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What Questions Do I Ask The Personal Reference Of A Prospective Tenant?

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Mark Harley Profile
Mark Harley answered
When renting out property, it’s important that you ask a number of questions and perform a number of checks before deciding on a tenant. So indeed, there are some questions you should be asking your prospective tenant. You should first start asking about their history with rented property, and whether they’re clean and responsible, and are able to pay on time.

Of course, you can’t always take a prospective tenant’s word for it, and that’s why you should make sure you run a credit check. A credit check will give you the best insight into the nature of the individual, and will allow you to make an informed decision about who you want to be renting your property.

You’ll be able to find out if the prospective tenants have been evicted before, which will allow you to know whether or not you can trust the tenants to keep the property in good order, respect neighbours, and keep up with the regular payments.

You should also ask them about any criminal convictions, and if you don’t trust them, perform a background check. Finding everything out about a prospective tenant is incredibly important, as you’ll need to know whether the tenant can truly commit to the renting agreement. However, you can never be sure if the tenants will fall on hard times in the future. Hence, you can’t remain completely certain, but you should find out everything that you can about them. By obtaining a description as you sift through applications, being thorough won’t be as expensive as you envisage.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Did the tenant pay his rent on time
Did the tenant leave the property clean and tidy
Was the neighbour considerate to other neighbours
Did the tenant stick to the lease agreement and conditions.
Would you rent your property to this person again.
Anonymous Profile
Anonymous answered
Just make up a form or get a sample form from professional rental agencies (rather than ask in person) which should include questions like where tenant has lived in the past 5 years and why moved (if moved too much, it could indicate a troublemaker including non rent payment or drug or alcohol abuser).
John Smith Profile
John Smith answered
Are they clean? Do they pay their bills on time? Where are they employed/source of income? How long have you known them?

Personal references are a waste in my book as friends won't generally say anything negative about friends.

I only ask two questions of new applicants to my apts. of the prior landlord 1) did they pay their rent in full on time each month? 2)were they reasonably neat and clean?

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