Advertising Rental Property Online? Read this FIRST!

If you decide to advertise your rental property on free sites, such as Craigslist, or other real estate boards, there are a few things you should do to avoid headaches that come with online advertising.

First, protect yourself against spam. Do not provide your personal or professional email address in an online ad. Instead, have the messages come to you through web host, either by method of a personal inbox on the site or a forwarding system. You could also set up a designated email address for each property listing and have it send out an “auto-reply” with information about the rental, such as pet policies and tenant screening requirements. Also, attach an application. Only after you have established a dialogue with a legitimate tenant applicant who seems genuinely interested in your rental property, should you then exchange personal contact information.

Secondly, if the site doesn’t offer pictures (or even if does), ask the tenant applicant if they are familiar with the area of your rental property. Suggest they do a drive-by of the home to see if they are still interested in it before filling out an application. This will save you the time and trouble of conducting a background check and tenant screening if the person changes their mind after seeing the place.

Lastly, always make sure to include the rental price in your online listing. The first question on a prospective tenant’s mind is cost. If you don’t want to answer fifty to a hundred emails all asking the same question, make sure to include it in your property listing.

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Questions to Ask When Pre-Screening Tenants

Before you hire professionals to conduct tenant screening services, you should always do a pre-screen of tenant applicants over the phone or in-person. The following are some questions you must ask during the initial screening to weed out any potential problem applicants:

1.     Make sure they can afford the rent. You need to make it clear how much the monthly rent and security deposit amount are to anyone interested in renting from you. Feel free to ask specifics about the applicant’s monthly income. As a landlord, you are within your rights to determine the minimum amount applicants must earn in order to qualify for residency consideration. A tenant who is confident in their ability to make monthly rent checks will not balk at income questions.

2.     Be clear about how what your tenant screening service provides. Any prospective tenant can lie about how much income they make and whether or not they have been convicted of a crime.  You need to make it clear during the pre-screening that all serious applicants must consent to a thorough background check that will include employment verification, past eviction searches and a credit report. You will find the applicants who haven’t been honest up front will most likely reconsider applying.

3.     Ask if they have any pets. If you are a landlord who allows pets in your rental, explain your guidelines from the beginning. Applicants should be told up-front how much extra the security deposit will be, and if you have any pet restrictions. Do you discriminate against certain dog breeds? Do you limit the number of animals per resident?

4.     Let them know how often you will be doing property inspections. Again, a tenant with nothing to hide will likely agree to whatever terms you set forth in the lease agreement. However, if the applicant had previous intentions of hiding a roommate or sneaking in pets without paying an extra deposit, they will probably be less inclined to go through with submitting a rental application.

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The first impression is a crucial step in the tenant screening process

A lot has changed about the tenant screening process and the world in recent decades. We are a more casual society – we dress more casually, speak more casually to strangers, among other things. Still, you can tell a lot about a person from his or her first impression, and that is still an important step in the tenant screening. Sure it’s crucial to obtain their credit report and conduct a background check, to verify their employment and check references. But meeting a prospective tenant face to face satisfies a “gut check” that you can’t get strictly from a written report. 

There are a few things to look for when meeting a tenant applicant at the rental property, things that can go a long way toward helping you decide whether the applicant is worthy of becoming your tenant. 

• His attire. Applicants likely won’t treat your face-to-face meeting like a job interview; they mostly dress casually, and that’s fine. But are the clothes clean and presentable? Is there basic hygiene? The way a person presents himself says a lot about the value they place on themselves and their interactions with others. If he doesn’t respect himself, he might not respect you. 

• His interest. Does he seem honestly interested and excited about the prospect of living in the home? Is he engaged and open with you? 

• His questions.  Does he ask questions about breaking the lease, pets and other rules that lead you to believe he’ll be trying to get one over on you? 

• His application. Are there misspellings and blank spaces? Is it completely filled out? Is he making excuses about what an ex-landlord or employer might say when you call his references? These are all red flags to keep in mind when conducting the tenant screening.

