Minimize conflict and financial loss through strong and reliable tenant vetting practices

Owning rental property can be profitable and rewarding. However, the potential pitfalls and dangers are numerous, any one of which could turn a profitable, pleasant enterprise into a dark, bank-account-draining nightmare.

Near the top of the list of potential hazards is troublesome tenants who fail to pay rent, damage property, antagonize fellow tenants and are all around headaches to deal with. Such tenants make life miserable, hurt financials and damage future financial viability as properties develop poor reputations among good potential tenants.

The only way to protect against having bad tenants is by employing strong and reliable tenant screening practices.

The baseline requirement a landlord should demand is that tenants fulfill their end of the contract: pay their rent; not damage the property; and pleasantly coexist with other tenants.

Identifying which tenants will adhere to these baseline principles can be difficult. It requires digging and analysis into potential renters’ backgrounds, following up with interviews of previous landlords, employers and individuals who provide letters of reference. In British Columbia, Court Services Online (CSO) is an electronic service that provides citizens the convenience of searching court records over the Internet.

Cornerstone Properties employs a wide array of vetting tools and tactics when interviewing potential tenants for client properties. The goal is to best determine the kind of tenant each applicant will likely be.

While it is not possible to determine the exact type of tenant an individual applicant may be, Cornerstone property managers and landlords have found that after comprehensive screening of multiple tenants, we can effectively identify and choose the best possible applicant for a property.

In part two of this three part series, we will consider what qualities an applicant should possess to be considered a potential tenant.