After a successful marketing campaign for your Ohio rental, you may have gathered a promising group of potential tenant candidates. The next thing you have to do when renting out a house is start the tenant screening process. You need to filter through the best type of renters to ensure that you get a steady rental income and that your residential rental property continues to be well-maintained. Here is a guide to help landlords perform thorough tenant screenings that protect their investments and ensure long-term tenancies.
Signs of Top-Quality Tenants
To have a successful tenant screening, you need to learn how to identify the best residents who will be ideal occupants of your Cincinnati rental properties. Some of the characteristics you should be looking out for in prospective tenants include:
- The ability to pay the rent on time.
- A steady source of income.
- A good rental history and made timely regular payments.
- A clean criminal record.
- A responsible attitude.
The Tenant Screening Process
To have an effective tenant screening procedure, you first need to be aware of what qualifications prospective renters must meet. Knowing the qualities you are seeking makes it easy to determine what type of tenant you are looking for. Create a list of tenant criteria and design a suitable screening process that aligns with your goal of picking the right tenants for your Cincinnati rental.
Perform a Pre-Screening
It will be time-saving for self-managing landlords to do an initial pre-screening rather than launching a tenant candidate into an intensive screening process. If your initial pre-screening shows that a potential tenant isn’t a match, then you can save valuable time instead of going through the length of a full tenant screening.
If, for instance, your Cincinnati rental cannot accommodate pets, then listing this in your ad eliminates prospective renters with pets. Specify details in your rental listing and when you receive inquiries over the phone, it is best to be straightforward and inform tenant candidates about your requirements.
Pre-screening prospective tenants helps you separate the renters who will be a good fit for your rental from those who won’t be. Unqualified candidates can also abandon their application when the tenant screening is very detailed. This can help you shift your focus to the serious and responsible tenant candidates who have the qualifications you set.
Review a Rental Application
When preparing your Cincinnati rental application, you must get comprehensive information from prospective tenants. This includes their:
- Contact information.
- Current residential address.
- Current landlord’s name with contact information.
- Former tenant history with details on former landlords’ names and contact information.
- Current and previous employers’ information.
- Job title, salary, and period of employment, including contact references.
- Authorization for credit score and background checks.
Learning how much the rental applicant makes is important so you can assess if it is enough to meet the monthly rental fee. Some landlords require tenants to have a monthly income that is triple the rental rate. Landlords can, however, use their discretion when assessing an applicant’s eligibility. For instance, if they don’t make 3X the monthly rent, but have a good credit score and rental history they may still make for a good tenant.
Procedure for Verifying a Tenant’s Income and Employment
It is vital to verify the employment history of a prospective tenant. Learning if the tenant candidate offered correct income information is critical since this is the main source of paying the monthly rental dues. That’s why, residential landlords should not skip this crucial step.
Questions You Should Ask Current and Previous Landlords
Although it’s seen as an additional task to reach out to previous landlords of a prospective tenant, this is a necessary step if you want to gain a full picture of a candidate. Former landlords can provide you with more detail about the prospective tenant’s behavior during their previous tenancies.
Check Tenant Credit Reports and Handle Background Checks
Generally, credit and background checks can reveal renters’:
- Complete account history.
- Credit score.
- Prior evictions.
- Relevant criminal records.
With good credit scores, you can trust that renters have healthy finances and can meet the monthly rent payments. Scores that start at 680 or higher are considered satisfactory. Still, it is best to take a holistic view and assess all details provided by applicants. Look for since of responsible spending, timely payments, low debt, and consistent income. You want to land the most financially stable and responsible prospective tenant as this helps reduce the risk of late rent payments and other issues during a tenancy.
Approve or Deny a Potential Tenant
Upon completing the steps above, it is time to decide to approve the tenancy application for your Cincinnati rental properties. Landlords can call or email candidates who passed the tenant screening and inform them of the rental agreement signing process. For rejected candidates, landlords can email them about their decision and keep a copy for documentation. It is not necessary to list the reasons why the application was declined.
Review the Fair Housing Act to ensure you are not discriminating against rental applicants based on their protected classes. Protected classes under federal and local laws include family status, national origin, race, sex, color, disability, and religion. By adhering to federal fair housing laws you can ensure a fair and legally compliant rental application process.
Bottom Line
As a landlord, tenant screening is critical to managing your Cincinnati rental. Good renters can help you maximize your return on investment and attain a successful rental business. Suppose the prospect of self-management is daunting. In that case, you can partner with a trusted property management company like Equity Team to perform tenant screening and other vital property management services on your behalf. Contact our property management company today for more information on our professional services!
