Investing in property and marketing a rental can be hard, but finding good tenants is the hardest part. Learn how to find the best tenants for your property.
Whether you’re a long-distance landlord or if you live next to your rental property, no one wants to deal with difficult tenants. It’s emotionally and mentally taxing, and it comes with the risk of property damage and money coming out of your wallet unnecessarily. Use this brief guide to finding good tenants for your rental property to save yourself from any headaches.
Create Impressive Rental Listings
The worst thing a landlord can do is post a vague and undescriptive listing. Whether you’re posting online or physically advertising, you want the title listing to be eye-catching. If your listing doesn’t immediately draw the eye, good tenants won’t look any further into it. Therefore, your title should include the price, the number of bedrooms and bathrooms, and the property type.
Example: $1,200pm: single-family unit with 2/bed 2/bath.
This will attract prospective tenants seeking quality housing and make them want to read your property description, so provide plenty of detail. For example, include multiple photos of the major rooms, floor plans, a video walkthrough, descriptions of the neighborhood, and rental details such as utilities, deposit, and pet allowance.
Set Applicant Criteria and Run Screenings
Before getting into screening tenants, you must comply with the Fair Housing Act and avoid accepting or rejecting tenants based on race, gender, sexual orientation, or disability. Discrimination of any kind will lead to legal trouble.
However, you should meet and interview tenants to see what their personality is like and if they sound genuine. Coming up with questions helps you set applicant criteria and run screenings online or in person. These questions should include what their current job is, why they’re looking to move, their lease and pricing expectations, and whether they have any questions for you.
With this method, both parties can gauge each other’s personalities and expectations as well as get a better understanding of whether you’re a good fit as property owner and tenant.
Maintain a Healthy Relationship
One of the best ways to build trust with your tenants is to have a good relationship with them, consisting of communication and healthy boundaries. This is good practice even for landlords that are dealing with difficult tenants.
Set off on the right foot with a clear and detailed lease agreement. When they are ready to move in, have a detailed welcome letter ready along with contact info, move-in details, and other reminders they should know about. Once they do move in, consider leaving them a small welcome package like coupons to restaurants or stores in the area or even cleaning supplies and small luxuries like scented candles to make the rental feel like home.
With this guide to finding good tenants for your rental property, you can be sure that your rental property is in good hands!