Questions to ask references

What are the top 5 questions you would ask a prospective tenants references when screening?

 

What type of reference do you mean? I assume you mean previous landlord/PM. Obviously you'd have different questions for personal/professional reference and for their Employer.

Did they pay rent and water on a time, can we have a ledger to confirm?
Did they pass all of their inspections?
Did they have any pets and did they cause any issues?
What were they like at reporting maintenance requests?
What were they like to deal with in general?

 

Thanks DT

And what in the case of personal references?

 

Not worth the money they are written on ...

 

The questions that @D.T. outlined are right. Just don't place too much weight on personal references (friends, employer etc) as they are always carefully chosen. Dig deeper, search online, and try to make a couple of independent calls if you can. Previous property managers are your best source of information and you don't need to ask them any questions... they WILL tell you all that you need to know plus a lot more

 

Real Estate rental references are the golden references, they cover everything you need to know.
Contrary to popular belief, PM's don't regularly lie to get rid of tenants... I can't think of a single clear cut case of lying that I've come across in 8 years. They're more likely to omit information you didn't ask about, so the onus is on you to be thorough.

You want to know;

1. What were they like to deal with, easygoing? fussy? Describe your house to them and ask if they'd comfortably rent that house to these tenants. Some fussy tenants are great in a new house, awful in an older home. Some messy tenants shouldn't be allowed near a new house, perfect in something tired and a bit run down. Tenant attitude is critical to me- I don't pay myself enough to deal with difficult people, no matter how well they keep the house and pay the rent.

2. Get a copy of the rental ledger, this will show you what their payments were like. Are there any periods of arrears, and were they recent? Are they constantly a little behind? Did they pay ahead, and was it like clockwork on time? Were invoices paid on time?

3. Did they keep the house well- i.e. clean and without damage. If there were any issues, were they rectified without a fuss? Was the bond refunded, and if there were deductions, were they mutual?

4. Who did they rent with, were there children, were there pets- if so, what and how many?
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You'll ask similar questions to a Private Landlord, but the key difference is that you need to get a sense of authenticity about the reference, because you can't thoroughly verify their identity or integrity. This may involve a longer chat that goes off onto tangents, giving you an idea of their character and whether they're being honest or not.... are they even the actual Landlord? You can verify their information against anything the tenant has told you in an attempt to find inconsistencies- names, time rented, rent, anything you can think of.
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This leads into personal references. As far as I'm concerned they're mostly useless, unless you're looking to get a "feel" for someone you're unsure of- i.e. they can often be helpful in the case of young first time renters, believe it or not the parents are usually pretty straight up.
Your questions are usually a bit awkward and the person is almost always going to be as nice as possible. Make them comfortable so they don't feel like it's an interrogation, and let them feel like things are looking positive for the prospective applicant- They have to feel like if they let loose a little tidbit, say, "Yeah, Britney can be a little messy, but she's always clean", they're not going to cost Britney the house.
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If you think you've found an inconsistency in a reference, pull on that thread and unravel the lie! Sometimes there's a genuine explanation... usually not. One inconsistency usually leads to more, which either begins to reveal the truth, or leaves you with that feeling that something isn't right. At this stage you'll probably decline them, but if you're really struggling- at least you can go into it with your eyes open (and take out a Landlords insurance policy if you hadn't already...!).