When it comes to your rental property, do you have a specific type of renter in mind? You, of course, want renters that will be a good fit for your rental property and that will be good neighbors in the area that the rental property will be located but how can you ensure that without sounding too picky or displaying favoritism?

Well, it’s not a matter of you being too picky, it’s a matter of you just wanting the right type of tenants living in our rental property. Think about it… you’ve gone through all the trouble of making your rental more appealing, and for what? To rent it out to renters who don’t appreciate it and completely trash it? It’s totally not worth the agony of dealing with people like that, especially when you don’t have to.

For you to even get a rental property, you have to go through the rental loan process (which is a simple process), make sure the property is clean, and jump through other hoops to make the rental property what you want it to be. Granted, the process wasn’t a long agonizing process, it was still a process and that’s what you’re going to have to put potential renters through when making the decision on who to rent to because when you get a rental property, you then become a landlord.

It’s not Personal… It’s Business

As mentioned above, once you go through the process of renting out your rental property, you become a landlord. That title might sound and feel weird to you but as long as you have people living under your roof, you’re their landlord so embrace it. The hardest thing about being a landlord is probably that it’s strictly business… you can’t let your emotions get involved.

A really nice family may show interest in your rental property but don’t make enough money to be able to afford to pay you the rent every month. This is a situation that pulls at your heartstrings but it also pulls at your bank account as well. Although that family might be the ideal tenants for your property, ethically, it would be a bad decision for you to rent to them, financially because they wouldn’t be able to afford the rent, which would put you in a financial bind yourself.

So before entering the world of real estate in this capacity, know and understand that you can feel empathy and compassion for people but you also have to make smart decisions too. Because a stream of your revenue and income is dependent upon how reliable your tenants are on making their payments. So now the question is, how do you pick the right tenants for your rental property? Well, again, it’s a process. Let’s go through the process.

Identify Who Your Ideal Tenant Would Be

This is the first step in making sure you choose the right tenant to rent to. It’s just like any other business. With retail stores and business owners, part of their business plan is to identify who their ideal customer is… it’s no different in choosing the right tenant for your rental property.

One way to identify your ideal tenant would be to look at where your rental property is located. Maybe your rental property is located a couple of blocks away from an elementary school. If that’s the case, your ideal tenant might be a family with young children. Maybe your rental property is a few miles away from the local university… if that’s the case, you might consider renting to a group of college students.

It’s all up to you but looking at the neighborhood and local amenities surrounding your rental property is a good place to start.

Market Your Rental Property According to Who Your Ideal Tenant Is

In your marketing efforts, you have to be very strategic with it so that you won’t get a mixture of tenants you want and tenants you don’t want showing interest… it just gets a little confusing. For instance, if you’re willing to rent to college students in nursing or medical school, consult with the campus’ housing official to see if you’d be allowed to post a few flyers with your contact information on it.

If you’re want to rent to a young family with children, you can take to social media and maybe even speak with local daycares about advertising there, in case there are parents that may be interested… remember, it’s all about being strategic.

Give All the Details About the Rental Property Upfront

Being direct from the very beginning will help you to weed out the ones who are serious and who are not. Doing this may sound like you’re trying to run people off upfront but it’s really not… it called being direct and honest, and it’s honestly saving you and interested renters time and energy on whether or not to continue through the process.

In the details, you can list this information:

• How many bedrooms/bathrooms
• Square footage
• Deposit amount
• Monthly rent amount
• Whether or not pets are allowed
• Application fee amount

All of these details are helpful to you and the renters because if a renter has a dog and you aren’t allowing dogs in your rental because of all the new renovations, a potential renter would want to know that upfront to save them time and it will prevent issues with the landlord because everything was stated from the beginning.

Do Credit Checks and Background Checks on Every Applicant

Again, this is something that knocks people out of the running all the time. It doesn’t seem fair but you have to do this to ensure the safety of the neighbors of the rental property, that the rental property is safe, and to make sure that you know you’ll get paid every month. According to the American Apartment Owners Association, doing background checks is what will help you determine what an automatic denial will be too.

As far as credit checks are concerned, it’s just so crazy how the times have changed over the past few decades. There used to be a time where cash and a hearty handshake was enough to seal a deal but today, you have to prove your creditworthiness to live practically anywhere but it’s with good reason. So many good people have been scammed out of money due to bad tenants not being able to hold up their end of the bargain in paying rent. It’s sad that it’s come there but it’s very necessary.

Charge an Application Fee to Potential Renters

This isn’t a way for landlords to get extra money… this is what helps landlords pay for the tenant screening process. It’s very common for rental properties and apartment complexes to charge application fees so anyone who doesn’t want to pay, they’re probably not too serious about wanting to rent from you.