People move for a variety of reasons. Some need a bigger - or a smaller - apartment. Others want to be closer to work or to their favorite night spots. And others move because they have to.
The reason a person or family is changing apartments can make a huge difference in the quality of your life as a landlord. Ideally, you want all trouble free tenants. Ones who never call you in the middle of the night, who pay on time or early every month and leave the apartment spotless when they leave.
Unfortunately, that type of tenant is very rare. And to be fair, it is reasonable for tenants to call when there are problems with the apartment. And it is reasonable to expect regular use wear and tear on the apartment when the tenant leaves.
Just one tenant like that can spoil the whole idea of being a landlord. Especially if it becomes necessary to evict the tenant. Especially if it is in a state with strong tenant rights.
To stack the deck in your favor, it is necessary for you to do some legwork before letting a prospect rent your property. This starts with a good application form that asks for a minimum of two prior landlords as well as the addresses of the apartments where they lived.
Your job is to call both landlords and pump them for information. The first prior landlord - the one where the tenant is probably currently renting from - is a good starting point if you ask good questions and learn to read between the lines. If the landlord can’t say enough good things about the tenant, there could be problems.
I know that sounds odd but if you think a bit it makes sense. Suppose you had a problem tenant that wanted to move out and another landlord called to check that person out. Would you say this person is a bad tenant when all you want is to have him move out? Or would you say everything you could think of that was positive to spin a story of happiness and bliss?
While we would all wish that everyone would be honest, we have to face reality. When another landlord has a problem, the only thing he wants is for the problem to go away. Now, there are many landlords who will be truthful but there is an awful lot of pressure on that landlord to exaggerate the positive and minimize the negative - i.e. stretch the truth as far as he can.
A big clue that is helpful is the length of time this person has been a tenant with this landlord. If it is a strange time like seven months and he is looking to move without a really good reason, chances are there is some hidden tension between the two parties.
So basically an interview with the most recent - and most likely current - landlord may not yield useful information. If you feel you have a good read on this landlord when you are talking, you can sort of read in between the lines to come to the truth of the matter.
Just keep in mind that a current landlord will always have a vested interest in the outcome. Sometimes it is honorable and sometimes not. And it can often be really hard to tell the difference.
Fortunately there is a solution. If you interview a prior landlord, you will get a pretty honest assessment of the tenant. If the tenant was a problem tenant, chances are the landlord will pour his heart out to you. After all, the prior landlord has no vested interest one way or another. While this landlord might not have much to say about a good tenant, he will have a lot to say about a bad tenant.
Generally, if you get a bad reference, you should look for another tenant. But if the market is slow or if the tenant has an honest and believable (i.e. documentable) story to explain the situation, you might find yourself with a good tenant who had a round of bad luck. A job could have been lost. A job injury could have stopped their income for a while. Any one of a number of bad luck scenarios could have happened to cause payment problems.
However, the one case you should never ever consider is when a prior landlord says the tenant trashed the property. There is no justifiable excuse for that type of behavior and renting to that person is just asking for trouble.
Checking prior landlords is just one part of a good tenant screening process. You should also pull a credit report and talk to their current and past employers. This lets you verify the information supplied on the tenant application and paves the way for you to make your yes/no decision.
If you did a good job on all your homework, it is highly likely that you will have a good tenant for your rental and build a good and hopefully long term renter/landlord relationship
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