A successful landlord has a thorough and consistent screening process in place and it is one of the most vital steps in rental property tenant selection.

One can reduce some of the risks of being a landlord with a comprehensive tenant screening process, to minimize common problems, such as, late payments and non-payment, tenant eviction, and property damage.

If you have an applicant who has given you permission to do so (be sure to ask this on the application form), you can quite thoroughly investigate them prior to signing a lease.

Unfortunately, some landlords will "go with their gut" when selecting tenants, but there are tens of thousands of dollars lost by individual landlords every day who have not done a complete investigation into all relevant and available information to make an informed decision.

Many times this is due to a landlord not knowing the answer to what seems like an easy question: "How do I run a background check on a tenant?"

The fact is, there are many more good tenants than bad ones, but the bad ones are out there and it is your job to stop them from renting your property.

It starts with a good advertisement; if an applicant knows that they will be investigated, the bad ones are less likely to apply as they likely know you will reject them. Save yourself some time by stating specifically what you will require an applicant to provide and what your evaluation criteria is.

1. • Valid Proof of Income - Pay stubs, Tax Returns, Bank Statements

   • Verifiable References (Previous Landlord & Employment)

   • Credit History (from a credit bureau)

   • Criminal and Civil Background Check

   • Identification Verification - get copies of their ID to verify that the applicant matches the reports returned on your research above

Do not settle for missing information; only accept complete applications and if the applicant gives excuses as to why they cannot or will not provide you with everything, then do not entertain them as they will try to talk you out of "needing" that information.

Ask questions and take notes, then ask some of the same questions again, but maybe a different way in a future conversation to see if the answers remain the same. The truth is easy to remember, it is the lies that people get caught up on. If you spot a pattern of lies, then this may not be a tenant you want to consider.

Determine the applicant's ability to pay rent using a simple formula; the monthly rent should be no more than 1/3 of gross household income and monthly expenses. This can help to sort through unqualified applicants well before you spend time and money doing in depth research into their background.

Credit History Report will give you an idea if they pay their bills on time and are responsible with their money. If someone has a great income, but have more expenses than they can afford (do not have 1/3 of their income available for rent), or they do not pay their bills on time, you will tend to see this in their payment history and will better determine if their history is one you can accept.

Credit Score can serve as a false positive and a false negative; you need to dig deeper than "the number" as someone with a high score can be over extended while someone with a lower score could have a legitimate reason, like being a victim of identity theft. so be sure to look at all the facts, ask questions and validate the answers.

Criminal and Civil History will at least tell some of the story, and there is always a story behind the charge, so ask questions about what comes up. There are way more people out there who have committed crime and not been caught, or maybe caught, but not convicted. This is an important step, but not the only one to make decisions on.

Social Media is a powerful research tool, search their name in browsers and within various social media platforms; you can learn quite a bit about someone who openly shares what they like, what they don't like and what they have strong opinions about.

• LinkedIn can show job history, and can be a way to qualify what they say they do and what they have done.

• Facebook can show what it important to them and can reveal quite a bit about their personality.

References of previous Landlords and Employers need to be qualified and checked.

• Previous landlords cannot really say bad things about a previous tenant, but if they are asked fact based questions, like, "did they pay rent on time, every time," or "did you ever serve them a notice of eviction," or "would you rent to them again if given the opportunity" and their answer comes back with a negative, then consider that. They cannot really give you their opinion or elaborate in personal details, just business facts.

• When looking into employment history, do not just use the phone numbers and names they give you, rather do you own search to obtain the number on the employer yourself, ask to speak to their boss or an HR manager, or even ask receptionist if the person you are looking into works there. When connected to the right people, ask, if they are aware of what the applicants wage and length of employment and if so, then state things like they said they make X dollars per year, and that they have worked there for X number of years, is that accurate?

A History of Evictions; exercise extreme caution if you find history here as this is what you want to avoid having to deal with. An eviction has cost a previous landlord thousands of dollars in lost rent and there was potentially damage done to the property too. If a tenant was evicted in the past, especially if it happened more than once, you should very likely not consider moving forward with them as this is the biggest red flag there is.

As you can see there is quite a bit to ensure you are selecting from a list of qualified tenants, if you are not confident in you own ability to complete this task, you may want to hire someone with the experience and knowledge to obtain the information. It will cost you money, likely equal to the a month's rent, but if the information is complete and you make an informed decision, it will save you hours of time and thousands of dollars more than doing it right the first time.

In Delta, British Columbia, (Tsawwassen or Ladner) consider contacting Nicholls Property Management to help you with Comprehensive Tenant Placement.

If you want to have your property and your tenant looked after, and have an emotional buffer between you and your tenant, then we can help you there too with our Rental Property Caretaking.

If your rental property is in Delta, B.C., (North Delta, Ladner, or Tsawwassen), South Surrey, B.C., or White Rock, B.C., contact Greg at Nicholls Property Management; and have a stress-free investment property experience as a landlord and have happier tenants.

Nicholls Property Management

+1 (604) 749-4676

Greg@NichollsPropertyManagement

www.NichollsPropertyManagement.com