How to Screen and Find The Best Tenants - 9 Questions Every Landlord Must Ask - Landlord Tips

Welcome to the channel and welcome back to another video. In this video, I want to talk about the absolute number one most important thing that any landlord can ever do with their property, and that is find the right tenant. I'm going to give you nine questions every landlord should ask every potential tenant before even showing them the property. So first, if you're stopping by the channel for the first time, please subscribe to the channel and hit the like button. It helps the algorithm and it really helps the channel grow. So with that said, I do want to say this. I've been managing rental properties for 21 years. I've owned property for a long time and I've seen a ton of things. The questions I'm going to give you, these nine questions that you're going to ask your tenant, are questions that are tried and true. I do it almost every time and I've had some good luck and I've had some bad luck with tenants. But for the most part, I've really narrowed this process down over 20 years, 20 plus years. So I'm going to be looking on some notes because there's a ton of things that I want to talk to you guys about. These nine questions are really super important. So before we get to the nine questions, there's just a couple of things I want to talk to you guys about. The first one is this. Be sure you ask these questions before you show the property. And the reason you want to do that is because you want to make sure that you're not just showing the property to everybody, right? You want to narrow it down so that when you actually show a property to somebody, they know and you know that it's a pretty good potential fit based on some things you've talked to them about on the phone. That brings me to the second thing. Try to have this conversation and ask these questions on the phone. You could probably send out a little questionnaire or email them something, or you could probably even send them something through their text message or something. I personally, maybe call me old school, I don't know, but I like to hear the voice. Because if you talk to someone, you're going to get a lot of very good information that's going to be sent to, or going to be kind of noticed by you just by simply having a conversation as you listen well. That brings me to another point before I get to the nine questions. Make sure you're taking notes. Write down who you talk to, write down a few things about them so you remember who you're dealing with. Don't leave it up to your brain. Another real quick thing, make sure you're not violating any of the Fair Housing Act of 1974. That means you can't discriminate for things like color, national origin, religion, race, gender, and there's others, disability. You can't discriminate on any of those grounds. And you also want to make sure your questions are not going to be touching those things. The other thing is make sure the questions that you ask, because I'm going to give you nine questions, but you're going to maybe tailor them a little bit. Make sure they touch your requirements, whatever your standards are. That means you've got to have certain set standards for people that may or may want to move into your property. Maybe it's a standard like you want to make sure that they make two and a half times the rent in order to be able to afford your property. But have those set standards written down and so your questions that you're going to ask them are actually geared towards helping you answer the questions to see if they actually fit or are a good fit for your property. So I just wanted to run those things by you. And yeah, the other thing that I wanted to mention to you was know your landlord tenant laws, because how you rent property in Billings, Montana is going to be different. There's going to be different sets of laws and rules and regulations that you've got to follow than how you would rent property in Birmingham, Alabama. So know what those are before you even list your property for rent. Know what things you can and cannot say. There may be some restrictions in your state. Just know what those are. So with those things out of the way, let's jump into the nine questions that you've got to ask. And I'll just jump in. Number one, this is the first one. You've got to ask potential tenants, what type of home are you looking for? If it's an apartment, what type of apartment? But ask them, what are you looking for? Now this question right here, you'd be surprised at how this one question will cut off 50% of the conversations that you have. Because they're going to tell you, you know what? You know what? I'm looking for a two bedroom, two bath. Well, you have a four bedroom, one bath. So that alone, if you tell them that and you guys have that conversation, you get that information from them, it's going to tell them, this is not for me. And so, you know, let me back up because I do want to say this. I got your number one, but I do want to say this. Be sure you explain these things to the tenant before you start asking a whole bunch of questions. Let the tenant know up front that I'm going to be asking you some questions. And why am I asking you those questions? Because I want to make sure that this is a right fit for you. And I don't want to waste my time. And I certainly don't want to waste your time. If you tell potential tenants that up front, nine times out of 10, most of them, they will respect that. And they will appreciate you being as upfront and as honest as possible. So just let them know, hey, I'm going to ask you some questions, but it's because I want to make do my homework. And I also want, I don't want you wasting your time. And they will appreciate that beyond belief. And they'll be more receptive to being asked these questions. So number one, remember, do always ask them, what type of home are you looking for? Or what are you looking for? They may tell you, I want a basement. Well, you don't have a basement. And so that