As a property owner, you might wonder what tenant screening questions your property manager should ask when interviewing potential tenants. Asking questions is a vital part of the tenant screening process. It helps you avoid undesirable applicants and find the best ones.

What are some common tenant screening questions that your property manager needs to ask? 

The primary objective of tenant screening questions is to help you find tenants who can meet your expectations. You want the best tenants who are the best fit for your property. You can also use this chance to address your requirements.

Screening tenants to get who qualifies to rent your property can be overwhelming. These tenant screening questions will help you get the best tenants. Share on X

Here are some of the pre-screening questions to ask your rental applicants.

1. Do you have any pets?
2. What date would you like to move in? 
3. Why are you moving? 
4. How long have you lived at your current address?
5. Have you ever been evicted?
6. How many people will be living in your unit?
7. Have you ever broken a rental agreement?

1) Do you have any pets?

If you don’t accept animals on your property, this preliminary question will save time for both you and the tenant with pets. However, if you accept pets but with restrictions, use this time to explain to the tenant about your pet policies.

2) What date would you like to move in? 

You probably want the rental vacancies to be filled immediately. So, if a potential tenant wants to move in for the next 1-2 months, continue screening other tenants to find who wants to move in immediately. It also saves you the time of screening more applicants.

3) Why are you moving? 

Try to figure out why a potential tenant wants to move from their previous property to your property. Did they get evicted due to rental arrears? Have they outgrown their apartment? Or do they want to save time commuting to their workplaces?

4) How long have you lived at your current address?

Ask the tenants about the duration they stayed in their past and current apartments. If you discover that a tenant keeps hopping from one property to another, the chances are they will leave your property soon. Avoid such people if searching for long-term tenants.

5) Have you ever been evicted?

If a prospective tenant has ever been evicted before, the chances are that they may still get evicted in the future. So, you must check the eviction reports. If the eviction resulted from inevitable causes, but their financial statuses are good, you can accept them.

6) How many people will be living in your unit?

When asking this question, you want to ensure that your rental property has enough bedrooms to accommodate all the occupants. It also helps you stick to the legal limit of occupants per apartment. For instance, six friends can’t fit a one-bedroom apartment.

7) Have you ever broken a rental agreement?

Ask the potential tenants if they have ever broken a lease agreement. If they broke the rental agreement without a plausible reason, you need to be cautious. To verify the information, you need to check the tenant’s rental history from the previous landlord.

Let Us Manage Your Property

These tenant screening questions will help you run a background check to find qualified applicants. If asking all these questions to several tenants seems overwhelming, don’t hesitate to consult Bran Real Estate Services. We’ll help you manage your property.

Contact us today to talk to one of our representatives about your rental property.