. Even if fresh coats of paint have been put on windows, trim, doors and railings, dangerous lead paint can still be lurking underneath, and tenants are still at risk.

There are a few things you should do — and must do — if you suspect lead paint might be present in your rental property.

1. Get a lead inspection to find out if and where lead paint is located in the home.
2. Watch out for lead dust when you repair, repaint or renovate the home. Lead dust can be released from peeling or sanding lead paint, and it can settle on windowsills and floors where young children can accidentally ingest it.
3. If your rental property was built before 1978, by federal law you must give your tenants both the EPA Lead Paint Pamphlet and a disclosure of your knowledge of lead paint hazards in the rental unit, along with the lease agreement. This has to be done before a new tenant signs a lease, and before an existing tenant renews a lease.
4. Tell your tenants to report peeling paint, damaged windowsills or other painted areas, and repair it promptly.
5. Keep all painted areas in good shape. Before doing any renovations, especially ones that involve sanding, scraping or repainting, do some research about the safest way to handle such repairs and renovations in order to minimize exposure to lead paint dust. 

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Use Several Websites When Advertising Rental Property

For a long time landlords had but a few options for advertising a rental property. You could take out a classified ad in the newspaper, put up flyers around town, and stick a “For Rent” sign out front. These days, though, landlords have the Internet — an invaluable tool for finding qualified tenants and getting the word out about your property and/or your property management business.

While many landlords now use the Web to find tenant applicants, they typically use just a couple websites to do so, unaware that there are several quality websites out there that are either dedicated to rental properties or include rental properties as part of their listings. After you list your property on Craigslist and the local newspaper’s online classifieds, you should cover all your bases by making sure your listing is being cross-referenced and picked up on other reputable websites dedicated to rental properties. A few to check out are: Rent.com, HotPads.com, and Cazoodle.com.

The next time you’re in the market for a pool of qualified tenants who are searching for a property to rent just like the one you have, try one (or all!) of these services in addition to your tried-and-true internet outlets. (But don’t disregard the power of that age-old “For Rent” sign.)

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Up in Smoke: When a Tenant Smokes, the Damage Can Be Devastating

If you asked, some landlords would say they wish there was one more detail a tenant screening service could tell them about a prospective tenant — whether or not the person smokes.

Many landlords don’t like to accept tenants who smoke because of the damage that cigarette smoke does to walls, carpeting and furniture (let alone the potential for burn marks on the floors and complaints by nonsmoking neighbors who live close by and prefer to breathe smoke-free air.) But many applicants are good at hiding the fact that they are smokers.

If you ask an applicant whether he smokes and he says “only outside” or “only occasionally,” consider that answer to be “yes.” Someone might usually smoke outside, but during those long cold winter months, you can’t be sure your tenant isn’t staying curled up in his living room for a smoke instead of shivering on his porch.

When you advertise your property, be sure to include that you’re looking for nonsmoking tenants only; that should help weed out many regular smokers. And even if the tenant you find says he or she doesn’t smoke, include the rule in the rental agreement that there will be no smoking on the premises, and make sure they initial it. You might even want to stipulate that if smoke damage is found on the premises, the needed cleaning and repairs will come out of the tenant’s security deposit. 

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Taking on Rental Property Isn’t an Easy Paycheck

On TV it seems simple, right? Buy a house, make a few improvements, find a tenant and start reaping in the cash. In reality, though, the business of property management is not quite so easy. Sure, there are rewards, but there are risks too, and the wise investor considers both before making an investment.

The first step is, of course, to buy the right property in the right location at the right price. This is no small feat, though with the plethora of properties on the market these days it’s easier than it has been in quite some time. The second step is to really think about whether you want to be a landlord. Becoming a landlord is not a magical way to get a check in the mail every month. Landlords work for that money, even when there’s a good tenant in place and no maintenance concerns lurking.

Ask yourself if you enjoy working with people, meeting new people and getting to know and trust them (to some extent, anyway) with your investment. Are you a good judge of character who is also astute enough to not go on emotions but to use an impartial service to screen tenants? Are you comfortable with fielding maintenance requests and hiring professionals when necessary? Do you have enough in savings or other investments to cover the considerable financial risks associated with property management? Are you a shrewd businessperson who can keep accurate and thorough records of all transactions and correspondences with tenants and service professionals?

