Owning rental properties and becoming a landlord in Atlanta, GA can greatly improve your life. This type of investing allows you to create a passive stream of income. Over time and with enough investments, you'll be able to retire while continuing to build your wealth.
Your success as a property owner, however, partially comes down to the tenants who rent from you. You'll depend on their recurring rent checks to ensure your financial future. Therefore, you must understand the importance of tenant background checks.
But what types of information are uncovered while screening tenants and why does it matter?
We're here to answer this question. Keep reading for everything you need to know.
Rental History
One of the most important things you'll learn while conducting tenant background checks is an applicant's rental history. In terms of finding tenants who are reliable, this is of the utmost importance.
Most renters develop patterns. How they behaved with their past landlord is how they tend to behave with the next.
For example, if they were regularly late on their rent or had a history of missing payments, you can expect to have the same experience with them. Rental history will also tell you more about:
- What kind of tenants they were
- If they left damages
- If they reported maintenance issues
- If they followed the rules
- Etc.
Obviously, these are important things to know before renting your property to an individual.
Identify Criminal History
One of the benefits of working with property management services is that they can conduct criminal background checks. While everyone makes mistakes and it's important to give people the benefit of the doubt, you don't want people with extensive criminal records renting from you.
You don't want to get wrapped up in any illegal activities because they take place on your property. This includes things like selling drugs, domestic abuse, illegal drug usage, and more.
Verify Financial Security
Tenant background checks are necessary for ensuring the applicant can afford to rent your property. These types of background checks verify the applicant's income through pay stubs. They also take their credit score and credit history into account.
For example, it's important that their debt-to-income ratio isn't too high. Someone living paycheck to paycheck will have a hard time paying their rent if they experience any kind of financial emergency.
Learning how to screen tenants properly means finding tenants who won't struggle to pay their rent on time, every time. A credit history check will alert you to a history of late payments on their other bills and debts, past-due payments, etc.
It may sound a bit invasive, but you deserve to know these things before you allow someone to take up residence in one of your properties.
Do You Need Help With Tenant Background Checks in Atlanta, Georgia?
Clearly, conducting tenant background checks is a fundamental step in finding tenants for your rental properties. We hope this article helps you understand why screening tenants in Atlanta, GA is so important for your finances and your future.
If you need help screening or finding tenants, we're here for you. Contact PMI today to learn more about our property management services. We can also help you collect rent, maintain your properties, conduct inspections, and more.
