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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Make sure that rental application is legible

Many tenant applications are filled out hastily, as applicants want to get their paperwork back to you before anyone else scoops up the place their interested in renting. The first mistake a landlord can make when reviewing an application is to assume something — anything — when trying to decipher someone’s handwriting. If you’re unclear whether that digit in someone’s social security number is a 6 or a 0, don’t guess! Likewise, don’t guess about the spelling of a person’s name. When it comes to background checks, you’ll need the following information to be rock solid:

1. You’ll need the person’s social security number in order to do a credit check. Thousands of people have common names and birthdays, and if you guess on even one of the person’s social security numbers, you might end up pulling the wrong person’s credit.
2. You’ll need a correct spelling of the full legal name and date of birth for any criminal background check or previous eviction check. Most public records databases have removed SSNs from their files. So screening providers use the name and DOB identifiers to narrow down their search. So a criminal record for “Thomas McMurray, born 6/2/1987” may not come up if the landlord inputs “Tom McMurry, born 6/7/1987.”
3. You’ll also need the proper spelling of the applicant’s name to do a state or national search in sex offender registries.

If something is unclear, call the applicant and double-check. Also let them know that if you have to re-run a background check because the information wasn’t clear and correct, they’ll have to foot the bill.

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How Well Do You Know Your Applicant?

We have become a very transient society, never sitting still for long. Sure, there are still people who are born, reared and live their whole lives in the same small town. But the majority of us move from city to city, state to state, throughout our lives. Because of all this movement, those in property management often needs an atlas to decipher a prospective tenant’s rental application. Previous addresses and employers are often listed in multiple towns and states, and even a tenant’s personal references might not be in the area, or even in the state, where the rental property is located.

None of this is out of the ordinary or suggests that a person won’t make a good tenant, but it does raise the importance of a thorough tenant screening. Doing an in-depth background check on every prospective tenant will give you access to previous eviction notices and criminal records. Tenant screening also includes national searches in criminal sex offender databases that will give you peace of mind as well.

Gone are the days when you’d recognize a prospective tenant’s name or face, when you’d know their aunt or grandmother or boss. These days you are far more likely to have a complete stranger vying to live in your investment property. So do your homework and get to “know” them — thoroughly and promptly — before you have them sign a rental agreement.

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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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