What Questions To Ask Potential Tenants Previous Or Current Landlord

Comments(12)

• 
  rmdane200024th May, 2005

  do they pay on time?
  how much is their rent (check against what they say)?
  are they loud?
  Have pets?
  # of people living there?
  how long have they lived there?
  Clean people?
  etc. etc. etc.

• 
  rmdane200024th May, 2005

  do they pay on time?
  how much is their rent (check against what they say)?
  are they loud?
  Have pets?
  # of people living there?
  how long have they lived there?
  Clean people?
  etc. etc. etc.

• 
  edmeyer24th May, 2005

  You definitely want to talk to the previous landlord, as well as, the current one. The current landlord may be trying to get rid of a bad tenant and may make the tenant look much better than he/she is. Previous landlords may be a better indicator. Having two landlords tell you the same information is strong evidence that you are getting the true story.

• 
  bgrossnickle24th May, 2005

  Run the credit first. You can do it from the computer. if the credit is awful then you do not have to do any other time wasting screening.
  
  Landlords also needs screening. I first seperate landlords into two categories: the professionals (apartment compexes and professional properties managers) and the suspects. The professionals will give you an true reference. Of course you need to do a reverse lookup on the phone number you are dialing or look them up in the phone book to make sure you are actually talking to the professional. I had a tenant who made a friend answer the phone for an entire day "Wind Star Apartments".
  
  The suspects are a tricky bunch. You must verify (1) that they own or manage the property listed on the application (2) that the tenant lives at and is paying rent at the property on the application. Do a reverse lookup on the landlords phone number. Look up the tax rolls for the property to verify the owner. Also look at the date that they purchased, number of bedrooms and bath, and amount paid. When talking to the "owner" I usually get a little friendly and then ask them "so when did you buy it, how much did you pay, how many bedrooms and bath are there, how long has sarah lived there, how does she pay you - check cash or money order?" Of course you should have casually asked sarah how she pays, and not have it on the application.
  
  Brenda

• 
  ciroma25th May, 2005

  Thank you so much.. I just the credit of 2 applicants and their credit are 498 and 550. They both have judgements and one has evictions on her record.
  
  Thanks
  Chi

• 
  d_random25th May, 2005

  Yikes!!! Did you use the national tenant network? If not, who did you use and how much did it cost? Thanks!
  
  
  Quote:
  On 2005-05-25 01:23, ciroma wrote:
  Thank you so much.. I just the credit of 2 applicants and their credit are 498 and 550. They both have judgements and one has evictions on her record.
  
  Thanks
  Chi
  
  
  [ Edited by d_random on Date 05/25/2005 ][ Edited by d_random on Date 05/25/2005 ]

• 
  ciroma25th May, 2005

  Yep, I used the NTN, and it cost me $35/adult
  
  One of my applicants with the low credit score just got another job for $65K/yr. And wants to sign a lease option agreement with 4K down, for a sales price of 325K for one year. Will this mitigate my risk in a way.
  
  Or it;s just a bad idea to rent to him. The monthly payments will be $1800/mo. He has a credit score of 498. I actually doubt he will be able to clean up his credit in a yr. He says he has a second Property management job for $1200/week. He has 3 daughters.
  
  What will you guys do in my position.
  
  Thanks
  
  
  [ Edited by ciroma on Date 05/25/2005 ][ Edited by ciroma on Date 05/25/2005 ]

• 
  bgrossnickle25th May, 2005

  498 is awful. if you have a house worth 325k you should look to get at least 5% or 15k down at non-refundable option money. You will wish that the house was vacant if you rent to this person.
  
  Brenda

• 
  rmdane200025th May, 2005

  i had a lady with a 528 score that i thought about renting to. I talked to a buddy of mine that runs a mortgage brokerage company. He said its a pretty bad score, but at least its not in the 400s. He said people just about have to try to get a credit score below 500. I agree with the previous poster, alot more down. This guy can get at best 80% financing from a bank.

• 
  d_random26th May, 2005

  Thanks ciroma! Were you happy with the NTN service, do you think you will use them again in the future?[ Edited by d_random on Date 05/26/2005 ]

• 
  ciroma26th May, 2005

  I will use them again.
  
  You see This is the first home I am renting out and this is all new to me. Before using NTN, I found it difficult denying an application even after making calls to the landlords and employers. Then, someone on this post suggested using NTN, I used it and the results made the decision for me. I sent out the rejection letters based on the credit report and eviction history of some of these applicants. Really scary that I almost let them rent from me.
  
  NTN revealed information I could not get from filled applications. The might be other Tenant screening tools out there and this is the first I have used so not sure if this is the best. But worked for me in my current situation.
  
  Hope this helps.
  
  
  
  Quote:
  On 2005-05-26 11:16, d_random wrote:
  Thanks ciroma! Were you happy with the NTN service, do you think you will use them again in the future?
  
  <font size=-1>[ Edited by d_random on Date 05/26/2005 ]</font>

• 
  pinkflamingo26th May, 2005

  I always ask when talking to landlord references "knowing what you know now about this person and based on your previous experience with them, would you rent to them again?" Then always ask for them to elaborate on their answer.