You will have advertised your rental property, and you will be starting to take enquiries for it.

How do you screen those enquiries and sort out the wheat from the chaff?

(1)  Always put the Family First!

I always put great store in existing tenants referring a family member to us for an empty property, or a mother or father referring their son or daughter for an empty property.

It would be good to only have these kinds of tenant, however, there are many times when you have an empty property and you want it filled ASAP.

(2)  Shut up and Listen!

Firstly listen to them on the phone, and listen to background noises. If there is a lot of noise in the background it means they are not thinking about trying to create a good first impression and this sets a wee alarm bell ringing.

(3)  Gut Instinct and First Impressions

When you meet your potential new tenant their appearance and clothing and mannerisms can tell you so much and help you decide if you want them as a tenant.

Punctuality is also another factor to lodge into your overall mental impression of the tenant along with other areas already mentioned.

What you have to realise is the fact that a lot of your decisions to take a person on as a tenant come from first impressions and your gut feeling.

These two factors are very important to take into consideration when assessing a potential tenant.

(4)  Previous Landlords and Previous Addresses

Previous landlords are important, although you have to decide if what they are saying to you is truthful or just a plain convenience story to help out their friend who happens to be the applicant for the tenancy!

If their previous address is not too far away, you could pop by and just get a feel for the condition of the property.

(5)  Use the Credit Check for more than just a Credit Check!

A credit check is always, always a good idea.  They are not too expensive to carry out and you should insist on payment upfront for the reference fee,

This type of check should include a name check, an address check and an employment check.

On payment of the reference fee, you can tell them that the property in question will be “on hold” until the tenant credit / reference check results come back to you.

Payment of the reference fee shows commitment on behalf of the tenant and confidence in their ability to be able to produce a clean set of results for the credit / reference check.

(6) Is their car a Rust Bucket or a Showroom Model?

If possible try and see the type of car they have arrived in, and make a mental note as to the condition of the car.

(7)  Thinking time to change your mind

If potential tenants view a property and immediately say they want to rent it, it is never a bad thing to give them at least 24 hours to think it over.  It is amazing how often a “Yes I want it” can so quickly turn to “I’ve changed my mind”.

(8)  Is the Rent Affordable?

If the potential tenant is working they will be in a good position to pay the rent required.

If the tenant is not working, and in receipt of benefit payments of some kind, you have to make sure that these payments will come to you, and that they will be enough.

Should the benefit payments not be enough to cover the entire rental payment, ask them how they plan on making up the shortfall each month?

Vague answers mean they don’t know, or they haven’t thought about!

(9)  The Deposit

This is an important part of deciding if the tenant is suitable or not.

If the deposit is readily available, the potential tenant scores a maximum 10 / 10! This is a good indication that the tenant will be acceptable.

Having the deposit, gives you, the landlord many reasons to feel comfortable.

If the deposit is not available, and the tenant asks to pay it up over a number of weeks or months, will leave you in a vulnerable position.

What happens if the property is damaged and there is no deposit and the tenant absconds?   …   Who pays for the damage?

If you need the property rented and you only have this type of applicant, make sure you have at least one and possibly two, guarantors in place.

(10)  The Role of Guarantors

Guarantors can be former employers or family.  They will be responsible for the non payment of the rent.

This helps to keep the tenant from being late with their rental payments and having the embarrassment of knowing that we will contact the guarantors who will then contact them, and tell the tenant to pay up!

Brieff summary

Having gone through the above list and obtained the information mentioned, you have the ammunition to help you come to an important decision, which is backed up by a variety of “cross checks”.

You will not always be right with your choice, but you will certainly have every reason to believe that you are right!