5 Red Flags To Note While Screening A Potential Tenant

Finding a tenant can be a great hassle, trusting a tenant with your house all the more difficult, more so when it is a person you barely know or have any mutual connection with. We understand that you face so many anxieties and fears while you are looking out for that one tenant you can be carefree with.
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What if the tenant doesn’t pay rent on time? What if the property gets damaged? What if they party with their friends so much that they barely maintain any hygiene of your house?

There can be so many what ifs that can cloud your mind when renting out your own property. These fears and concerns are valid. Though, this world is a nice place and most people looking for a house are responsible citizens. Yet there can be a few tenants that can make it horrible for you to rent your place to. Hence it is in best of your interest that you screen the people you are about to rent your house to.

So here we have listed 5 Red Flags for you to watch out for before you give your house to the said tenant:

1) Their Credit Score is Bad

Always take the consent of checking your prospective tenant’s credit score. Do they have bad credit score? Do they have a history of taking out money, maxing credit cards, but never paying back that money? If the Credit score of your prospective tenant is bad, chances are they are careless with money and you can safely infer the fact that getting your rent on time may or may not happen.

Such an attitude also shows an irresponsible attitude with money and finances which in turn shows irresponsible attitude in general life. Will they be responsible enough to keep your place neat and clean? Maintenance too can be a problem with such a person.
 
2) Criminal Record

Do they have a criminal record? Did they ever come in holds of authority? If yes, then this can be a big red flag. You want to rent out your space to a law abiding, disciplined citizen not to someone who can be remorseless about any act of breaking law. Studies show that people who have a pattern of breaking the law are often anti-social, sociopathic or psychopathic personalities.

You surely do not want to deal with such a person. Also if by any chance this person breaks the law again while putting up at your place, you can even see a loss of goodwill, unnecessary negative publicity and lowering out of rent as per the market rate. You surely do not want to get into such hassles hence it is important to check the criminal record of a person before your rent out your dearest home to them.

3) Prior Eviction

If a person has been evicted by a landlord before and they cannot even give you a valid reason for that, then it should definitely raise your eyebrows. Prior eviction can be due to them not paying the rent on time, being into a drug problem, damaging property or anything of those sorts. If possible you must definitely run a background check and get connected with their previous landlord.

Talk to their previous landlord and get to the bottom of the matter. Because no matter how eagerly you are waiting to rent your place out, you do not want to do any potential eviction. If their eviction was due to any of the reasons which are not comfortable to you then listen to that voice in your gut and do not give your house on rent to them.

4) Record of Domestic Violence

You may have checked the criminal record of your tenant and that might have come clean but what if there are issues with them that were never reported to authorities? You have to watch out for any behavior that may indicate any one of your prospective tenant is abusive.

Domestic violence is a serious problem, and if your prospective tenant has had a record of being abusive, chances are they can be violent towards your neighbors or cause you unnecessary troubles. While doing a background check you can ask people associated with the person about whether they are potentially violent or not.

5) Rude or Bad Behavior

When letting out your property to a prospective tenant please be on a lookout for any signs of rude or bad behavior. If a person is already very demanding, rude or has bad behaviors towards you, your relationship with your tenant can become difficult for you to maintain.

And you definitely do not want to have bad relations with the person who is going to live inside your property. So always be cautious if someone is already exhibiting rude or bad behavior then they might not be the ideal tenant that you are looking for.

We Understand Your Woes

We know the infinite number of difficulties you already encounter while looking for a tenant, and you might not want to expend so much of your energy in screening a tenant, especially if you live outside of India. If you are out of the country in which your property is situated, finding a  tenant, renting out your property and maintaining a relationship with the tenant from that far can be a near impossible thing. 

We at PropertyAngel.in understand these problems that you face. Hence you can depend upon us for all your property management needs. Once you hire us to maintain your property, we treat that property with utmost care and our expert solutions take care of all problems related to tenancy so that you can be tension-free while we manage your property. 

PropertyAngel - Your Property, Our Priority

PropertyAngel.in is a property management company that provides end-to-end solutions for your property management needs. We take care of ​tenant agreements, renewal management, owner privacy, move in support, detailed exit checks, tenant support, property marketing, tenant verification, broker coordination,  negotiation, agreements, seamless tenant replacement, inventory checks, complete interiors, 6 month inspections, move in checks, vendor management​, collection of token, deposit, rent, rent transfers, detailed customer statements,  bill payments, exit settlements, association payments.