Finding the Perfect Tenant

As a landlord it is your responsibility to always look for the perfect tenant every time you rent out a unit. By looking and striving for perfection you'll have a much better chance of finding the right type of tenants for your building, even if they don't end up being perfect!

Here are some of the things that you'll be looking for when you're searching for the perfect tenant:

1. Responsible for the monthly payments

Of course, this is a top priority. You need to find someone that has a good financial track record and will be able to keep up with the monthly payments on the unit without fail. The best way to find out if a person is responsible with their finances is to do a credit check on them first before asking them to sign the rental agreement. If a person has not been responsible with his finances in the past, there's a good chance that this is a habit that will be continued in the future. Look for people instead that have a solid credit report and only invite these types of people into your building as a tenant.

2. Respects the rental contract

When you hand a potential tenant a rental contract you’ll want to see that they are reading through it before signing on the dotted line. If you see that a person is just skimming through the contract or not even reading it at all before picking up the pen to sign it, this is not a good sign. There are terms and conditions that you have written into the contract that you want respected by your tenants. How will any renter be able to respect something that he doesn't know?

Before allowing the tenant to sign the contract you'll want to go through it with him paragraph by paragraph to make sure that he understands the rules and regulations that must be adhered to by a tenant. It's also a good idea to write at the bottom of the contract that you did spend time going through the rental agreement with him so that everything gets set in stone and no future problems can arise later.

3. Clean and respectable

What a person is wearing is often a clear indication of how they are going to be keeping up the rental unit. If a person arrives wearing dirty and sloppy clothes, it should raise a red flag for you as a landlord. Keep this in mind when you are interviewing potential tenants since you'll definitely want to avoid any type of potential hoarding or cleanliness situation that could arise later on down the line.