gives them an opportunity up front to say, ah, that doesn't fit what I'm looking for. Number two, let's do it and jump right into number two. Number two is ask them this one. This one right here is going to be the one that is also going to weed out a lot of people. This question is that you got to ask them, when do you plan to move? Once you ask them that question, they're going to tell you something like, oh, I need to move as soon as possible. Okay. Or they may tell you, I don't want to move for two months. And so you'll begin to see that their timeframe doesn't match up with your timeframe. And you guys can make a decision whether to part ways or not. There may be times when your property won't be ready for five days, but they'll tell you, I need to move immediately. I just got kicked out and blah, blah, blah. So it gives you an opportunity to know what they want again and how soon they're going to move. And if their timeline meets your timeline, great. Number three, this one is one that will reveal a lot. Number three is why are you moving from your current property or from your current house or current apartment? Now, this is the first of several questions that's going to give them an opportunity to really open up and really be as truthful and as honest as possible. Oftentimes you will hear, um, my landlord doesn't fix anything where I'm at. Or you may hear something like, um, the house is too small where we are. We just had a baby and we need more room. Whatever that question is, what it does is the answer gives you an opportunity to get a little bit more information about their story without asking them upfront, Hey, what's your story? You're asking them, Hey, why is there any particular reason that you're planning to move right now? And so that question can be revealing. Be sure that you're listening very closely for the answer because that's going to tell you a lot. Number four is how long have you been on your job? Now, this question is going to go right along with your criteria. Perhaps part of your standards is your requirements are that they be on their job for a certain amount of time, perhaps, um, three months, six months, a year, whatever that is. This gives you an opportunity to perhaps see if that's the right fit. They just got on their job two months ago, but you require someone to be on the job at least one year that may disqualify them. And you can be honest with them and upfront with them as well at that point. But this is also the opportunity to ask a few other follow-up questions with number four. So a follow-up question might be, you've given me your, or give me the fact that of how long you've been on your job, but who is your employer? Or can I call your employer? If you put that out there and ask them that question along with the, um, how long you've been on your job question, typically that you'll get a yes, you'll get a no, you might get a little bit of hesitant, you know, a little bit of a drawback. Um, but that's, that's a question that you are, you can legally ask them if you can contact their employer, can you run a credit check? That's another thing you can kind of throw in here with number four. Um, you can say something like you don't ask them, can I run a credit check? You would say something like, typically what we do is we run credit and background checks. Would that be okay with you? If you ask the question that way, it gives them an opportunity to say, um, well, you know, I do have a couple of things on my record or I do have a felony, um, or I don't have the greatest credit. It gives them another opportunity to open up, to be honest, to reveal a little bit about themselves that they wouldn't normally reveal. Um, I w you can say it's kind of putting them on the spot, but not really. If you're being honest and you're looking for property and you're okay with disclosing and telling, you know, all the, you know, your information because somebody will, a landlord wants to know your information. Uh, they would be okay with that. Most people will. So the other thing I throw in here is if there, is there any other sources of income? So with number four, when I'm talking about employer and all that stuff and credit checks, I usually throw in, um, what are your sources? Do you have any other sources of income besides your job? And they might tell you, yeah, you know, I have SSI or I get, you know, some type of disability or I do get some child support or something like that. It's all about the income right here with number four. You're trying to see, do they, are they, do they, do they have a stable income that comes in on a regular basis that helps you determine whether or not they can actually make and pay the rent on a regular consistent basis? That's important. Number four is a big one because you can really do a lot of things with that. Number five, how many adults and how many children are going to be in the property? Remember, you're taking notes. So if you're taking notes and, uh, and, uh, John Smith tells you, you know, it's just going to be me and my wife and two children. Okay. You wrote that down. No big deal. Not a, not a problem. And then if you get through this whole process of asking these questions and you show John Smith the house and perhaps he's a good tenant and then he fills out his application and he tells you what's going to be me, my wife, her brother, and his three kids. And then my two kids. Okay. So if you go back and compare what he wrote on his application right now with what he originally told you on the phone, is this some consistency there or is there inconsistency there? That's something to note, something to know. So I always like to get an idea. The other thing about that is let's say it is just John Smith and his two children. Well, you have a one bedroom house. Perhaps this is not the right place for them. Or perhaps, um, there's seven people that are going to move in total and you only have a two bedroom home. That's when you would ask the question and start talking to have that