The best way to go about rental applicant screening is to think of your screening process as funnel catching raindrops with two filters at the bottom. You want to get as many raindrops to hit the top of the funnel as possible but you only want the pure water to flow through.You get maximum exposure to raindrops by building a big funnel - and that means doing effective advertising in your area and the surrounding area. This will get the word out that you have space to rent. You should be advertising even when you don't have vacancies, because you never know for sure when someone may wish to break a lease.
The next thing to do is effectively and efficiently do rental applicant screening. Rather than re-invent the wheel here I found this article which pretty well covers the topic.
Rental Applicant Screening - Using Self Elimination
By Matt E Spitz
Rental applicant screening is a constant headache for the landlord with open units, but it does not have to take forever and it does not have to cost you an arm and a leg either. Honestly - with the right balance of cleverness and forcefulness (personality-wise) the vast majority of potential bad apple tenants are more than happy to screen themselves right out of your office. That's the kind of rental applicant screening all of us can afford.
How do I do this? It has to start with the very first contact with your potential applicants. Why do I say potential applicants? I say that because no one, not one single person, gets a tenant application from me until I have a signed consent form in hand. A consent form for what, you ask? I get a signed consent form from a prospective tenant before they ever even see anything even resembling an application. Before I took off on a little tangent I was talking about my first conversation about renting. I make mention of the consent form right off the bat. No fuss, no muss. I make it absolutely clear that the person I am talking to will be filling out a consent form and their background and credit history will be checked.
Needless to say many of the people I talk to do not bother to show up at my office to sign a rental applicant screening consent form. They already know they have a checkered past and don't bother to show up. Good riddance. Too harsh? Listen, the only thing worse than an empty apartment is an apartment with a drug using loser deadbeat in it. Agreed?
What next? When I do still end up stuck with a bunch of applications to go through, I use my cheap pre-screening service first. For just under $10 a year I can do rental applicant screening all day for a flat subscription fee. I use that information when conducting interviews to go over any questions I had for the applicant. This gives the applicant an opportunity to distinguish themselves as a good tenant - how they handle pressure and conflict can demonstrate how they'll interact with neighbors.
Once I have it narrowed down to two applicants I cover myself with an FCRA compliant background check, to cover my legal bases. (See why this is important when you do rental applicant screening to use a Fair Credit Reporting Act Compliant Service for your final selection)
Matt E. Spitz
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/?expert=Matt_E_Spitz
http://EzineArticles.com/?Rental-Applicant-Screening---Using-Self-Elimination&id=2470846
So the message is basically make sure you catch a lot of pre-filtered raindrops (good applicants) and put them through your filters. Once you've completed your inexpensive rental applicant screening and have selected your best two rental applicants for FCRA rental applicant screening, do the FCRA compliant credit check to cover your legal obligations. This should give you the best chance at running a successful rental property.
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