Are you looking for tenants who won’t let you down? Are you tired of working with renters who damage your units, forget to pay their rent, or even stop paying it altogether?

Being a landlord or working with a rental property leasing office isn’t easy. You need to find reliable people who won’t disappoint you later on.

That’s why we’ve put together this guide—to help you go about finding the best tenants for your rental units.

So what do you need to know?

Keep reading to learn about seven things you can do to ensure that you find the best tenants to fill your rental property. 

1. Understand the Law

The first thing you’ll want to do is ensure that you understand the laws you need to follow. It’s great to have a set of criteria for tenants, but you still need to treat everyone the same. 

The Federal Fair Housing Act prohibits you from discriminating against people based on a set of guidelines. These include:

• Someone’s skin color or race
• Where they come from
• The religion they practice
• Their sex
• Their familial status
• Any disabilities they may have

Keep in mind that your state may have additional guidelines that you need to follow. Be clear on these to prevent problems in the future.

2. Ensure That You Have Nice Rental Properties

If you want to attract nice tenants, you need to have high-quality rental properties. This doesn’t mean having the nicest or most expensive amenities, but it does mean having a piece of property that’s in good condition. 

Ensure that everything in the units you’re renting out is working without a problem. Some surface-level damage is okay, but there shouldn’t be any glaring issues with things like the foundation or the roof. 

You’ll also want to have a good idea of what the rest of the neighborhood looks like. This can help you figure out how you should price the units. 

3. Advertise Your Place the Right Way

You can have the most polished piece of property in the world, but if the right people don’t know about it, then it will all be for nothing. Make sure that you take the time to advertise your rental units to the world.

Sites like Trulia, Craigslist, and Apartment Finder are all great resources to use. Create an ad there, and remember to be positive yet honest when describing your place. You don’t want to disappoint potential renters as you’ll end up wasting time. 

Many cities also have agencies that you can work with, allowing you to find high-quality renters without a lot of hassle. If you’re in Pheonix, we recommend working with flrpropertymgmtphoenix.com. 

4. Be Clear About What You Want

In your advertisement, make sure that you describe the set of criteria that applicants need to meet. Again, if you don’t, you’ll end up wasting time—in this case, because you’ll have to turn people away. 

Depending on the quality of your units, you might request that people don’t smoke or have pets in them. In other cases, you might request that they rent out your units for a specific amount of time. 

Once you have a few applicants, try to learn as much as possible about them early on. This can help you figure out whether or not they’re a good fit for your units. 

5. Investigate Applicants’ Financial History

Once you have their basic info, it’s time to start investigating their financial history. This is something you should do regardless of how much you charge for rent.

Look at things like their credit score, how much income they make, and what previous landlords say about them. You want to find people who pay their bills on time and without an issue.

If you do spot a problem, don’t throw out their applications right away. You can have them explain why the issue is there, or request that they put down additional money towards the deposit. 

6. Investigate Their Criminal History

Aside from checking out their finances, you’ll also want to spend some time digging into the criminal history of your applicants. 

The easiest way to do this is by paying for a criminal background check. This will give you access to their entire criminal history. Take the information you find with a grain of salt, but it might be able to help you weed through some of the severely unqualified applicants. 

Understand that certain states prohibit you from rejecting or discriminating against applicants with certain criminal backgrounds. Again, make sure you’re clear on what the laws in your state say. 

7. Foster a Good Relationship With Your Tenets

Once you find tenets, the work doesn’t stop there. You’ll want to make sure that you have as good of a relationship as possible with them at all times.

Besides just being friendly and cordial with them, make sure to respond to their requests as soon as possible. Don’t delay doing things like paying for repairs or responding to their questions.

Having a healthy and positive relationship with your renters encourages them to stay at your unit for longer. Always ensure that things are friendly between the two of you. 

Find the Right Renters for Your Rental Property

Whether you’re a landlord or someone who works in rental property management, you know how important it is to find the right tenants.

Make sure to follow the different points laid out in this article. In doing so, you’ll have no difficulty finding quality tenants for your rental property. 

Did you find this rental property management guide to be helpful? If you did, remember to check out the rest of our site for more informative guides and tips. 

Jane