The long-term reputation and profitability of your rental depends on the quality of your residents. However, even doing your due diligence, you can still end up with bad renters sometimes. It is crucial that you make sure that you have a good screening process in place, so that you get qualified rental candidates. Here are five ways to ensure that you are picking the best people to rent your vacancies:

1.    Do A Thorough Background Check

It is standard practice in the industry to run a background check on the primary renter, but it is important that you also run a background check on all the residents. Sometimes you may not even realize you have a bad resident, so it is important to check everyone living in your rental. Make sure to run a background check on their spouse, children, or roommates before renting out any vacancy. It is worth the extra couple of dollars in the long run.

2.    Contact Multiple Previous Landlords

Usually when we check references for candidates, we only check with their most recent landlord. However, though they may have been a great renter at their current property, they may have a long history of irresponsibility if you dig a little further. So when asking for references, make you talk to more than one landlord so you get a full picture of how they are as a resident.

3.    Verify Sources Of Income

A resident may have good credit, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they actually receive the income they claim. There are now services that verify income like Stub Samples that can report on their income statement. That way you can be sure that any candidate has the means to pay for their rent.

4.    Check Out Their Social Media Profiles

Many people are great at putting on a professional face when they have to, but in their personal lives they may act differently. Do a quick check on their Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn profiles and you can see if they are accurately representing themselves. If you see anything suspicious such as drug use, you will know that you do not have a quality candidate.

If you follow these four tips, you will be assured that you are doing your best to only allow quality residents into your vacancies. For more tips on reaching quality residents through other means like your marketing strategy, contact Occupancy Solutions. We have some great ideas to make sure that your vacancies are always filled with the best quality people.