Getting The Absolute Best Tenant
It's ironic that I just gave some advice the other day on selecting tenants and now I'm asking for advice. Next week I am going to put a property up for rent that is the nicest one I have ever tried to rent. My wife actually says its to nice to rent! I obviously want to be far more selective than in the past. Any suggestions for getting the best tenant(one who is least likely to damage a property that could easily be messed up). In the past I have usually simply required more down to get in on my nicer propeties. Getting two months rent plus a deposit has seemed to work well. Any other suggestions? I am willing to sit on this one for awhile.
We have never had a great place, so asking two months rent is definately out of the question for us.
You might want to do one months rent with a surprise visit to their current residence.
Go online and type in tenant screening in a search engine. There are many of them and they have all different rates and depth of backgroud check. But if this property is as nice as you say, I would think it would be worth it.
Good Luck.
First off, in order to get better tenets you need to increase the pool of tenets you are working from. The easiest way to do that is to lower the rent. The Deposit can be higher but still have the rent lower.
Secondly, offer immenities that higher rent tenets are interested in. Good schools, broadband internet access, friendly neighborhood.
Thirdly, run credit checks.
In our opinion, this is all a gamble, even after pulling credit, and a larger deposit, we suggest the reference rundown, the type of people they "hang" with usually are within their shpere of influence. Ask for 5 references and none must be family. Remember you can ask a multitude of questions to a reference such as: "Have you ever loaned your friend money? Did you get paid back? Is your friend trusted by his peers? Would you consider your friend a handyman? Have you ever discussed your friend owing his own home?" I am sure you get the direction of probing with the questions. This technique may settle your landlord anxiety.
Eric & Rosa
_________________
Keys to our business success: Knowledge, listening, caring, and credibility.[ Edited by classimg on Date 11/06/2003 ]
You have nothing in your profile, so I don't know where you are located.
If there are large companies, nearby, transferring people in & out, you may want to make a contact with their RELO people.
You may look in phone book for ppty mgmt co.s and Ask local property managers for information, what do they do to earn their fees, where do they get their upper level renters?
If you appear to be screening them as a possible company you would like to employ, they will be much more open with you.
Make contact with the local Agents who do a lot of transactions in the upper ranges of your market. Let them know what you have. A flyer done with care and done in a professional manner may be kept. How are you going to compensate the agent will be IMPORTANT!
You may want to list your property for Rent/Lease. In my area it costs 1/2 month rent on a Month to Month, and 7% of the lease, if leased.