As a landlord, you don't make money if your tenants don't pay, damage your property, or don't uphold their end of the lease. To avoid these problems, tenant screening is important and necessary. Your rental property is your investment, after all, and you shouldn't let just anyone have free reign of your investment.
Read on to learn more about the importance of screening potential tenants and how you can find the best ones.
1. Screening Ensures They Pay
While nothing will ever guarantee that your tenants will pay their rent each month, thoroughly screening them will help reduce the risk that they won't.
Tenant screening usually involves looking at their rental history, checking with previous landlords to learn what kind of tenants they were and if they paid on time, and scrutinizing their finances to make sure they have the funds to pay.
2. Protect Your Property
As a landlord, you want the peace of mind that your property is going to be treated respectfully by your tenants. When they damage the property, it costs you time and money to fix any damage.
If they have a negative rental history, a history of evictions due to property damage, or have a criminal record, you need to know that information before you rent to them.
If you rent to bad tenants, not only could your property be damaged, but your reputation could as well.
3. Protect Your Other Tenants
If you have a multi-unit property, you need to ensure that you are renting to good tenants to protect the others who live in that property. Similarly, you want to make sure the surrounding community is safe as well.
If you don't conduct a background check and rent to tenants that are dangerous, you could be blamed by the other tenants, and even face legal action from them.
4. Helps You Avoid Turnover
Finding good tenants can be hard and there is often a lot of turnover. When you vet your potential renters, though, you can increase your chances of finding tenants who will stay for the long term, rather than moving out quickly or when their lease is up.
If you have tenants who stay for the long term, it saves you money, as you don't have to clean and prepare the property for new renters, pay to market the property, or pay to have the criminal and rental history of potential renters checked.
You can even sign a long-term lease with good renters.
5. Gives You Peace of Mind
When you rent to tenants who will respect and take care of your property, you get some peace of mind. You won't be worrying about how they are treating your investment, day in and day out. This is even more important for short-term rentals or vacation rentals, where you might not even be in the same state as the rental.
Peace of mind is worth the cost and trouble of screening your potential tenants.
The Importance of Tenant Screening
It's impossible to overstate how important tenant screening is. A tenant background check may add some time to the rental process, but the extra time is worth it to find the best tenants.
If you prefer to have someone handle screening tenants for you, contact us today. At Gulf Coast Property Management, we handle both long-term and vacation rentals and can manage every step of the rental process for you.
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