dialogue with the potential tenant about whether or not this is the right fit for them. So that's number five. Number six, what is your, and I'm back on the pay. What is your monthly take home pay? You could probably include number six here with number four. I like to make it a little separate. What is your monthly take home pay? Now, if they tell you if they, if they, if it lines up and it's consistent with kind of the information they gave you back on number four. Perfect. Now what we're doing here again is making sure that they actually have enough money to cover the rent. And that is really important because some people are willing to risk. And I've had, I've seen this happen. Some people are willing to say, I don't mind. I only make $2,000 a month. Your rent is $1,300 a month. I still want to move in your property. Some people will do that. And that's when you need to step in and say, well, we require a certain amount of income in order to move into the property to ensure that you can pay for the rent. You've got to step in and say that because you will get people who are so desperate to actually move into your property. They will, they won't even think about food and lights and all that stuff. They'll just think about trying to make the rent. And that becomes a problem when it comes down for the rent. So just keep that in mind. So number seven, I always ask this question, what pets do you have? Notice how I framed that question. I didn't say, how many pets do you have? I said, I didn't say, do you have pets? I said, how many pets do you have? And so I've had instances where tenants will tell me, I don't have pets. Two months into being in the property, I drive by the property or they give me a call on the phone and I hear a dog barking. So it's important to know upfront. It doesn't disqualify you from renting from me. Now, some of you guys, some of you landlords out there might say, I don't do pets and that's okay. But for me, it doesn't disqualify you. But what it does is it tells me upfront that maybe there's some extra deposit that I'll have to require from you, you know, a pet disclosure statement and all that kind of stuff. So we'll get, so it gives me more information about you and more information to help me make a decision about showing you the property, et cetera. So number eight, number eight is a really big one. And again, number eight gives them an opportunity to be as honest as possible. And number eight is, tell me a little bit about your rental history. So it's a question, but you frame it in a more conversational manner to put them at ease. And I try to make this question towards the end or even last, because this question is one that really challenges them to be honest. And so if you're, and a lot of people will, they'll step up to the challenge and they'll tell you point blank, you know, I do have a few evictions or I had an eviction last year or two years ago. I had one eviction on my record from five years ago. Now you're going to do your due diligence and check if this person, you know, is someone that you're interested in renting to, but you want to hear it from them or at least give them the opportunity first to tell you if they have any negative rental history that you should be aware of. And then they know because of the previous question that you're going to possibly do some criminal checks or some background checks or some credit checks. So you'll have, you'll get an idea of their potential history and it gives them that opportunity. I like to give people an opportunity to be honest, upfront, very important. Now, number nine, and the final question you've got to ask every tenant is simply, do you have any questions for me? This gives them an opportunity to maybe ask their own questions, figure out some things that they don't quite know about the property, but they really want to know. And this is when they'll dig into amenities and things like that. Do you have a washer and dryers or washer and dryer hookups, or do you have, you provide stove and refrigerator or is there carpet throughout, or do you have, you know, how is the, how old is, or whatever they might ask, how close to the schools, but it gives them that chance to actually ask good pertinent questions for them. Remember, I've been doing all the listening and asking questions. Now they may want to ask, ask questions. Now this, this may sound like a lot, but to a really solid potential tenant, who's looking for a place to stay, this may take only two or three minutes of a quick phone conversation. These questions go quick. They can go as quick as you want them to go. You can ask a couple of follow-up questions, but for the most part, I keep this process really quick. I don't want to have 10 minute conversations with every tenant. I simply want to have every potential tenant. I simply want to have a real quick one to two to three minute conversation to get a feel. I write down all the information at the end of the conversation. I would simply say something as if, okay, sounds like this is a good fit for you. Potentially. Let's talk about an opportunity. Maybe look at the, at the property. I'm going to be showing the property on Saturday at noon. And I, by the way, another little bonus tip here. I always show properties in groups. I never show property to a single person at one time. I make it a point to have, to show the property to five or six people at once. And for many reasons, I'm going to talk about that on another video, but that's the nine things that you got to ask every single potential tenant before they move into your problem, before they actually see your property in a phone conversation, ask away. All right. So with that said, again, if you're stopping by the channel for the first time, please subscribe, consider subscribing to the channel and please hit the thumbs up button. All right. Remember the best person to take care of the old you is the young you. Take care of yourself. Take care of others. I'm going to catch you on the next video. Peace.