Be honest with yourself about what kinds of skills are needed to be a good landlord; that honesty will either save you tons of money and hassle, or feed your dreams of becoming a property manager. 

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Know Fair Housing Laws

When landlords are new to the business, there are two things they need to learn right away. One is the value of using a professional tenant screening service to screen their applicants and give them crucial information on an applicant’s credit, employment, criminal record and rental history. The other is the importance of familiarizing themselves with the Fair Housing laws in their area and their state.

Fair Housing laws are in place to protect both tenant and landlord, but in order to be protected by the law, you have to know what that law is. Landlords can’t plead ignorance when it comes to Fair Housing issues, because it is their duty to learn and uphold the law when doing business.

In essence, fair housing laws are put in place to ensure there will be equal access to housing for all people. There can’t be any discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, gender, national origin, ancestry, sexual orientation, age, familial status, children, marital status, veteran status or membership in the armed services, the receiving of public assistance, or physical or mental disability.

To learn more about the law, landlords should visit the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) website. Also check your state’s Housing Department for state regulations and possible training classes on the law. You can also check with your county’s government seat for any local laws regarding Fair Housing issues. Remember that ignorance on this subject will not get you off the hook if you’re ever faced with a complaint or lawsuit accusing you of violating Fair Housing law.

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Rental Applications Can Have Pre-screening Warning Signs

Tenant screening is hands down the best way to tell whether a prospective tenant is qualified to rent your property or not. That way you will get detailed information on the person’s criminal record and employment history, obtain a credit report on the person, see if they have any previous evictions on their record, check their name against sex offender registries … the list goes on.

While the screening itself is invaluable and necessary in today’s world, there are some red flags on an actual rental application that could signal a problem tenant before the formal screening process begins.

First of all, check for incomplete information. If the tenant can’t think of three people they know who aren’t related to them and would give them a positive recommendation, chances are you might not find them to be recommendable either. Also look for mistakes on the application – phone numbers that don’t work when you try them, address numbers missing or inaccurate. Mistakes like that could be an intentional attempt to hide their past, could be a sign of identity theft or a troubled rental history.

Be wary of a tenant who doesn’t have a bank account. Nobody these days deals only with cash and money orders. Just about any responsible adult will have a checking account. Similarly, if they can’t verify a current address with a utility bill or phone bill, they might be hiding something. They might have a bad rental history and don’t want to disclose the name of their current landlord.

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Springtime Is the Right Time for Assessing Rental Property Grounds

The harshness of winter can wreak havoc on a home, and rental properties often fall into disrepair simply because nobody keeps up on regular annual outdoor maintenance. When both the tenants and the landlord think “It’s not my job to clean the gutters,” the result can be a flooded basement — a potentially much more expensive nuisance than cleaning leaves out of the gutters would have been in the first place.

Landlords should stop by their rental properties every spring to make a note of anything damaged on the building that needs to be repaired or replaced — gutters, siding, shutters, even lamp post light bulbs — and take a close look at the grounds for any hazards that should be dealt with immediately. A dead or diseased tree poses a risk, as do large branches and limbs that look like they could fall with the help of a stiff breeze. Look for holes in the ground from animals that may have burrowed in during the winter, and whether there are significant cracks in the sidewalk or driveway that should be fixed.

Check the gutters and downspouts for leaves and other debris that can clog the flow of water off the roof, and reattach gutters that have pulled away from the house. It’s also a good idea to clean siding with a pressure washer to keep mold from growing. Also check wood surfaces for signs of weathering, and repair, re-paint and re-stain when necessary.

A thorough inspection could also include checking the caulking, weather stripping around windowsills and doors, and cleaning and patching window screens. And even if it’s the tenant’s job to do yard work, the landlord should ensure the removal of any vegetation that’s touching the house.

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Make the Move-Out Process Smooth for Tenants — And You

Most tenants have good intentions when they give their landlord a move-out date. After all, they want as much of their security deposit as possible. But often tenants, especially ones who’ve lived in the same rental property for multiple years, grossly underestimate the amount of time, money and effort it takes to effectively move all of one’s belongings from one place to another. When time gets tight and energy runs low, the first thing to go is the tenant’s attention to the rental unit he’s leaving behind. Unwanted items are left piled in empty rooms, the kitchen and bathrooms are not cleaned properly, sometimes even the refrigerator isn’t totally emptied.