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Landlords, increase your luck by utilizing a professional tenant screening service

Every landlord seems to have a horror story of a problem tenant who passed the tenant screening process with flying colors but still managed to be habitually late with the monthly rental payment, or destroyed the rental property, or disrespected the neighbors. Does this mean tenant screening isn’t worth it? Is it a waste of time and money hire a tenant screening service, to conduct a background check and pull someone’s credit report? Is it a waste of time to check references?

Absolutely not. Let’s be honest: There are dishonest people out there. There are tenants who appear to be something they’re not. There are also decent tenants with a reliable history who become victims of circumstances beyond their control. The greatest way to shield yourself from this kind of bad luck is to employ the very best tenant screening service, to gather all the pertinent facts about a potential tenant before offering them the keys to your property.

It’s true, there is a little bit of luck involved with picking the right tenant. There’s a healthy dose of gut instinct, too. But that instinct should be backed by solid facts supporting your decision, whether it’s to say yes or no to a potential tenant. Selecting someone to sign a lease might seem like a giant leap of faith; while there is a bit of trust involved in the decision, that trust is made much stronger when you have all the knowledge necessary about someone’s criminal record, employment, credit and landlord history from which to draw. 

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Hire a Tenant Screening Service That Tailors The Reports to Your Needs

Every tenant is different, and therefore no two rental applications or tenant screening reports will look the same. Each time you’re vetting potential tenants, it’s of the utmost importance to get the necessary background information about them to ensure they are who they say they are, with the job they claim to hold, and the clean rental history they say they have.

But every circumstance is a little bit different, and you shouldn’t be forced to pay for a lump of tenant screening services if you don’t necessarily need all of them. Perhaps you already have verified a person’s employment. Perhaps they’ve provided you with a recent copy of their credit report. Whatever the circumstances are, you should hire a professional tenant screening service that is willing and able to tailor the screening service to your needs, only generating those reports you really need and not wasting your time and your applicant’s money with frivolous checks and duplicate reports.

When searching for the right tenant screening service, find out whether they offer different levels of background screening services. Research until you find a reputable company that offers everything from single a la carte screening services, to full-service background screening packages that check everything from employment verification and previous eviction reports to criminal records and sex offender registries. 

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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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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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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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Being Nice Doesn’t Mean Compromising Principles

It’s OK to negotiate with potential tenants, especially if they’ve made a good impression on you and their application is in order. But too often landlords find themselves compromising their goals or going outside their comfort zones to appease people who haven’t even technically signed a lease yet.

That’s why it’s crucial that the landlord or property manager stays in control of the situation, from the initial walk-throughs to the lease signing and beyond.

1. Don’t accept someone’s copy of their credit report. Run your own. In fact, do an instant tenant report to see right away whether someone is worthy of being your tenant.
2. Don’t trust the fact that the person “seems nice.” Do a background check to rule out any criminals or sex offenders.
3. Don’t blindly accept someone’s request for a favor regarding when to give you the security deposit or first month’s rent. If they’re already having trouble coming up with money owed to you, it’s a good sign they’ll have trouble every month.
4. Don’t allow a prospective tenant to dicker with you over the rent price. Do your market research before deciding on what to charge for rent. That way when they complain that nobody in the area is asking that much, you’ll know whether they’re lying.
5. Don’t overlook a red flag, such as a pet being moved into the rental unit when the tenant said there were no pets. A tenant who lies is a problem tenant, and you’re probably in for a lot of headaches.

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Should An Applicant’s Bankruptcy Filing Be a Red Flag?

Thanks in part to the economic crunch happening across the country, more and more people are resorting to bankruptcy to get them out of the debt they’ve accrued. Should bankruptcy be a red flag for a possible problem tenant? And can a landlord reject an applicant because they’ve filed for bankruptcy?

In short, yes, landlords do have the right to set specific tenant selection criteria — including bankruptcy filing — as a reason for rejecting an application. Federal fair housing laws do not include a protected class for financial status. Whatever criteria the landlord sets up, he/she must be fair and apply that criteria across the board to every applicant.

