Investing in real estate can be highly lucrative, especially given the way the housing market is currently set up. Opportunities abound, but you'll need to take many steps along the way to help protect the value of your investment.
Bringing in reliable and respectful tenants will be a big part of ensuring your property continues to hold value for years to come. Finding good tenants is one of the most important parts of the property rental process.
What will the best tenant background check take into account? It's important to know what to look for and be concerned about when it comes to potential tenants. Read on and we'll walk you through what you need to know.
1. Credit Report and Credit Score
This is one of the more obvious elements a background check will bring up for a property manager, but it's also a deeply important one. When screening tenants, you want to know if they'll pay their rent on time each month.
The best indicator of if they will be doing this is their credit score, which is a record of how well they've paid off previous debts in the past.
While a credit score isn't an iron-clad predictor of tenant behavior, it's a pretty good one. There's a higher chance that a person with a low score will fall behind on payments, given their trouble making similar types of payments in the past.
Many renters require a certain credit score for their applicants.
2. Criminal Records
You're renting your property to a tenant, and you want that property to be handed back to you in nearly as good of a condition when their lease is up.
You want to ensure the safety of the property and your other renters, and for this reason, you'll want to look into the criminal records of your prospective tenant.
There are a lot of laws regarding landlords' ability to access and use information from an applicant's criminal record. You can view the Florida laws here to get a sense of what is possible when screening tenants for Orlando properties.
3. Eviction Records
Has the tenant you're considering ever had trouble with a previous landlord before? Have they had to face eviction at some point in time?
The reasons for wanting to know this are rather obvious: you want to make sure this doesn't happen to you. Eviction can be frustrating, difficult, and costly, and you'll want to avoid the process at all costs.
If your tenant already has a history of trouble with landlords, they might not be worth the risk for your property.
Elements of the Best Tenant Background Check
Rental property ownership can be quite lucrative, but there's a lot that goes into it as well. If you're thinking of investing in a property soon, you'll want to get familiar with the elements of the best tenant background check as soon as you can.
Need more help managing your new property? Have more questions about getting the most value out of it? Contact us anytime for more assistance.
