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How to Clear the Tenant Screening With Ease

Natasha Bantwal
How does one go about finding the ideal tenant? Here is some info on tenant screening and screening services.
Is there something like the ideal tenant? You bet there is! But, as a house owner, finding such a tenant can be quite challenging. A good boarder would mean good returns. On the other hand, you have the other type, the bad tenants.
Have you thought about all the trauma caused by such boarders? For starters, they would probably default on the monthly rent payments or would just not pay on the fixed date each month.

How to Find a Good Tenant

If you are depending on the monthly rent to meet your expenses, then a bad tenant would be real bad news for you. Typically, renting your place out to a company would obliterate this problem, since most companies tend to meet their commitments on time, especially if it is a reputed organization.
The second thumb-rule when it comes to choosing a boarder is to select someone who works in one of the large, well-established companies, as he/she will have a steady income and will not have as many financial problems.
Even if the money is the biggest of all your concerns, just picture having a tenant who ruins your beautiful home by drilling holes in the walls or spoiling the furniture and woodwork that you put in with your hard-earned money. Your home is the reflection of your personality and you would certainly want the person living there to take care of it too.
So, you will probably need to find someone who would not damage your home. How to pick such a tenant? Would a family with a couple of small kids do? Or would the kids ruin the walls with their crayons and watercolors?
This next one is indeed subjective, but a large family of adults would by and large take better care of your home - although some adults can also be very messy! Another nightmare that most house owners have to face is those boarders who refuse to vacate the house.
You cannot leave your home vacant, it is always best to do a background check on the person you want to rent your home to. It would be good to find someone known to you or to a friend or relative of yours. Another good option is to rent your home out to people working in transferable jobs who would not establish their roots in the city, and in your home!
Apart from these tips, there are other important tips to help you during your tenant screening:
✤ Ensure to get the paperwork right. Prepare an agreement on legitimate stamp paper and outline all the terms and conditions for using your property. The agreement should be clear about the renewal options, term of lease, advance rent, costs towards repair, damages, and maintenance of the property. It has to be signed by the tenant and the landlord.
✤ Use a professional screening service. Registering at a real estate screening service will save you on all that time and trouble that it would take to show your house to scores of potential boarders, or calling on regular tenants to collect the monthly rent. The real estate agent or screening service will do this for you.

Hire Outside Services

Finding the right rental apartment or house can be hectic to almost impossible. But it could have been worse. Imagine you find long-sought-after townhouse or apartment but get rejected by the landlord due to a negative report from a far-off company you never even knew. Unfortunately, for most people living in the United States, it is real.
Most landlords, mainly those who supervise large apartment buildings, rely on these services, bureaus for background check on potential tenants. These services gather information from police blotters, court records, credit bureaus, and other sources to identify and single out risky boarders before they become real headaches. Now we come to the flip side.
Because of the way in which these services gather their information, many responsible tenants could also be branded as bad, which poses as a serious disadvantage in some of the tight rental markets. As with nearly all matters concerning money, one of the best ways to determine whether you will pass the check or not is to check up on your credit history.
These screening services gather information from a surprisingly large range of sources, including state governments, utility companies, and even clerks of court. So, hiring the services of any of these bureaus is indeed worth your time and money. It certainly pays to do your homework before you let your house out on rent.