One of the most important parts of renting out property is keeping your units occupied. A unit that is sitting vacant is only costing you money – but if you rent it out without proper screening, you could end up with a tenant who can't pay their rent on time or who causes damage to their unit. You may even end up needing to go through the expensive process of eviction.
That's why you must balance the two main parts of tenant acquisition, advertisement and screening. The better your advertising, the greater the pool of potential tenants will be – and this lets you conduct rigorous screening without worrying about ruling out all of your applicants.
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To get the most out of your advertising, you have to understand where people in your area are most likely to look for apartments or houses for rent. The internet has been a boon for free rental advertising, but you shouldn't ignore traditional channels like newspapers or signs. Finding out from your current tenants where they heard about their unit can also give you a clearer sense of the most effective places to advertise.
Another thing to consider is setting up an automated hotline. The "for rent" sign in front of a property often has room for nothing more than a phone number and the number of bedrooms in the unit. Rather than needing to answer all calls about the property yourself, you can answer many of the questions of prospective tenants by having an informational hotline set up with recorded information. Do be sure to give callers an easy option to skip this information and leave a message for you directly, however, or you risk losing callers who need to talk to you directly.
Screening
Tenant screening is a crucial part of tenant management. Running background checks and checking references can minimize issues with problem tenants, helping you avoid renting to people who might antagonize their neighbors, cause problems with management, or even conduct illegal activity on your property. Running credit checks ensures that you end up with tenants who can pay their rent on time.
While the laws regarding evictions vary between states and municipalities, it's often a long and expensive process, and proper tenant screening can also keep you from needing to evict tenants. In addition, good screening can help find stable long-term tenants as opposed to people who are constantly moving from place to place. This saves you a lot of money; the more often a unit changes tenants, the more you will be paying for advertising, screening, and cleaning, not to mention the vacancy period during which no rent is being collected.
How To Get Assistance
All of this can seem overwhelming – many landlords don't know where to begin when it comes to things like background and credit checks. If this is the case, consider contracting with a property management company. They can handle all aspects of finding and screening tenants – as well as managing (or even evicting) existing tenants.
Share21 October 2015
Apartment living can be a trial sometimes. Even the best apartment complexes can have problems, such as noisy neighbors. I experienced this firsthand with my newest neighbors. Between their partying and trashy existence, I was ready to go crazy. Late one night when they were being particularly noisy, I started researching my rights as a tenant. I found out I did not have to live with their inconsiderate behavior. As a public service, I decided to help others through this blog with their neighbor problems. Whether you are dealing with a landlord that will not do any repairs or bad neighbors, I can help.