How to choose a good tenant for your rental

Dealing with bad tenants is one of the downsides of renting a property. They could be late with payments, destroying your property, or difficult to work with. Anyone who has ever had such experience knows how important it is to have a good tenant. Unfortunately, there isn’t a precise recipe for this. However, if you prepare a set of strict criteria, you can increase your chances to choose a good tenant for your rental. Here is how to do it.

Things that you should consider when choosing a tenant for your rental

So, you are wondering how to select a good tenant for your rental. If you want to do this right, you cannot let local movers Memphis TN deliver the furniture of the first person who knocks on your door. For this, you will prepare. A list with criteria that a person must meet in order to rent your space. Here are some suggestions:

• Follow your instinct. This is the best way to choose a good tenant for your rental. A person should be friendly, accessible, and easy to work with
• A person must have stable employment with sufficient income to afford rent
• Has a clean history of paying rent on time
• Has a clean criminal record
• Matches your lifestyle
• Smoker or not
• Situation with pets

Do not forget that there is a law against discrimination

While you are setting your requirements, make sure that you follow discrimination laws. This means that you cannot select based on:

• Race or color
• Sex
• Familial status (families with children)
• National origin
• Religion
• Disability

If you want to choose a good tenant for your rental, follow your instinct

The first and most important thing when choosing a new tenant is to follow your instinct. In this situation, where you are renting your property to a stranger, personal feelings are important. And if you are experienced in renting, surely you have a good intuition when it comes to people who would like to rent from you.  You want to be comfortable with a person before you see packing and unpacking services load your rental with their items. If you have a good feeling about a person, you can start with some serious questions.

A good tenant must have stable employment and enough income to afford rent

Renting a property is a business. And in business, money is the most important thing. If you had experience with many different tenants, surely you know that the biggest problem is regular payments. That is the number one thing that you want to avoid. A good tenant should have stable employment and enough income to cover the rent. A person that is moving to Mississippi from another state, for example, probably doesn’t have stable employment just yet. But there are other criteria that that person might meet.

A good tenant should have a clean history of paying rent on time

Maybe a person that is moving to Hattiesburg doesn’t’ have stable employment just yet. But your instinct is telling you that you are dealing with an honest person. And, the applicant is guaranteeing that there won’t be any problems with rent. Then you should check their history of paying rent. Contact their previous landlords and learn about your future tenants first hand.

A candidate for your rental should have a clear criminal history

Of course, after checking their payment history, it wouldn’t hurt to take a look at their criminal history as well. Of course, you can get a decent tenant with a criminal history, but we are talking about lowering risks as much as possible. Therefore, an applicant should have a clean criminal record if you want to be sure that you will not have problems.

If you are living close by, make sure that your tenant matches your lifestyle

If you will be seeing your tenants daily, it is very important that they match your lifestyle. You do not want someone who is coming home late, if you are waking up early in the morning, for example. Or the other way around. Maybe it doesn’t look that important on a first glance. But after a while, it will become a crucial thing. Particularly if you are living next door.

Avoid renting your property to smokers

No matter whether you are a smoker or not, your tenant shouldn’t be. Especially if you are renting a furnished apartment, for example. Besides smelly furniture, cigarette smoke could leave an imprint on your walls as well. Not only that it will smell bad, but it is also a potential risk. You do not want to risk your property because of a smoker. Therefore, when choosing a good tenant for your rental, make sure that it is a non-smoker.

Make sure that you learn about candidate’s pets before you sign a contract

Finally, a thing that could or could not be so important. Of course, we are talking about pets. There are so many different kinds of animals that people keep as pets these days. The situation also depends on your feelings regarding animals in your rental. But a pet question becomes important if you learn that an applicant is planning to keep large and noisy dogs or other animals that could cause trouble to your other tenants. Talk about it with your future tenant before it is too late.

You can’t find a perfect tenant for your rental

Those are the most important questions that you need to think about when you want to choose a good tenant for your rental. Probably none of the applicants will pass them all. That is when your instinct will be the only thing that matters.