Screen Portland Tenants to Help Avoid Eviction
One of the best ways to avoid eviction is to get a highly qualified, responsible tenant in place. That’s why tenant screening is so important. Today, we are sharing five important components of your tenant screening process.
Rental Criteria
Make sure you have a really good rental criteria set for your tenants. It needs to spell out exactly what a tenant needs in order to rent your property. This criteria is important and you have to provide it to all tenants and applicants. You cannot offer one thing to one tenant and then something different to another tenant. Treat all your tenants and applicants the same so you comply with fair housing laws.
Background Checks
You will need to run some very thorough and serious reports on the applicants who want to become tenants. Make sure you do a credit check and check for an eviction history. All of the information you gather needs to be checked against your rental criteria. These background checks will help you look for tenants who are qualified and honest.
Research and Verify
When an applicant gives you the completed application, make sure you check everything they say. Verify all the information on that application. This means you have to track down a complete rental history and talk to current and former landlords. You need to collect documentation on income, which may be in the form of pay stubs, so you can be sure they make as much money as they say they do.
Lease Agreement
You need to have an excellent lease agreement in place that will protect you and your property. Don’t just pull any lease agreement you find online. Get a lease from a qualified source and make sure you are protected all the way through the tenancy.
Property Management
If you are not comfortable doing any of this, it’s very important that you work with a professional Portland property management company. Property managers are skilled in taking care of all these things and they do it on a daily basis. They will keep your asset protected, starting with the screening process.
If you have any questions about tenant screening, or you’d like more information about how to get it done properly, please contact us at Property Management Systems, and we would be happy to talk to you.
