How to Check References of Prospective Tenants for Your Rental Property

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Damon Thompson, I've been a landlord for over 10 years and I have 5 multi-unit buildings. This is, how to check references of prospective tenants. The first thing you need to do when you find your prospective tenants is, have them fill out a rental and a credit application. This is going to include their personal information, it's going to include their employment history, previous landlords, credit history, and their financial information. You want to get both these applications filled out from them ahead of time. The next thing you want to do is make sure that you check with these references, check with their personal references, verify their employment. Most importantly, check with their previous landlord, you want to find out what type of tenant they were. Did they tear up the property, did they maintain the property well, did they pay on time. These are really good indications of how they are going to be as a tenant for you. So you want to make sure you speak with their previous landlord. Then you want to run a credit check. Because with this credit check it's going to give you an idea of their financial situation, you want to make sure you run the credit check. You want to maybe also when you're running this credit check, just take some type of application fee, because most credit reporting agencies charge a fee to get this information. And most importantly you want to check with their previous landlords. The previous landlords are going to give you the best indication of how the individual is going to be as a tenant, and how well they're going to take care of your property, the property that you're renting to them. I'm Damon Thompson, and that's how to check references of prospective tenants."