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While many landlords perform adhoc apartment viewings, take applications at the time and get referrals for potential tenants, many more end up getting blown off. This pre-screening method can save a lot of time, gas and effort in renting your apartment to qualified tenants.
Place your ad in the paper with a phone that is hooked up to an answering machine and state in your announcement that you need their full name and telephone number for a callback.
When you receive or return a call, tell your potential tenant that you must have their full name and an address in order to mail them an application.
At this point you may or may not get what you request. That is the best pre-screening tool. You may also get questions such as if you take DSS or Section 8 (both are government programs that pay you the landlord directly).
You may also get questions as to whether you accept pets. That too is an easily answered question.
If you get their full name and address, mail the application to them and include a different phone number (such as a cell phone) where they can call you and then set up an appointment.
With this information you may then visit their current home (something that has been stated as being a great pre-screening tool) or you may look up their current landlord in the local property owners website. (If you don’t know what that is then send an email to srpoa1@yahoo.com and we will send the link back to you)
Also with this information you can look up a name in the ecourts website. Information on that is located further down this blog. On this website you can determine if a potential tenant has been in court for an eviction process.
Sending an application is easy. Going to eviction court is not.
Every so often the Schenectady Police Department puts out the listing of sex offenders. This one is from last April. Sorry I didn’t get it up here sooner.
I don’t know what the laws are regarding renting to sex offenders, but you as the landlord should certainly know that’s who you’re renting to. However you may not know it until its too late.
If you have a question on your application asking if the potential tenant has been convicted, and the potential tenant doesn’t tell you, then you would have a case for eviction.
Anyway, here’s Schenectady’s List as of last April: sex offenders list April 2010
New York State has a special search engine for past and present inmates. It’s too bad they don’t have one for future inmates as that would make our job as Landlords a whole lot easier.
This is the link: http://nysdocslookup.docs.state.ny.us/
Be sure to use it. There are no less than three former tenants of mine listed. If only I’d have known.
An article written by Steven Cook for the Daily Gazette newspapers appeared in print on Saturday, October 10, 2009. In it a “landlord” is quoted for a variety of questions. I will include the statement, then my own facts and opinions to back up why this landlord was either right or wrong in his doings as a landlord.
Unfortunately this landlord is either badly informed of certain procedures, not able to communicate information to the reporter, or he is somewhat ignorant about the process.
The fourth column, first and second paragraphs read as follows:
“There had been signs of drug activity at the Norwood Avenue address for several weeks, building owner Gagaram ‘Pele’ Dookhie said. Dookhie was on the scene Friday afternoon, watching the operation from near Van Cortlandt Street. He said he’d rented the apartment to a young man and a woman, but the woman soon disappeared and a stream of people began coming in and out.”
It is a common scam for someone who wants to rent an apartment for the sale of drugs, to come as a couple. This is the number one reason why you must have a rental application with all adults applying. The rental application must contain employer information, a release by the applicant to their employer for salary and the amount of time they’ve worked there. And you must match the faces to their drivers license. Even if they are from out of state, you must get a copy of it.
In the third paragraph he states that he questioned them, they told him nothing was wrong. Then on Thursday his mother went there and smelled drugs.
As a landlord, or I should say as an inexperienced landlord we often want to believe the best of our tenants. He states again in the last column, second paragraph, “I fall for it,” he added later of the tenants, “say he look like a good kid.”
Unfortunately no landlord can assess any potential tenant by their looks. I’ve had tenants that look like they’d be the best possible tenant, and have been screwed. That is why you have them fill out an application, and you check it thoroughly.
Third column again, fourth paragraph reads, “Dookhie said he went to the house Friday morning to serve eviction papers. He was talking to a neighbor when the men drove up. Minutes later, the police swooped in.”
No, no, no! No landlord serves “eviction papers.” Only the sheriff’s department serves eviction papers. And if he was talking about a three day demand to pay the rent, still, the landlord does not serve them. The landlord can only hand over letters demanding compliance with a lease, or notifications of problems to be corrected. Never think that you, the landlord can serve eviction papers.
