Hi, I’m Tanya with Envy Property Management. In today’s video, we are going to talk about the must-do 20 point tenant screening process when considering new tenants for your rental property. This is the process we use here at Envy and we want to pass this valuable information on to you. At Envy, we are dedicated to quality tenant placement and leasing of all of our rental properties. By having strict policies and procedures in place on placing new residents you too can place quality tenants, reduce the need for costly evictions, and make the most money as possible on your investment property.
Here at Envy, we have less than a 1% Eviction Rate and we have earned this achievement by applying our 20 Point Tenant Screening Process and today we are going to briefly go over each of these 20 items. Some of the 20 points we will review, can be found on a credit screening report, so make sure you are using a valid credit screening service when vetting prospective tenants.
- Driver’s License Verification- Ensure the tenant has a valid driver’s license and that it is not expired. If they don’t have a driver’s license, then a state-issued ID will work.
- Social Security Number - Require a valid social security number and ensure the prospective tenant is not committing any type of social security fraud.
- Date of Birth - Confirm the date of birth and make sure their birthdate is correct on their drivers license as well as on their application.
- Credit Score - Evaluate the credit score and make a determination if the tenant will need a co-signer or possibly an increased security deposit based on the credit score number.
- Prior Credit Inquiries - How often has the prospective tenant had their credit pulled by other creditors? You want to make sure they aren’t doing this frequently.
- Credit History - What type of credit history do they have, what kind of accounts do they have open, and do they have established credit?
- Credit Summary - When running a credit report, make sure you are getting a list of their current debts and look to see how many open accounts they have, the balances on these accounts, and their monthly payment amount. At Envy, we require the monthly income to be at or above 3x rent the monthly rent to qualify for a rental property. We subtract any outstanding monthly payments from their totally monthly income, making this 3x income obligation minus their monthly payments.
- 30+ Days Late - Are there any accounts are 30+ days late, if so why and is there a plan in place to get caught up?
- Current Delinquencies - Verify that there are no current delinquent accounts and make sure they are paying their bills on time.
- Previously Delinquencies - Look to see if there have ever been any previous delinquent accounts, if so, have they caught up on the delinquency and made an effort to keep up on the payments?
- Collections - Are there any accounts that are currently in collections? If so, is there a plan in place to make payments and have the account released?
- Employment Verification - Verify their employment history and ensure they are currently employed.
- Income Verification - Verify all sources of income to be used to qualify for the property.
- Prior Landlord Verification - Verify prior tenancy, were they ever late paying rent? Was any damage done to the property? Were there any unauthorized pets or people living at the premise? Was there was ever any unlawful activity reported?
- Broken Leases - Has the tenant broken a lease in the past?
- Public Records - Are there any public records on the prospective tenant?
- National Criminal Alias Search - Does the tenant’s name come up on the National Criminal Alias Database?
- Sex Offender Registry - Ensure the tenant is not on the sex offender registry.
- National/Local Eviction Lookup - Verify that the tenants do not come up on the national eviction database, also, at Envy we have a local database provided by our attorneys and are able to verify the tenant’s name doesn’t show up there as well.
- Professional Pet/Service Animal Screening - Use a professional pet/service animal screening service like petscreening.com to make sure any pets or service animals are in compliance with vaccinations, there’s no history of aggression or any other concerns we need to be aware of when placing a pet in the property. This service will also confirm the validity of any service animal requests.
As you can see, in order to place a qualified tenant in your rental property, you must go through this detailed 20 step screening process. Doing these steps will save you many headaches in the future. When screening prospective tenants at Envy PM, we make sure that we comply with all the strict Fair Housing and Discrimination laws in order to keep our owners out of lawsuits and litigation. Make sure you are also keeping up to date on these frequently changing laws in accordance with your local and state laws.
This is Tanya with Envy Property Management, thanks for watching today, if you have any further questions, give us a call and see how we can help you with Leasing or Management Services on your investment property. Allow us to take the headaches and frustrations out of tenants, toilets, and turmoil. Our number is 801-337-4337 or you can also visit our website for more information www.envypm.com. See you next time.
