The tenant screening process as done by the property management companies

The tenant screening process varies extensively from company to company so it’s vital to find out the exact amount of protection that the company would provide you from the hands of the bad tenants. The prospective applicants try their best for hiding the facts that would eliminate them from consideration. This makes the screening work more difficult and confusing. So this particular task of tenant screening is highly important for all management companies.

The below mentioned points would surely give you an idea of how much protection the management companies you interview would provide, with their screening process:

1. Make sure you ask about the systems the management company have in place to protect you against any type of rental scams and do they have any history of being deceived by any of such scams. Scams are getting more and more widespread and advanced these days. There are many outstation and local scammers who would copy your ad, break into your house and create such a false story that you would be allured to give them the security deposit. Now, as soon as they receive the money they would run and keep no possible trails for you to chase or track them.

1. Inquire that if they would "hold" a property for a tenant, and take it off the market before a lease is signed and what would be their charges for the same. It is important that the company levies a fee for the service so that they actually provide a protection in the event of things falling through.

1. Be aware about their methods of screening the tenants. The method needs to be comprehensive and strong. Things like income, employment verification, application information authentication, credit report run, personal references, public notice like any type of bankruptcy or eviction, and search run needs to be checked and considered. Even contacting the former landlords are vital. There are actually several tricks of the trade in this area and each management company would have their own time-tested methods.

1. Finding out that which tenant qualifications are most important to them is necessary for you to know. Preferably, you would want them to bring in people who are serious about their job and/ or schooling. It is a hard truth that the less someone has to lose in life, the less you can expect from them as a tenant. The exclusion rate and tenant turnover rate of the properties that the property management company manages is a good indicator of how well they screen tenants.