Tenant Screening Criteria

household type

I have beenĀ  a landlord since 2008. It has been 10 years now. Based on my own experience, there are few type of tenants.

Tenants can break or make your life easy. Therefore, it is crucial to screen tenant carefully.

So I came out with my own guidelines to screen my tenants. I made mistakes at the beginning because I want so bad to have my unit occupied and money flowing in.

Based on my bad experience, I would rather leave my unit vacant till I ll get the good one.

Below are my guidelines based on my experience. Other landlords might have different views. I don’t suggest anyone to follow blindly my guidelines.

Few criteria to be considered:

  1. Household Type
  2. Attitude
  3. Appearance
  4. Financial Strength

1. Household Type

Household Type \
Factors
Family with Young KidsFamily No KidsSingle AloneTogether with Friends (Men)
Period of stay2 - 4 years2 - 4 years3 - 4 years1 - 2 years
Rental incomeSustainableSustainableSustainableAsk for discount if one of members leave and no replacement
Pay on timeYesYesYesNo if suddenly one of members leaves
House conditionsGraffiti on wallCleanCleanDirty
ComplaintsSometimesSometimesSometimesSometimes
Utilities are paid?YesYesYesNeed to monitor and inform
Person in chargeRemain the sameRemain the sameRemain the sameKeep changing
RecommendedYesYesYesNo

2. Attitude

Ensure tenants are soft spoken, not demanding or not complaining so much on the house. Example saying the house has so much dust (even in actual fact no). If not, if they become your tenants, they will make your life miserable by complaining a lot.

3. Appearance

Appearance is important to check whether the tenants will take care of your unit or no.
You can check whether their hair is well trimmed, taken care off. Their shirts are ironed. Besides, if can meet them near their car would be good. You can see whether their car is a mess or not.

4. Financial Strength

You can check this one easily by asking for deposit. If they negotiate please raise the red flag.

Please also try to dig where do they work to check sustainability of their income.

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