Page 36 - AAGLA-MAY 2022

Property Management
ASK KARI
Tenant Screening and Fair Housing
By Kari Negri, Chief Executive Officer, SKY Properties
IDear Kari, I worry about who I rent to. What is the best way to go about selecting only “great” renters for my property?
their paystub net pay to their bank deposits, those are grounds for rejection in my experience.
The second step is to have rental policies and standards that all tenants must abide by. For example, set an appropriate income level for your building. Examples include requiring minimum credit scores, or three-times (3x) income of the monthly rental amount. Only offer reasonable accommodations when appropriate. For example, if a prospective renter does not earn three-times the rent but has other assets (e.g., substantial savings account), you may wish to relax your requirements and though I do not really recommend doing this, in some cases, an accommodation may be required by law (e.g., Section 8 or other rental voucher holders). It is fine to refuse to accept a tenant who has been evicted or owes money to a housing provider or has had a past with convictions related to illegal activities such as drugs or violence.
Additionally, make sure any applications you receive have been filled out completely. If the application is not filled out to your satisfaction, the application may be returned to the applicant to be properly completed in its entirety. Before accepting an application, glance through it to make sure none of the required information is missing. All areas must be filled out, checked, or have “not applicable”
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t is often said that there are only two times when rental housing providers get into trouble selecting renters: (i) when they are rushing to rent quickly, and (ii) when they take pity upon an applicant. When choosing your renters, always remember to rent to someone who can and will pay your rent on time, tend to their civic duties, and take appropriate care of their homes. As a rule of thumb, it is better to have no tenant than a bad tenant. There is another
problem you may face but it is unpopular to state aloud, so I will “not” mention that renting to a family member or a friend is an unbelievably bad idea.
There are some basic steps you can follow for selecting a great tenant. The first step includes validating everything they have provided on their application. Validate information such as phone numbers (call their work number and ask for them) and addresses (e.g., Does their driver’s license and utility bill have the same name and address as the application?). If you cannot verify the information by matching a utility bill to the address on a prospect’s application or find inconsistencies matching
36 MAY 2022 • WWW.AAGLA.ORG