Is it always the wisest decision to bounce an application because of a bankruptcy filing? That’s hard to say. Bankruptcy is a legal right allowing relief from certain debts, but a landlord wants a tenant who has a fairly solid history of managing his finances. A bankruptcy filing indicates the applicant was unable to meet his financial obligations during a certain period.

But a landlord should take a look at the circumstances and timing surrounding the bankruptcy filing. Bankruptcy stays on one’s credit report for seven to 10 years. If the prospective tenant is nearing the end of that time period and has had a clean credit history since then, there’s a good chance he/she has put their financial troubles behind them. Talk to the applicant about the underlying cause for the bankruptcy, and see if those details check out in the applicant’s credit report and background check.

Finally, some landlords believe that if the applicant has adequate income to cover rent and living expenses, he is probably in a better position to be a qualified tenant than before the bankruptcy. Since bankruptcy discharges old debts, freeing up the applicant’s income for present expenses. Also, bankruptcy cannot be filed again for several years, which means those who’ve been down that road once are highly unlikely to go there again.

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Where to Advertise For Your Next Great Tenant

You’ve got a great property, now you just need great tenants. But how do you go about finding suitable tenants to lease your building? The key is to use several different avenues to advertise your property and reach out to potential renters.

• Newspaper ads: This is a traditional approach, but one that still works. When people are looking for a new place to live, they often search the Want Ads in the local newspaper. Call the paper and find out the rate to place your ad in for several consecutive days or weeks, making sure to hit at least a few weekends to grab those tenants who are diligently circling ads on a Saturday morning. Be sure to find out what kind of online presence your ad will receive on the newspaper’s website.
• A sign on the property: If your property doesn’t have a “For Rent” sign on the most visible side of the building or yard, you’re doing yourself and your property an injustice. Don’t overlook the importance of getting the attention of those simply driving by — if they’re in your neighborhood, chances are they live and/or work in the area and could be the perfect tenants.
• Websites: Websites like Craigslist.org are a great resource to use when looking for tenants. Be sure to use a catchy headline in your ad, and always include pictures. Many prospective tenants will skip right over an ad with no pictures.
• Word of mouth:  Get the word out the old-fashioned way — tell people! Send an email to colleagues who might be interested or know someone who is. Spread the word to friends and relatives that you’ve got a great place to rent.
• Social Media: If you’re a property manager, create a Facebook page to let current tenants know about pertinent news, and to garner interest in commercial or residential properties coming available for lease. You should also create a Twitter account and build up a following of local businessmen and women. Send tweets to let people know of rentable properties on the horizon.

Credit reports can tell a lot about a potential tenant, but they do not show whether someone has a previous eviction notice. Fill in the blanks on a prospective tenant’s background by using a tenant screening service to see important details about their rental history.


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Why Landlord Insurance Is a Good Idea

If you’re thinking about becoming a property manager, you should definitely look into landlord insurance policies. Landlord insurance is an important way to protect your investments and gives you peace of mind when taking on such an endeavor.

The two biggest benefits such a policy offers are:

• Coverage in the event that the property is damaged or otherwise uninhabitable, thereby mitigating your losses in rental income.

• Coverage of legal fees in the event a tenant sues you for injuries sustained or other problems related to the property you own.

A few things to you’ll need to consider when deciding on the right policy:

1. What kind of property is it? There are different insurance requirements for different types of property.

2. Where can you get the best rates? Research, research, research to find the best rates on the type of insurance you need. Check with any financial institutions and insurance companies with which you’re already affiliated, to see what they offer. Also check with other landlords in your area as well as any local property management associations. Compare premiums and services, and don’t be afraid to bargain to get the best bang for your buck.

3. What types of things do you want coverage on? The amount of insurance you need will depend at least in part on the kind of property it is, where it’s located, and how well maintained it is. Most landlord policies will protect you against theft, fire, vandalism and damage from weather events.

Did you know previous eviction notices don’t show up on credit reports? Don’t be duped into thinking a credit check is all you need to be assured you don’t have a problem tenant. Get a professional tenant screening!