When you own a property, you need to make sure that you do everything you can to keep your income stable. You need to make sure you have quality tenants in your property at all times, and tenant screening is a great way to make sure this happens.

Criminal record

When evaluating your tenants, you should check the obvious. This includes a criminal background check. Check for things like violence, property abuse, substance abuse, and reckless behavior. If someone has a speeding ticket, this is no reason to discourage them from your property. You should only deter tenants who have pending violations that may pose a risk to your property or to your other tenants.

Property arrears

Another thing to look for is late payments on the property. You don’t want someone who is unable to make payments to stay on your property. Your property management company will be able to dig into this and see how far the payments go. If a tenant has only missed one payment, then they have no reason to reject it if everything else is in order.

Property history and previous owners

Another thing to look into is the history the tenant has with other landlords. If you find that the tenant has a history of jumping between properties at short intervals, then you may want to avoid them. Tenants who jump from one property to another at regular intervals will hamper your earnings, and it is far better to have one long-lasting tenant rather than multiple who come and go all the time.

As you can see, these are the main things to focus on when looking into the tenant’s history. Failure to do so could leave you with a troublesome tenant, who disrupts your earnings and property on a regular basis. Only screen the tenant for things that would hinder your investment. Turning away a tenant on the basis of something that is irrelevant, such as a shoplifting charge when you were young, would not be practical for your investment. The crime has nothing to do with your trustworthiness as a tenant, especially if it was committed some time ago.