This guest post was submitted by Michael Klazema. Michael has been developing products for the background screening industry since 2009 and is lead author and editor for a background checks community.
The recent events in the real estate market have actually led to the development of a much larger rental market. A lot of property owners found themselves stuck with their properties. Their only choices were to leave their house on the market or explore the idea of renting their property to at least offset most of the cost of the property.
Options for Renting Out Property
When it comes to renting a property there are basically two options to choose from. One option is to hire a property management company. The other option is to rent the property on your own. Now the advantage of going through a property management company is that they take care of everything. All that you have to do is receive the rental check and deposit it each month. Of course, the downside is the cost. There is a certain percentage that goes towards the property management company.
Renting the property on your own is, of course, cheaper than going through a property management company. The downside is that you are responsible for everything concerning the rental property. You are responsible for finding and managing a tenant as well making all the necessary fixes to the rental property when needed.
Proper Tenant Screening
The hardest and most crucial part renting a property is finding the right tenant. Not taking the time to find the right tenant the first time can actually end up costing you more money down the road. They could just skip their rent and walk right out, leaving you high and dry.
One thing that you can do that will help you avoid a bad tenant is to perform a tenant background screening beforehand. It is perfectly within your right as a property owner to perform a tenant background screening so long as you make the tenant aware of it beforehand. The background screening can look at their past rental history and whether or not there have been reports of them breaking their contract or not paying their rent on time. A history of this will most likely mean that they will do it again.
A tenant background screening gives you even more valuable information. It can provide you the details on whether or not they have a criminal history. It can also provide valuable insight on the tenant’s credit history and their income and job history.
To Sum It Up
All of this information is very valuable when deciding whether or not to rent the property to the prospective tenant. Now this will not guarantee that you are completely risk free when renting your property to the prospective tenant. If the background screening comes back empty, then you will know that your risks will be minimized if you rent your property to that tenant. The cost of a tenant background screening is very little in comparison to the cost of renting to the wrong tenant, not to mention the headache that it can cause.
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