Have you ever had a property stay vacant for so long, that you decided to rent it without doing the proper due diligence, such as criminal background checks, reference checks and employment inquiries? Have you used or thought about using a similar eye-catching headline like this, “Hot Property, Won’t Last, No Credit Checks, Rent Now”, just to get someone in your property? Then, after renting the property to them, you soon realized that you made a huge mistake? If you answered yes or maybe to either of these two questions, then you may have cost your business much more money then you realize, not to mention frustration.
It is very important to do proper due diligence before just letting anyone rent your property. Yes, times are hard for many, and you may need money quickly, but is it worth it to put your property at risk and your business name just to make a quick buck, probably not? It’s apparent that renting homes, apartments and condominiums are on the rise and more and more people are taking advantage of the many rental properties that are on the market today. However, before you rent to just anyone, please review these tips before you make a decision you may regret later.
Here are 5 Reasons Why It Is Important To Do Tenant Screening:
1.Your Reputation. One of the most important goals of many landlords is to keep their units filled. Therefore, the last thing you want to happen is a high turnover in your properties because you’ve allowed disruptive tenants to move in. Your reputation is on the line when it comes to having good tenants with acceptable background checks in your properties.
2.Your Property. Having disruptive or malignant tenants in your property could destroy it. Appliances could become damaged, carpet destroyed and other things, such as fixtures could get broken. This may become quite expensive. Many landlords are in business to make an income, not throw it away on constant repairs.
3.Your Existing Residents. You could potentially lose good tenants who have been renting from you for some time. Troublesome tenants could drive the good tenants away. It’s your responsibility to maintain a safe environment for all your residents.
4.No Payment. The tenant you chose for your rental property could move out without giving you notice and without paying you the currents month rent. Yes this could happen with any tenant, but the risk is potentially higher when you fail to do tenant screening.
5.Save Money. If you do tenant screening, you could actually save yourself money. Imagine the tenant destroying much of your property and then leaving without paying for it, not only would you have to spend the money to fix everything, but you’d also spend money suing them in court. This could lead to hundreds if not thousands of dollars.
Now before you get your next property cleaned up and ready for the next potential tenant, remember to revisit these reasons above about why Tenant Screening is a must so you can save yourself time, energy and money! If you are unsure about how Tenant Screening works, or if you’re looking for screening services, check out http://www.point2propertymanager.com/pricing_tenant_screening.html, we’ve partnered up with two of the industries’ leaders.
Tags: landlord, online property management software, rental property, tenant screening
Hello Real Estate Professionals! It’s a New Year and it’s time to start check off those New Year’s Resolutions for 2012! Some people want to lose weight, some save money, some make more money and some want more education. Although, you may want everything that I just mentioned, there may be one thing in particular that you want the most and that’s to invest in an Online Property Management Solution for your rental property business!
Sure you’ve increased your sales and have retained some tenants in your units last year, but you are worn out and believe there’s a more efficient way out there! Yes, you have your manual system down to a science, from dotting “I’s” and crossing “T’s”, but you’re missing many crucial elements in your business, one of which is being mobile and being able to manage tenants and pay bills all in one place. You don’t want to just manage your business online, but you want the ability to do it anywhere in the world. All the other “bells and whistles” that come along with the online software will be an added bonus for you right?
Ok, so to make your life a little easier and to help you decide what kind of Online Property Management Software Solution is right for you, you need a checklist to help you out! I found a great article on the Internet from Software Advice that provides a checklist for you to use when you begin your evaluation.
Here are the Ten Steps to Selecting the Right Property Management Software
1.Research the Property Management Software Market – Surf the internet, read blogs and download white papers – all in an effort to “get smart” on the state of the online property management software market.
2.Prioritize Your Software Requirements – Start at a high level by identifying what challenges you want to solve and what your current system isn’t doing for you.
3.Make the Case to Management – Present a compelling case that the benefits of the new online software vastly outweigh the costs.
4.Build a Short List of Software Vendors – Start with a long list of products and then eliminate systems that don’t serve your specialty, size of business or high-level functional requirements.
5.Educate the Vendors – The more the software vendors know about your needs, the better they can communicate how their software can help.
6.Evaluate Live Software Demonstrations – See the system in great detail and keep track of your impressions using a “demo scorecard”.
7.Score and Rank the Software Systems – Score and rank the systems you have evaluated.
8.Gather and Compare Price Quotes – Ask the vendors to provide a detailed price quote, inclusive of all costs associated with the system.
9.Verify References and Vendor Viability – Ask the front runner to provide one or more customer references that share your division/trade and business size.
10.Review the Software License Agreement – Make sure you are purchasing enough licenses for the entire organization.
Following these 10 steps should definitely help you to make your New Year’s Resolution come true and get the Online Property Management Software Solution that is just right for your business!
If you have questions about Point2 Property Management Software, please leave a comment or just give us a call at 1-877-705-6270, we’d love to hear from you!
Tags: online property management software, property-management
You finally have a few properties under your belt and now you’re ready to rent them out! You’re excited right! You should be! I was excited as well when I bought my first property and rented it out. However, I didn’t know the proper way to screen tenants, nor did I have the proper tools! It ended up being a disaster for me and the property!
You know the saying “hindsight is 20-20″, well in my property management/rental experience it was just that! I wish I knew more then, what I know now.
This picture was actually me not long ago!
Can you relate?
If we don’t screen tenants properly, then we open the doors for a potential disaster.
So Property Managers, here’s how you can avoid having this face!
When choosing a property management solution make sure you also inquire about some type of tenant screening. In many cases this will save you headaches in the long run. As you may experience less turn-over in your properties and less problems with your tenants.
Point2 Property Manager has partnered up with two of the best Tenant Screening services in the business, Credit Retriever and ScreeningWorks. We’ve gotten much feedback from customers stating how the screening process has not only given them lighting fast results, but how it’s helped their property management business to be more successful when it comes to having good responsible tenants.
Trust me, you definitely want to know if you have tenants with a criminal background or with multiple evictions following them!
Not using a tenant screening service, then how do you screen tenants?
Please share! We would love to hear about what’s working for you!
Tags: property management solution, Property Manager, property-management, tenant screening, tenant screening service, tenants
