Regardless of whether you are renting houses or apartments, becoming a first-time homeowner is often very exciting. It can be a great way to earn a full-time living or simply generate additional income. Be careful though, one of the common mistakes new owners make is renting without screening applicants, which can lead to the dreaded problem tenants.

Regardless of where your property is located, it is very important to make sure you get written requests from prospective tenants and have a formal lease that complies with the laws of your location. Without any formal agreement, if a problem arises, it is only your word against that of your tenant.

Assessment to avoid problematic tenants

As a landlord, you have certain rights that you must exercise when it comes to evaluating tenants. Please note that you cannot evaluate your tenants based on their race, religious beliefs, gender, or a host of other things, as this would break the law in most countries. However, you can and should look for past rental issues, employment, have proper identification, and make sure they are of legal age to rent at your location.

You must have in writing (the lease) what the security deposit is along with any pet deposit for tenants who have pets, if you are going to allow pets, many landlords do not.

Thoroughly evaluating potential tenants helps you know whether or not they have been problem tenants in the past. This can often be found out by making a quick call to the last owner.

If all goes well and the tenant wants to rent their property, then they have the option of accepting the surety or security deposit and any other deposits in various forms, but wait until the funds are settled before the tenant is fully approved.

While you cannot ask certain questions, such as what a tenant’s ethnicity is, you have the right to pass your information through the Convicted Sex Offender Registry. When you have a community with many children, this is especially helpful.

Checking references

When the applicant completes the rental application, they can ask for references, many landlords do not verify these references, big mistake! It is advisable that you call these references, as well as your employer, to make sure everything on your application is true and that they do not have a history of problematic tenants.

Look in the phone book for contact numbers yourself rather than just using the numbers provided by the prospective tenant. Someone may seem very nice, but you still need to check their references and confirm that they are working and making enough money to pay the rent. Always call your employer unless you are self-employed, in which case you can request bank statements showing regular deposits from your work.

How many occupants

Often times, new owners get so excited that someone is interested in their property that they may not ask how many people will be living in the rental. It is up to you to make sure you know how many people will occupy your property, put the number of people in the lease to protect yourself. After all, you don’t want to rent your property to a family and then discover that there are two or more families living in the same accommodation.

Final thoughts

Becoming a landlord is very exciting, but you must take steps to ensure that you are fully protected by the laws of your location and that you are not renting to troubled tenants. Plus, taking the time to properly screen applicants will help you avoid headaches once someone moves in.