Hi, I'd like to hear about your views on tenant selection and screening. In this case, for a 3 bedroom townhouse (650-700p/w). 1) If this was your property, would there be any specific tenant type/demographic that you would hope for? Young family with kids? Friends (working adults)? And Why? 2) What would you think about 3 unrelated people (friends probably) putting through an application. male A ~$60k income (has rental history and rental reference checks out), male B ~$115k income (moving out of parent's home - no rental history), female C student but apparently supported by parents (rental history checks out). 3) Also, when selecting tenants, what are the key things that one should be weary of (besides the obvious - rental history, ability to pay rent, references, etc.) Interested to hear and learn... Cheers.
I generally just take guidance from the property manager. I let them use their judgement when it comes to tenant selection - much less hassle/worry for me for a relatively small deductible cost Cheers Jamie
1) There are too many variables to really answer this question. All other things being equal- rental history, income, presentation, attitude, pets/no pets, etc, I guess you'd say a professional couple or retirees would be the 'ideal' tenants, but realistically you're not likely to be faced with that decision. 2) Nothing inherently wrong with unrelated parties, especially with great rental history and income. Just be aware that they aren't tied together as tightly as family, so you're likely to have some changeover of tenants or a shorter tenancy compared on average to a family unit. Again, lots of variables. 3) Rental History is the PRIMARY concern. It's theoretically proof that they've been great tenants before. Next step is serviceability- can they afford the rent. You'll look at things like how much income, length of employment, type of employment, stability of industry, do they have savings? etc. After that you'll also consider presentation and attitude- they can have all the money in the world and present the house perfectly, but if they're a pain in the ass to deal with, you don't want them. You'll also want to check them on databases like TICA, Barclays, NTD in case anything's slipped between the cracks.
Stay away from friends and relatives. In my experience - and my dad's experience before me - these are the ones that go wrong. I've got one at the moment, a [rapidly becoming ex] friend who doesn't regard paying the rent on time as being something she needs to be too concerned about.
If you desperately want to be involved even if you are using a property manager, you can get their names and Facebook stalk / social media stalk. As a pm, we do this anyway, but regardless of their situation, (friends, family), I find meeting them just as important. You might have a great family on paper for example, but if they are at the open and the kids are running rampant hanging off blinds, hands up and down walls without care from the parents... or a professional couple, fancy car, that buts their cigarette out on your letter box and leaves it there. Let your pm provide their opinion.
hi @wjw, @Tom Rivera has provided all the right information. At the end of the day, the aim is to find a tenant who will look after your property as if it it was their own, they will pay their rent on time, and stay in the property for as long as possible as it costs money when tenants move on. As Tom rightly said, your main indicator for the future is the past... With the above in mind and all things being equal, I think its a pretty easy decision between the young family (who will most look for stability), 3 friends (who may or may not be friends tomorrow) and 3 unrelated people (who have nothing tying them together).
Thank you all for sharing your opinions. Much appreciated. I did try the facebook/linkedin stalk, but found nothing back on all three of them. (actually I think I did find one of them, but it was dormant for the last 5 years). The rest were like ghost. Cheers.
I can’t add much more to what @Tom Rivera said. But, tip for FB stalking if you haven’t already. Try middle names, potential knicknames (ie. for Samantha try Sam, Sammy and other variations). You can also type email addresses and phone numbers into FB/Google etc.
Isn't that frustrating. This recent push for Facebook privacy settings has really made things hard for us....! I used to be able to find about 80% of people, now it's down to about 20%...
I would never rent my property to the tenants who I believe may not know how to use and look after the property. For example, our renants who just moved out of my IP had shower door wide open when having shower, and also they let water overflow from the kitchen sink. I believed it was because they didn't have similar housing conditions when they were in their own countries. The tenants who just moved out took all our kitchen and bathroom cupboard protectors with them when moving out. Another tenants took stainless steel kitchen strainer plugs when moving out. Another tenant who not only failed to pay the rent but also took the ranghood filter with him. I couldn't believe all these.
Married couple that both have professional jobs and only 1 Older child in senior high school has been the best for us. Still could be a disaster and good luck finding them
Tell you what, I had a tele-mediation today with RTA. The tenants said to RTA they took all the cupboard protectors with them when moving out because the item wasn't listed in the Entry Report. What the !!!
