When it comes to tenant screening, the 'net is a great thing... I just had a prospective tenant call me, and when asked 'why is he moving', his answers were not consistent. BTW, I like to ask 3 times when the first response to that question is anything with the word 'landlord' in it. He went on to tell me that he 'told' the landlord that he was moving, and he wasn't getting evicted... well, he got half of it right. While on the phone, I asked his name and current address, logged onto our local District Court website and did a search on him. Yep, you guessed it... his 10 day eviction notice to move was expiring today (no wonder he needed a place asap). He acted surprised that I found this out so fast, and argued about the fact that I found his prior eviction from June on there also, even though 'he didn't really get evicted'.
Now, normally I don't do this, but I kindly told him that 'you gotta love the internet', and that he needs to find some other sucker landlord out there to let you rent from him and then kick you out', and then hung up. Sorry, it must have been a bad day today, but I hate getting lied to. Had I not checked him out, I would have taken my time to show him the place across town, just to find that he's a 'professional tenant' later.
Also, be weary of the ones who state 'I can pay you cash today'... flags shoud pop up all around. Cash now means even more court costs tomorrow.
Hope this helps,
Jeff Lund
Investment Property Specialist
Five Star Real Estate
Good points Jeff. This real estate market is a boon for those who want to try landlording, but you've got to do it smart. You can afford to check people out and pick the best tenant you can when rentals are in higher demand.
But what about the "I can pay 2 months in advance"? Ha! That means you will get 2 months rent and then watch them try to work the system to get as many months out of you as they can. I can only laugh at that now because it happened to me and I got them out pretty quickly after the 2 months. I've had that offer since and on further investigation have found out I was dealing with a professional tenant.
Jeff, it just takes a little effort to avoid major problems later...we do the same with our "potential" tenants...as soon as we're on the phone w/ them we get a "feel" for them...and then do our "web-research"!!!
Yes sir. You gotta love the internet. There is no reason to not do your due diligence prior to renting out YOUR property. The problem is only going to get worse as times go by. On top of that, the tenants have the internet too. Google avoid, eviction, landlord and see the plethora of sites available. Your tenasnt may not have the rent money but they still have high speed web
Pretty cool Jeff! Gonna stick close to you. Even with 20 years as a landlord under my belt, there is always more to learn. Next time I run the credit check and then call you to find out how to do this!
Tami- feel free to give me a call anytime!
Jeff