This leaves the landlord with a mess and a hassle – and if you’ve already got new tenants slated to move in right away, you could be left scrambling for a professional cleaning service to come at a moment’s notice and undo the damage done by the previous tenant.

The good news is there’s a simple way to help avoid all that. When a tenant gives his 30-day notice that he’ll be leaving the property, an effective landlord should be proactive and immediately give the tenant three things:

1. A copy of his signed rental agreement with any requirements for move-out and the return of the security deposit highlighted, as a memory refresher.
2. A copy of the move-in sheet that should have been filled out and signed by both tenant and landlord upon the tenant’s arrival. This should list, room by room, any damage or issues that were present when the tenant moved in. That will give the tenant a good guide when he’s getting ready to leave about what, if any, repairs he needs to make in order to leave the rental unit in the same shape he found it.
3. A move-out guide that gives a basic cleaning checklist for a tenant. Some tenants won’t remember to clean the oven or defrost and clean the freezer unless it’s written on a handy to-do list. 

Arm your tenant with all the information he needs to make a smooth exit and ensure he receives all, or at least most, of his security deposit.

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Tax Deductions Can Spell “REFUND” For Landlords

Tax time is stressful for everyone, and landlords are no exception. But there are several tax deductions many landlords don’t realize they can take. Don’t pay more than you have to on Tax Day this year. Here is a list of deductions for owners of small residential rental property.

1. Interest. This includes interest on credit cards used for goods and services having to do with the rental unit, and mortgage interest payments on loans used to acquire or improve rental property.
2. Repairs. The cost of repairs to your rental property is fully deductible for the year in which the repair was done.
3. Travel. Keep track of mileage when you drive to and from the rental property or anywhere else associated with the property management business. You can deduct the standard mileage rate (51 cents per mile for 2011), or you can deduct your actual expenses (including gas, maintenance, repairs). There are exceptions and qualifiers, so ask a certified public accountant or other tax adviser.
4. Employees and Contractors. When you hire anyone to perform services for your rental activity, whether it’s a carpet cleaning service or mold removal, you can deduct their wages as a rental business expense.
5. Home office. As a tax adviser whether you can deduct your home office expenses from your taxable income.
6. Legal and professional services. You can deduct fees paid to lawyers, property management services, tenant screening services and other professionals that assisted you with the rental property business that year.

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Worst NYC Landlords Called Out on New Website

There are a few negative landlord stereotypes out there — every landlord knows his or her reputation is built not just on one’s own actions and history with tenants, but on the public’s general perception of landlords being people who might want to cut corners on maintenance and repairs in favor of a better bottom line.

That stereotype is unfair for the vast majority of landlords, who conscientiously stay on top of needed repairs and treat their tenants with respect and honesty. But there are still bad landlords out there, muddying the rental waters for the good property managers. Now New York City’s public advocate is trying to change that, at least in his town. Thanks to an agreement with the online classified website Craigslist, tenants in New York City can find out more about a prospective landlord by clicking a link, “NYC’s worst landlords,” on the apartment search pages on Craigslist. The link takes renters to a page on public advocate Bill de Blasio’s website that lists dozens of landlords with the worst inspection records. Tenants can even click on the landlord’s name and be shown a map via Google Maps with the buildings that landlord owns.

The information is compiled by the New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development, and the website also tells tenants how to file a complaint against their landlord. The list is revolutionary in giving tenants greater and easier access to information about landlords whose credentials and professional records are sub-par at best. Tenants often don’t have the luxury of performing a background check on their prospective landlord the way landlords do on their prospective tenants.

Beyond that, the list also is a wake-up call to landlords everywhere to make sure your reputation is solid, your record of housing violations is clean, and you are in good standing with your current tenants and the community at large.

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Landlords Should Heed Top Trends in Employment Screening

Employment Screening Resources (ESR) has announced its annual list of emerging and influential trends in employment background screening. Some of these 2011 trends have implications for the field of property management when it comes to tenant screening.