Then in the next paragraph the landlord Dookie said, “I was scared, thinking they might see me thinking I called the police.”
Do not ever rent to anyone you would be afraid of. It is your property, you may have to take them to court, you may have to demand rent, you may have to have them evicted. If you are afraid of them you may as well give up all your property rights to them.
The article then continues with “Dookhie said the male tenant claimed he was from Pennsylvania and was here to go to school. He’d even provided a phone number he said was his aunt’s. He called and a woman vouched for him.”
This is another one of the oldest tricks in the book. If the tenant was going to school he would have been able to provide admissions information from the school. If he was from Pennsylvania he would have been able to provide a previous address and landlord, as well as a drivers license. There’s a question of how the tenant would be able to pay the rent. Through school grants and loans? There’s another method of verifying his information. As far as calling some telephone number, you have no idea who you’re speaking to. Do not fall for that.
The next paragraph states, “It’s hard,” Dookhie said of renting apartments. “A lot of them rob me, go away, damage the apartment and break it up. You never know who you’re renting to.”
This is an issue for this particular landlord and its obvious that he should not be a landlord. It doesn’t make him a bad landlord, but his ignorance shines through here. It is not hard to be a landlord, but you have to be hard. You cannot get involved with your tenants problems, you cannot get involved with their lives, you cannot feel sorry for anyone. What you are doing is providing a service.
If you properly screen your tenants, choose the best tenant for the property by going through and actually following good methods for screening, usually you won’t have to worry about them damaging your property, robbing you and leaving in the dead of the night.
In other words, you have to know who you’re renting to. And you do this by properly screening potential tenants, having a lease and inspecting your property on a regular basis.
Name and current address are obvious.
Current Landlord is important and put a line below it to ask for “relationship.”
If the current Landlord is a parent or sibling you will need to know that in determining if the applicant is viable. Make sure you get a telephone number and address for the current Landlord.
Be aware that people will put the names of friends and family in that spot, someone who they think will give them a good reference. So look at the current Landlord with a bit of skepticism.
Also a Landlord may give a good reference because they want to get rid of the Tenant.
So a little bit of advice and its always a good idea to take the time to do this.
- If you are seriously considering an applicant then go to their current address and make sure that they do live there. Knock on the door and ask to continue the application process. That will give you a chance to see how they’re living.
- Check out the current Landlord to make sure they are real.
Here is a list of questions that MAY be on a RENTAL APPLICATION, the first step toward interviewing a prospective tenant.
Have you ever declared bankruptcy?
Have you ever had a property go into foreclosure?
Have you ever been late on your rental payments (please include your
current landlord’s contact information)?
Personal information on an applicant is more difficult to ask for
because you don’t want to be perceived as discriminatory. If you
cross the line, you could be in violation of our state’s
anti-discriminatory laws and end up in a lawsuit.
- Place of current employment?
- Length of employment?
- Name of bank?
- Social Security number?
- Do you have pets, if so what kind?
- Number of vehicles?
- How many occupants will live on the property?
- Ages of occupants?
- Name and address of current and prior landlords?
- Have you been convicted of a felony?
- Have you ever been evicted?
- Are you currently engaged in criminal activity?
- Have you been arrested and charged with a crime, but not yet
convicted?
- Are you in bankruptcy or plan to file for bankruptcy?
A bold notice on your rental application form should read:
Falsification of this information is grounds for a ten day Notice to
Move if discovered later by the landlord or management.
Be sure to include the above in your Lease. Of course you will also have to have evidence to the effect of falsification.
Try not to think of this as being a slam on any potential Tenant.
If your Lease is written in English it is an important question to ask. Make it a simple yes or no question and be sure it is answered. As long as you have at least one applicant who understands the question you will be able to proceed with the rest of the application.
