Being a landlord in the Carlsbad area brings some unique challenges and benefits to your business, but ultimately you’ll find that you still face the same set of universal concerns that landlords face everywhere. Setting the right rent for your neighborhood, keeping up with maintenance, and handling the paperwork that goes into your business all take some work, but a consistent problem for many landlords is a fundamental one. How do you make sure that you’re renting to the right people?
Use a Tenant Screening Service
An excellent first step for a landlord struggling with how to screen potential tenants effectively is to outsource the process. While choosing to use a Carlsbad tenant screening service can take a lot of work off your shoulders, it’s not as simple as picking the first result that comes up on a search engine. Like many parts of the tenant screening process, hard work up front will save you a lot of time down the road, so do your research and select a reputable screening service (one that's Fair Credit Reporting Act compliant). Many “instant” screening services do little more than pull information from publicly available databases, which can be error-prone or limited in scope. Be sure that you select a company that is taking the time to do a thorough job and you’ll know that the information you’re paying for is reliable.
Look for These Things
When screening Carlsbad tenants, three items, in particular, are essential to consider. The first item is a credit check. A credit check shows a potential tenant’s credit history going back seven to ten years and can help you identify prior financial issues such as late payments, accounts that have gone into collections, or significant issues like bankruptcy. Looking at a tenant’s credit score gives you a good snapshot of their financial health, and can help you decide whether or not they’ll be a reliable source of rent checks.
Be sure to run a check on a potential tenant’s background or criminal history. Looking at this sort of history can help you determine whether or not a tenant has a history of prior evictions or a criminal record that extends beyond some youthful misdeeds. While many people can turn over a new leaf, you can’t always be sure that opening up your property to someone with an extensive criminal background won’t be a risky choice for you or other tenants. Additionally, this will also allow you to determine whether or not that tenant has a prior legal history. If they have a history of being sued for delinquent payments, it may be a wise decision to pass them over for someone else.
Finally, be sure to check on a potential tenant’s previous rental history. Looking into this allows you to get a good sense of their behavior as a renter, and determine how other landlords have fared with them in the past. You can develop a good understanding of whether or not they have a history of late payments or causing damage to properties and whether or not other people had issues with them. If previous landlords would rent to them again, then they are probably a safe bet for you.
Do Not Discriminate
The federal Fair Housing Act is no joke, and when you’re screening tenants to get a good sense of whether or not they’ll be a fit for your properties, you want to make sure that you’re applying your screening process in a non-discriminatory way. It’s important to implement your screening procedures uniformly. Avoid performing several checks on one potential Carlsbad tenant, while only running a credit check on another.
Don’t ask questions that are too personal on your rental application forms. Keep it limited to previous rental history, jobs, income, and references and stay focused on the tenant’s ability to pay the right amount on time. Be sure to establish a system that outlines exactly what your rental requirements are and apply it equally to all potential renters - filter out extraneous factors such as race or religion. Screening practices that even suggest the possibility of discrimination can come back to bite you, so get it right up front.
Hire a Carlsbad Property Manager to Help
Screening Carlsbad tenants can be a challenging thing to get right. There’s a lot to manage concerning legal issues, and it can be challenging to do a lot of the legwork yourself or pick a good tenant screening service out of a crowded field. A Carlsbad property management company can help you. They’ll remove the burden of getting this process correct off your shoulders and help fill your properties with quality renters.
If you are interested in learning about our services let us know by scheduling a consultation. We'll go over our services and pricing with you so you can decide if we are the right fit.