1. Controversy over whether it’s discriminatory for employers to use credit reports for employment increase. Because of unemployment, many would-be workers are stuck in a cycle of having bad credit because they can’t find work, and being unable to get a job because they have bad credit. In response, some states have passed laws or are considering laws to restrict the use of credit reports and employment and the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) is looking closely at this area and has filed lawsuits alleging discriminatory use.
2. Questions about criminal records of job applicants become more difficult for employers to ask. An employer who hires a person with a criminal record can be found liable for negligent hiring if the decision results in harm and could have been avoided by a criminal record check. The easiest way to avoid this is to perform a thorough background check on a job applicant, but the issue of whether employers can use a job application to ask about one’s criminal has become more complicated.
3. Employers discover fast and cheap online background checks using criminal databases not always accurate or legal. With the trend toward more thorough checking into the pasts of potential employees, many websites are springing up that promise cheap instant background checks using “national criminal databases.” But most of these sites aren’t legitimate or thorough. There is much truth to the saying “You get what you pay for.”
4. New accreditation standards help employers select background screening firms. Last year the National Association of Professional Background Screeners’ Background Screening Credentialing Council created the Background Screening Agency Accreditation Program to advance professionalism in the background screening industry. The program promotes best practices in the industry, awareness of legal compliance, and the development of standards to protect consumers.

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Rents Climb as Rental Market Gets Hotter

Have you noticed rents in your area creeping up in recent months? Have you been inundated with more applicants for a vacancy than usual? Have you thought about having to increase your rent, or have you upped it recently? If so you’re part of the national trend that’s responding to the fact that more people are renting than buying these days. The national vacancy rate for rental units is down to 9.4 percent — the lowest it’s been since 2003.

The markets for rented and purchased homes usually move in opposite directions. When more people are buying homes, rents tend to stay low or go down because of decreased demand for rental units. But when high interest rates or a weak economy cool the housing market, more people look to rent rather than buy. Since it takes awhile for builders to add more units, the supply-demand mismatch drives up rent prices.

And that pool of renters is growing by the day. Foreclosures have turned millions of one-time homeowners into renters. In response, Research firm REIS estimates that nationwide, rents will rise an average of 3.4 percent in 2011, which is more than inflation or incomes are likely to rise. In cities like San Jose, Calif., Washington, D.C., Seattle, and New York, rents will go up by more than average. And in a few select neighborhoods, rent increases could exceed 10 percent.

If you’re a landlord, be sure your rent price is staying competitive in your market. And if you’ve been thinking about getting into the business of property management, now is a great time to act on that dream!

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Rent Control in NYC

Rent control has long been a contentious issue between landlords and tenants, and in New York City where thousands live in rent-controlled buildings, the issue is a huge one. That’s why last week’s ruling by New York state’s highest court is so important: It has ruled against rent-stabilized tenants who were fighting to prevent landlords from raising the rent by $45. It is said that the decision will affect more than 300,000 apartments in the city with rents under $1,000.

Splitting 5-2, the New York State Court of Appeals ruled in favor of a 2008 Rent Guidelines Board move to allow small dollar increases on rent for apartments with one-year leases that have been occupied for at least six years. In doing so, the court overturned lower court rulings on the issue. Rent regulation legislation in the state already allows landlords to raise rents on some regulated apartments by 4.5 percent, but landlords have argued that the proportional increase doesn’t allow them to keep up with the cost of repairs.

Tenant advocates say the decision might help rally support behind the claim that rent laws need to be strengthened to properly protect tenants.

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Criminal background checks take step back in North Carolina

Thanks to a change instituted by the Administrative Office of the Courts, those who want to see state criminal records on prospective tenants will have to pore through old files in a much slower computer database system than what was previously being used.

According to the AOC, the change was necessary to protect the secrecy of criminal records that have been expunged. Through the previous protocol, the most cost effective way to search for criminal records was for private vendors to buy access to the state’s database. In some cases that information was outdated, meaning convictions or charges that had been expunged were still showing up on people’s records.

Criminal records in North Carolina are public. But the electronic system that keeps them is difficult to manage and nearly impossible for the average person to search records across the state. People can visit local courthouses and search criminal records, but they can see results only for that particular county, not the whole state.

It’s hard to say what this means for tenant screening services, but costs could rise as vendors are forced to pay more to get the information they need for their clients.

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