Download these 10 Free Tenant Verification Forms to review and choose the best one as per your requirements.
Tenant verification is essential to avoid losing your money to bad tenants. The minimum verification and screening of tenants leads to maximum problems. When compared with the normal rentals, which may include townhouses, etc., in such cases maximum screening is done and there are minimum problems.
So, screening questions, doing reference tenant viewings and reference checks make a difference when it comes to ensuring that you have better tenants in place.
Screening Questions:
Screening questions are your first contact with potential tenants. The main purpose behind this is to take testimony from your tenant that the term of the rental agreement will be fulfilled and the property will be safeguarded. It gives an exact idea about the situation and helps you to screen the best tenant out there. Questions related to screening tenants are:
- How long will be the rental term?
- How many will be renting?
- When do they need it?
- Have they already given a notice?
- How long were they at their current address?
- Are they just looking right now?
- Do they have a security deposit?
- Do they have the first month’s rent?
All these questions are asked to make sure you get the right people.
Free Tenant Verification Forms:
Potential Tenant Viewings:
This is the second contact with the tenants. You have talked to them and dealt well enough to invite them to come and visit the property. This is the point where you have to review some of your earlier notes on the screening process. This gives you an idea of who the people are coming from. There are several points to take into consideration which may sound trivial, but they give an idea about the future likelihood of the future of the tenants’ will be in his/ her conduct. For example:
- Were they on time? Were they early? If you have to wait for the tenant, it could be a sign of how they are going to be next time when it comes to paying rent or when they come to sign the lease. It is a good indicator of what may occur in the future.
- Do you like them? Because you have to communicate and deal with them in the future. So, you must begin with good relations.
- Do they fit your profile? When you rent your property, you typically have an idea of what tenant you want to give your property. You have a mindset before renting your property to a tenant, such as if you have a three-bedroom house, you probably want a family. If case you have a one-bedroom house, you may want a young professional, etc.
- Rephrase and re-ask questions to the tenants that you are planning to rent the property that you have previously asked during screening. It is a way to cross-check if they change their statement or not.
If it feels right at this point, then it is time for you to give them application forms to fill out. Recheck carefully after they fill out the application form.
Reference Checks:
Reference checks are one of the most important areas. It is so much easier to spend half an hour making phone calls, checking references, and doing a little research than wasting a lot more time chasing the tenant for money and discovering that they are the worst tenants in the world. So, that half-hour worth well worth your time. If you do early screening and reference checks, then it is most likely that you have a good tenant. Call all the references. There should be a lot of spots in your application to obtain information from the previous landlord. The rationale behind this is that if they are a bad tenant, if the current landlord is not happy and wants to get rid of them, then it will tell you exactly how good or bad a tenant they are because they will give you accurate information.
If this is the first time renting, then you may not have the previous landlord’s record. In such cases, you need to approach them with different intelligence and double and triple-check the information. You may ask for personal references in such cases, but they are usually biased references.
You may also Google the previous landlord and check if the number and the name given match each other or not. Make sure that matches. It gives a little more assurance that the number is valid. Sometimes it doesn’t match up. So, be very careful at this point because it means that the tenant is trying to trick you. If it comes out to be the right one, then you can ask typical questions such as, Did they give proper notice? If they pay on time? Any issue with the noise? Etc.
In case the tenant is employed then you look up the company and make sure that the company is valid. Call the main switchboard. Make confirm everything. Avoid direct numbers and cell phones. You may ask them questions such as; If they were landlords, would they rent to them? How long they have been employed there? Is continued employment likely? Etc.
Kamran Khan is a seasoned blogger with a deep-seated passion for office document processes and the art of productivity. With a wealth of experience spanning over a decade, Kamran has become a trusted name in the blogging community, known for his insightful articles and practical solutions that help individuals and businesses streamline their daily operations.
