Screening of Residents, why it is important!

I remember my first real estate investment for so many reasons.

Pride of ownership, the ability to use my sweat and hard work to create value for myself and my customers, the concept of putting my hard-earned savings to work in a great way, and much more.

But the best remembrance was of that first property was the importance of screening my residents.

The first tenant I rented to “looked good!” as in well dressed, nice car, friendly and much more. I based my decision to rent to them on my first take on them at the showing.

Three months later I was evicting them for non-payment of rent, having others move in with them without my approval or knowledge, buying a pit bull without telling me….boy, what a lesson that was.

They left the place a mess, stuck me with an unpaid rent bill into the $1,000’s and changed my view of investing greatly.

This was a life lesson for me of the highest level. I thought it best to make a list of things that I need to apply to all prospective residents when reviewing their interest to rent from me. It is the basic staple of real estate investment ownership.

Screening and proper selection of tenants based on that uniformly applied screening process allows an owner to protect their investment, show respect for other residents in the building and neighborhood, and create a win-win for owner and resident.

I learned that I would much rather have a unit sit vacant, than rent to anyone who does not meet our screening criteria.

I see so many new owners, and current owners who continually rent to prospective  tenants who have a bad credit history, have multiple evictions on their record, or do not have the income to support a rent payment. This is a recipe for issues that will not end well for all parties.

You can see our rental criteria on our web site at:

Rental Policies and Procedures